How Coffee Makes You Read Everything
“I liked the idea of living in a city—any city, especially a strange one. I liked the thought of traffic and crowds, of working in a bookstore or waiting tables in a coffee shop. Who knew what kind of solitary life I might slip into? Meals alone, walking the dogs in the evenings, and nobody knowing who I was.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History
Just like the over 500 artefacts discovered by archaeologists from 18th-century Britain at Clapham’s coffeehouse, located on a site now owned by St John’s College in Cambridge, which was a booming coffee place between the 1740s and 1770s. It was run by William and Jane Clapham, who influenced the students and residents of Cambridge and produced scholars, writers, and poets. A poem was published in the students’ publication of 1751 that described the experience: “Dinner over, to Tom’s or Clapham’s I go, the news of the town so impatient to know.”
This coffeehouse inspired people to read books and drink coffee, just like the five writers who lived in Mecklenburg Square between 1918 and 1939. Though none of the quintet’s members lived in the area at the same time, a few were acquainted, and they did share lovers and landladies.
I mention them because when I walked into Tigray Coffee’s Café at Roving Heights last week, I saw a book with a quintessential cover similar to one of theirs. It reminded me of a sentence I read in “When We Were Fireflies” by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim.
“Her eyes were luminous, childlike with excitement even but Lalo noticed the crack in her voice, as if something in what he said had rattled some long, broken thing in her…”
Books have lofty ways of reaching us. Some of these ways are mysterious, much like the taste of a great coffee or the aroma emanating from the steam as you gaze at a book you once read on Jazz Festivals by Leonard Feather.
Meanwhile, when you step into Tigray Coffee’s cafe at Roving Heights Bookshop, you can enjoy the blend of coffee, books, and music. You might want to get a copy of “When We Were Fireflies” and “From Satchmo to Miles”.
Virginia Woolf once said, “I will cut adrift, I will sit on pavements and drink coffee.”
There’s something magical about the combination of books and coffee. They both have the power to transport us to different worlds, evoke emotions, and stimulate our minds. When you enter a bookshop with a café, it’s as if you’re entering a realm where time slows down, and you can immerse yourself in the pleasures of literature and the comforting aroma of freshly brewed coffee.
Roving Heights Bookshop, with its Tigray Coffee’s Café, captures this enchanting atmosphere perfectly.
So, the next time you find yourself in Roving Height Bookshop, don’t hesitate to embrace the magic of coffee and books. Allow yourself to get lost in the pages of a novel, let the words transport you to distant lands, and let the aroma of coffee awaken your senses.
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