A Book Lover's Paradise

Every great city has at least one good independent bookstore. Savannah as I already noted in a previous blog has the new and used bookstore called the Book Lady. But the oldest bookstore in Savannah is E. Shavers Bookseller. Last month in Mother Nature News it was celebrated as one of seventeen extraordinary bookstores in the world.

The bookstore is located on Madison Square in the historic district of Savannah. In an old home behind the Desoto Hotel magical things happen. The store which is over forty years old has seven rooms of new fiction and non-fiction books. Two rooms are dedicated to children’s books and one room is for local and regional topics. Here in this store you can find a chair or two to look at books on every subject from architecture and history to graphic novels and cooking. And to keep you company while you read are two cats who claim the window sills and other nooks and crannies as their home.

They have an old manual typewriter in one room to use to get a feel for how writers used to write their books or poems. Plus you can write a message for future book lovers to find. It also has two rooms dedicated to a Savannah Tea Room. The Savannah Tea Room has one table and a few stools to sit and drink a cup of hot tea. Here in these two rooms you will find all the accoutrements for making tea and tea from all over the world.

E. Shavers has some longstanding book clubs associated with them. The names of a few are The Feminist Book Club, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Club, Happy Hour Book Club, and a Graphic Novel Book Club. This rambling building has hosted book signings of famous local and regional authors as Pat Conroy, Harrison Scott Key, Mary Kay Andrews, John Berendt, and this blogger Michael Freeman.

In 1976 when Esther Shaver first opened the store in the Greek Revival home could one imagine the place in now claims in Savannah’s and book lovers’ hearts from around the world. Despite Shaver’s retirement the bookstore persist as the new generation owner Jessica Osborne continues to help warm the heart of many a bibliophile. 
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