JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

When my sister and I first visited Strand Bookstore in New York (18 miles of books!) we hatched a plan to get locked inside the store after closing hours. We figured that by sealing off a couple of aisles in the basement with stacks of books, we could create cubbyholes to live in. The plan was never executed, but I still want to live in a bookstore. Maybe not Shakespeare and Co in Paris, where I always have a mighty sneezing fit, but a place with rows and rows of bookshelves so high you need a ladder to look at the top shelf. As long as they vacuum regularly. Here are my current residential candidates:

Selexyz Dominicanen in Maastricht, Netherlands, an independent bookstore housed in a 13th century cathedral.

Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal, which looks like the setting for a 1930s Gothic mystery thriller involving forbidden books and secret passages. My friend Chus has always wanted to go to Portugal; I’ll tag along if this is the hotel.

The Coolest-Looking Bookstores in the World