The Book Store Thread - Buildings With Many Stories

[Johnny Unusual]

In a time where many of us spend more time in our homes, lets talk about book stores: our local ones, cool ones we've been to or maybe weird ones you've heard of. For me, its Strange Adventures, a comic shop that is somewhat small but also very full and has a nice homey feel I love. There is only one other comic shop in town, a Comics Hunter, but while it isn't bad, I find it so anti-septic and bland compared to one that feels lived in yet properly organized.

 

[Violentvixen]

Someone who lives in Portland should take Powell's rather than me, but gotta call it out. What a place.

My town is small so we don't have a lot of stores, there's one comic shop which is run by very nice people but a very small store, appears they don't really have a website just an old Blogspot account. We've tried to preorder things a few months ahead of time and they don't seem to have the infrastructure to handle it which is too bad, but we try to remember to check back later.

I do all my book clubs through a newer store called Roundabout Books, the owner has been great about involving the community and doing virtual book clubs and such.

The more famous one in town is Dudley's, I like them a lot but their stock seems a little more unpredictable and the cafe is a big focus which isn't as much of my interest.

If you don't know what's in your town, here's the Independent Bookseller map which also has more detail on stats and stuff if you're curious.

 

[JBear]

Black Squirrel Books in Ottawa is the biggest/coolest used bookstore I've ever been in. Trendy espresso bar on the main floor with a bunch of aisles crammed floor to ceiling with books, and then a narrow stairwell down to a massive basement warehouse full of musty tomes as far as the eye can see... plus a tiny, weirdly modern comic book shop just sitting off to the side of said warehouse that you would never find if you didn't know it was there.

 

[Falselogic]

I wish our local book store was a friendly place but half of it is cheap toys and the owners are disgruntled, angry people who hate college students. It is very much not a welcoming space. I hate to say it but the Borders we used to have was a much better place at being welcoming to browsers, students, and the community than our local indy store is.

 

[Jeanie]

I'm really sad that one of my favorite used book store closed three+ years ago, but I'm not surprised.