best of.....!

so the lonely planet publishes a random book of "best ofs" every year. they used to be called the Blue Lists, but for some reason that title was dumped a few years ago in favour of the more generic "Best of Travel in 2011". I go through the book every year (or rather, i helped myself to it when i was still working in the bookshop) and have always enjoyed going through it. as readers of this blog know, i have also frequently written my own "best of" lists here, so i was quite amused to see that one of the lists the lonely planet came up with for their 2011 book was my old favourite "best bookshops in the world". i have been to just about all the bookshops on their list, and predictably, there is a fair amount of overlapping, both of us agreeing that liberia el Aq1teneo in Buenos Aires is probably the best bookshop in the world. they rated Shakespeare and company in Paris higher than i would have, and left out my favourite in Academic bookshop in Helsinki. In London, they gave the nod to Daunt books, which is really great- but out of brand loyalty i would have gone for the Waterstones at Gower Street myself.
another flip through the book highlights how much there is left to see and do in the world.- there are so many places yet to explore and discover!