So...took the GLW to Chicago this weekend for our anniversary (one! she's not left me yet! I da man!) basically to let her indulge in some retail therapy and for us both to soak up the city and the architecture. What a great place it is. There is no other city in North America which is as architecture and sculpture-crazy as Chicago. Not just the big stuff, either. When you get into neighbourhoods like Lincoln Park, you realise how smart the architecture is even at the level of ordinary houses. And the urban planning is good. The above-level trains are a little noisy and distracting, but whatever. Retail is generally very good. If you like furniture and other forms of house porn, this is a great city. The galleries are good, the museums are *very* good, and it's surprisingly cheap to live there - clearly cheaper than where I live, anyways.

There's just one problem: it's an absolute total and utter book desert.

Seriously. I saw three book stores in the entire city, all of them Borders, and all of them reasonably close to downtown. In actual neighbourhoods like Wicker Park or Lincoln Park: Nothing. Nada. There aren't even any magazine stores anywhere, which means if you're looking for something ephemeral to read, it's the Chicago Tribune or nothing.

Depressing. Normally, when I travel, I have little fantasies about what it would be like to live in a place. And, as I said, Chicago ticks nearly all of the boxes that need ticking as a city. But no bookstores? No magazine stores? Can't picture it. Ruins everything for me.

So...what about the rest of you? Ever found paradise but had it ruined by a fatal flaw?

Apart from being full of 60,000 Tims every second Saturday, d'ye mean?

There's certainly a Borders in Lincoln Park on Clark, just N of Diversey. But now you mention it, I don't recall just happening across second-hand places or anything, the way you do in London or NYC.

Mind you, there appear to be loads.

Anyway: Toronto is a great place, only ruined when my mother-in-law starts on about the blacks and the Jews, or my wife's brother-in-law starts on about the Americans. Or when it's incredibly fucking cold. So: Toronto.

Stockholm would be, except for:

I was just about to say exactly that, only probably without bothering to look for an illustration, so, it's good you got there first.

That's, what, about a fiver a pint?

Cardiff is a lovely place apart, from at the weekend, when people (I always assume from the Valleys, Barry, Bridgend, Porthcawl etc) descend upon to drink, fight and fuck

For some reason, I don't mind it so much in Liverpool or similar cities

Reykjavik would be great, if it wasn't full of xenophobes.

I'm about to experience Stockholm beer prices. I've taken out a loan especially. Any other Stockholm recommendations?

There's a neat used bookstore in Evanston (just north of Chicago), maze-like, good sized, crammed full of all kinds of stuff:

http://evanstonillinois.net/booksmansalley.html

AG, NYC is nearly as bad a bookstore town as Chicago. Other than the Strand and a couple of other places, there are no decent bookstores in Manhattan. I've been told it wasn't the case a couple of decades ago.

Key West is one of my favourite places, except for the fact that the cruise ships now stop there.

And yes, I realize the hypocrisy of a tourist decrying the touristiness of a destination, but it was different when you had to drive 4 hours to get there (and 4 hours to get back). Now it's all slack-jawed gawkers in fanny-packs, rushing around buying Jimmy Buffett t-shirts before the ship leaves at 6.

Western Scotland in the summertime - ball-achingly beautiful, but you get eaten alive by bastard midgeys.

Any number of Italian hill towns, minus everyone between ages 15 and 30 owning a moped.

I couldn't afford those drinks prices, but 58 kronor seems quite reasonable for a pint of God.

PM for Bill Poster.