Certain places just make you feel like pulling out a pen, laptop, or even a manual typewriter (assuming no one objects to the noise) and taking a wild, boyish stab at writing, as  Paul Varjack, from the movie version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s might say.

For me, those spots included the Gulfport, Florida coffeehouse Kool Beanz. Sort of the beating heart of the Gulfport Arts Village, it was exactly what a coffeehouse in a beach town ought to be.

Skylight Books in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California is another place. Though it doesn’t serve coffee and its resident cat sadly passed away, not many other bookstores were as committed to the idea and production of literature – amply shown by their stunning selection of and support for small press books, hand printed ‘zines, and other literary labors of love.

Revelations Cafe and Book Store in the quirky, artsy town of Fairfield, Iowa. I picked up a used copy of A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy here, as well as cassette tape (for my car stereo) copy of the Violent Femmes self-titled first album. Also, they have very good pizzas. Just saying.

The West Gallery of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC has two wonderful little courtyards that are perfect for sitting down with a notebook or a newspaper and indulging in some quiet literary introspection.

Also, perhaps I should put in a little something for those places we have lost – in my past, I remember C.A.M.S. (Consortium for Art and Media Studies), a coffeehouse/performance space in Pinellas Park managed by Billie Noakes, Mother’s Milk coffeehouse in Clearwater, and – the grand daddy of all Tampa Bay venues – Beaux Arts on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg and the irreplaceable and irascible Tom Reese. To my great loss, I did not know him well nor take sufficient advantage of Beaux Arts.