Post by Grubb.
There are classic world-unto-themselves bookstores that we’ve visited in Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Manchester, Vermont, but nothing matches El Ateneo in Buenos Aires for Baroque extravagance. Ella’s already posted a photo, but let me give you a shot from the second floor mezzanine.
Notice how it’s arranged like an opera house with box seats overlooking a café at one end revealed by parted theater curtains.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a production were underway? Bookstore patrons would be browsing the shelves. Behind the parted curtains cappuccinos would be getting sipped, Medialunas nibbled. Then at one of the tables voices would suddenly get raised. A couple is having an argument. It gets more and more heated. A gesture is made at another table. The table responds. A scone is thrown. Chairs scrape. Oaths are uttered. Shouts. Tears. Threats. A table is upended. Cutlery crashes. Act One has begun! Will people look up from their books? What books? Will they look up from their phones??
Cameras are recording the event. The result will be revealed when it’s edited and played back on YouTube.