On My Bookshelf

There really isn't a bookstore near me that I'd consider a favorite. I prefer Barnes & Noble to Borders, however, because I think their layout is much better and less busy. They also seem to keep up with their shelving better. But I have to say my favorite local bookstore is the internet, usually B&N.com. That's because the selection cannot be beat and the books usually arrive before I'd have time to get to the closest bookstore anyway.

I can't say I have a favorite bookstore ... okay, perhaps this one Borders about 15 minutes from me because they tend to overstock on overpriced Paperchase goods and then blow them out a few months later at 50-75% off, and I pick up these items up for the price they should've cost in the first place.

In Las Vegas the independent bookstore has pretty much gone by the wayside, so my choices are pretty much Barnes & Noble or Borders and other than subtle variations from location to location, they're pretty much the same. The local used bookstores have also folded up and blown away.

I work in a large academic library with a huge lending network, and thanks to the introduction of a service called LINK +, if my local library district doesn't have a book, I can have it delivered to me in as little as three days if all goes right.

Hmmm ... can I say that Amazon.com is my favorite bookstore? For nearly a decade in Las Vegas, other than a teeny independent store with almost no selection, there were no bookstores within a seven mile radius of my house, and getting to a B&N or Borders meant dealing with all the traffic hassles of getting there.

Amazon meant no traffic hassles and I never had to deal with the frustration of driving all the way there only to discover
that the item was not in stock. Yeah, it meant I had to wait about a week to get the book, but since I'm used to document delivery? I can wait.

We moved to Atlanta in 2006, and in many of our drives through the neighborhood, we passed by a questionable-looking building that just said "BOOKS" in huge letters on the outside. Every time we passed it, we mused to each other, "Hm. A bookstore. We should check it out sometime." But it was over a year later when we finally set foot in the store ... and immediately we regretted our delay.

Atlanta Vintage Books has been in operation for 20 years, and does a bustling online business from their neighborhood-favorite storefront. The first thing that greeted us in the parking lot was a colony of semi-feral cats, well cared for by the proprietors; signs attesting to their care and adoptability were posted around the small parking lot. As soon as we walked in, the joyous jumble of a used book store greeted us, stacks and shelves and leather chairs and well-kept glass cases with the best prizes inside: first editions, out-of-print books, and collectors' items of everything from L. Frank Baum to local celebrities. Going back further into the stacks, we discovered a warren of hideaways; the smell of old paper, wood, dust and leather greeted us around every turn. Shelves are well-marked for their contents, and everything that's on the shelves is organized well. Prices are very reasonable, even on the collectors' items. We learned quickly that, if we couldn't find what we wanted on the shelf, to look down at the floor; more books are stacked there, awaiting shelf space.

Downstairs we found the cheap section: bargain books, old editions in less-than-mint condition, hardcovers missing their dustjackets, paperbacks with worn covers. This is the section I love best — so much to read, and at such great prices! Each shelf is marked clearly for its contents: classics, history, Hollywood, sci-fi, mystery, self-help, religion. It went on and on until we started to wonder whether we'd actually entered the employees-only stock area. Occasionally we found a cat food bowl, and on rare, secretly sweet moments, a cat, slipping away quietly between a couple of books on a bottom shelf.

We can't go in there too often; between my husband's constant search for vintage illustrated children's books and design books, and my addiction to crime fiction, we always end up spending hundreds of dollars every time we go there. The nice thing is that Atlanta Vintage gives us a canvas bag for every $50 we spend — so we have quite a few reusable canvas shopping bags!

If you're in Atlanta, find a way to make it to Atlanta Vintage Books on Clairmont Drive. I guarantee you won't be bored. Take advantage of their long-running sales, usually 15% off. Say hi to owners Jan Bolgia and Bob Roarty for us — but be warned: you'll probably end up in a long and extremely informative conversation with them about your shared bibliophilia. If you just can't find what you're looking for, ask Jan or Bob about special ordering. They'll do whatever they can to put the book you want into your hands. And don't mind if you find a cat perched on top of a fax machine or a monitor. They're everywhere.

I work in a bookstore, but I make a point of visiting other book stores whenever I travel; preferably, the independent kind. Two of my favorites are The Tattered Cover (three locations in Denver) and The Boulder Bookstore (Boulder, Colorado, obviously). The downtown Tattered Cover is the best; it's in a three-story, century old building. There are miles of books, comfy chairs and lots of windows. Even better, the cheaper used books are filed right in with the new books. And you're almost guaranteed to find something unusual hidden in the stacks; I certainly wasn't expecting to find Green's The Gods of Roman Britain.

I also make a point of visiting The Boulder Bookstore. It's not as old as The Tattered Cover, but it stocks just as eclectic a mix of new, old and oddball titles. And the used books are shelved right in with the new titles. Last time we visited, I was happy to find a used copy of Kramer and Wolkstein's Inanna, which I had been looking for for a long time.

When I lived in California, I discovered The Bodhi Tree, a metaphysical/religion/New Age store in Los Angeles. It was there that I discovered a lot of the authors who would influence my spiritual development and academic career. Unfortunately, I lived an hour away and had no car; I was only able to visit The Bodhi Tree a couple of times, when I managed to convince my landlord that he really really wanted to go.

When I was little, my fave bookstores were the local B Dalton's and Waldenbooks. Which store I liked better would flux, depending on the clientele and the merchandise in each at any given time. As a preteen, I decided I would work in one of them one day, leaning mostly towards Waldenbooks — and when I moved to Florida, I eventually did. Then I moved to Chicago, transferring to a Borders there, and I have to say that that has been my all-time fave store — not only was it the biggest bookstore I'd ever been to (still is), but I could order whatever books I wanted and read whatever I liked on my lunch break. I do still miss it in a lot of ways. Nowadays, being back in Florida, there are two bookstores I go to: the Waldenbooks I once worked at and the nearby Barnes and Noble (because there is no Borders near me). I have to go to both because neither carries all the stuff I'm looking for. B&N has the larger selection of novels that interest me, while Waldenbooks has a better (not bigger, just better) selection of manga and occasionally will have novels I want that I can't find at B&N. If I can't order the book from the store, most of the time I order through Amazon.

There are three specialty bookshops that have, in there way, been important to me. One was a shop in Florida for hard-to-find books called Mosswood; when I learned that there had been a sequel made to one of my all-time fave books that had subsequently gone out of print, that store tracked a copy down for me. (The book has since been reprinted, but not for another five years.) Another shop I enjoyed in the past was a used bookstore, Stars Our Destination, in Chicago. They have a fantastic selection of old sci-fi and fantasy greats, as well as comics, videos, and other fun merchandise, some of it antiques. And the last of the three is Quimby's, a store in Chicago that specialises in graphic novels and alternative-lifestyle books. Not GLBT — although they carried books on that too — so much as books that appeal to the goth, punk, and grunge crowd, what they describe as "aberrant culture". They, happily, still exist, and, as a sister store to Chicago Comics (my absolute fave-ever comic book store), they carry some comics and local zines. They're very supportive of local creators; I went there a few times to participate in a discussion group with other artists and writers. And they're also next to a fantastic Thai place, Zen Noodles, were we went a few times for eats after meetings. Quimby's is also not too far from Piper's Alley, a theatre that typically shows art films, anime, et cetera.