Holly Hartley loves books. For the upcoming semester, the English literature exchange student is going to compile a reading list about her remaining time in Nijmegen. This week: the healing powers of book shopping.

Everyone gets frustrated now and then – and everyone has a different coping mechanism for dealing with it. For some, it is regular exercise; for others, it might be screaming into the void. Recently, as I was angrily roaming the streets of Nijmegen, I discovered my own: Dekker v.d. Vegt.

As exam season looms, it can be difficult to ignore the growing sense of dread that enters your system. As an exchange student, it’s still a bit difficult for me to adjust to a new grading and examination system, on top of trying to keep up with life in general.

And on a particularly difficult day, as I was trying to clear my head by taking a walk through town, Nijmegen’s largest bookshop appeared in front of me like some sort of divine vision. I couldn’t believe I’d never noticed it before! Maybe some bookshops work a bit like the Room of Requirement from Harry Potter, only revealing themselves when someone needs the healing power of literature.

As I’m sure most bookworms know, it’s not the buying of the books that makes a bookshop special. It’s the aura. You can feel the stories and words humming from the pages of a million different novels you’ll never be able to delve into. It’s the feeling of endless possibility.

At a bookshop, you are surrounded by other people looking for an escape just like you; some of them hiding in the travel section, others buried deep in YA fantasy, and even some old ladies gossiping next to the crime-fiction wall. Bookshops transcend all language barriers, as other customers offer a knowing smile when you pick up a good book. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, the shop also sells coffee, which I would call a win-win situation.

Dekker v.d. Vegt really is a beautiful shop and it was bubbling with life that day. I spent ages choosing the right book to get me out of my bad mood. In the end, I went with a novel translated from Danish: The Trouble with Happiness and Other Stories by Tove Ditlevsen, containing the ‘ordinary events of everyday life’ – some devastating, some beautiful, some just-so. I felt like it fit my current situation.

And so it was that I exited the store, book in hand, a little less grumpy, determined to not let a bad day rain on my parade, after all, who could be sad when so many beautiful bookshops exist in the world?

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