Bibliophile Travel Site Launched
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Book lover hopes to direct travellers to literary finds
By Daniel Drolet, Citizen Special July 9, 2011
Nigel Beale's website to directs travellers to literary trips and bookstores.
An Ottawa man with a passion for books has launched a new website for bibliophiles who like to travel.
The site, www.literarytourist.com, is run by Nigel Beale, who used to own a media relations firm but who gave it up to follow his passion for books.
The site lists some 8,000 used bookstores in Canada and the U.S., along with reviews and information about each store. It also lists such things as writers' festivals, literary landmarks, rare-book libraries and other attractions of interest to book lovers.
Do a search for Florida, for example, and you will find information about such diverse things as the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival or the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, in addition to listings of bookstores.
The idea, says Beale, was to create a travel resource for people who love books.
He says he's concerned about used bookstores closing down, and hopes that by stimulating tourism, he can keep some stores in business.
Beale started his venture by buying Book Hunter Press, a small publishing firm that put out a guide to used bookstores in North America.
He then spent a year adding information on festivals, events and destinations to the firm's databank and repackaged it all as a searchable website.
The site also includes taped interviews with publishers and booksellers, as well as listings for "literary" hotels, "places where notable literary types slept, hung, drank, ate, brawled, passed out, wrote, etc."
Basic information at www.literarytourist.com is available for free. But if you click on some listings to look for details, you will find that some of the information is for premium members only. Premium membership costs $24.95 a year and gives access to detailed information about the sites and events listed.
Users can also generate travel maps, says Beale, and populate those maps with all the literary attractions along their chosen route.
LiteraryTourist.com is partnering with bookseller marketplace Biblio. com to help promote independent booksellers.
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