Readus Interuptus!

I’ve always been a fan of Oliver Twist. I’ve read the novel, seen the play — heck, I’ve even been in the play. (Middle school production, workhouse boy #3 — humble beginnings.) So you can imagine how excited I was to discover Fagin the Thief, a new novel by Allison Epstein that tells the origin story of Dickens’ delightfully despicable Fagin. The book dives into how he got his start as a thief and how he met the menacing Bill Sikes.

I found it on the Libby app and was blissfully making my way through it, savoring every twist and turn, when I was hit with a cruel surprise: only three days left before the loan expired. Three days?! I was barely 30% in. As a slow reader — one frequently interrupted by children demanding entertainment when they’re not glued to screens — there was no way I’d make it. And I didn’t. Poof — the book vanished from my virtual shelf. I quickly put it on hold again, only for Libby to inform me that my wait time would be... 52 weeks. A full year!

I briefly considered buying it outright through Audible or another digital bookstore, but as we were on a tight travel budget, I knew any such request would be swiftly denied by our household CFO — my wife, Francesca.

Fortunately, salvation arrived in literary form. We were in Porto, Portugal for a few days with my mother-in-law, Edithe, who told us about Livraria Lello — often hailed as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. A true gem, the store opened in 1906 and features a neo-Gothic façade, intricate woodwork, stained-glass ceilings, and a sweeping staircase that looks straight out of a fantasy novel. It’s often rumored to have inspired J.K. Rowling during her time in Porto, though she claims never to have stepped foot inside. Still, the magic of the place is undeniable — a must-visit for any book lover or wandering bibliophile.

We reserved our time slot days in advance and arrived right on schedule — along with what felt like the rest of Portugal. Despite timed entries, the place was packed. The six of us squeezed through the crowd, each trying to find one book to take home. I ended up choosing a special Lello edition of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe — not because I’d always dreamed of reading it, but because it was the only title that even remotely interested me in their limited English-language section. (Lello is breathtaking, but not exactly an English-language bookstore.)

While traveling the world demands ruthless packing discipline and makes a strong case for digital reading, there’s something deeply satisfying about stumbling upon an English-language bookstore in a foreign city and picking out a real, tangible book. In addition to Porto (technically not used books, but still special), we’ve had fun browsing through shops in Bangkok and Koh Lanta (Thailand), Rabat (Morocco), Hoi An (Vietnam) and Ubud (Bali, Indonesia).

Not long after we left Porto — and before I’d made much headway with Robinson Crusoe — I received a surprise notification: Fagin the Thief had become available again. Earlier than expected. I slipped a bookmark into Defoe’s pages, opened my Libby app, and dove back into the seedy underbelly of Dickensian London, reunited at last with Fagin and the world I wasn’t quite ready to leave behind.