A fun article lists nine bookstores worth a tourist stop. Any of them in your area? I know some guys from Portland who kept telling me about Powell’s, so maybe when I visit them, I’ll get a chance to drop by there as well.
Cool thing is, I’ve lived near two of these so far: Denver’s Tattered Cover, and The Strand, in NYC. Both are great places to browse through for hours, never quite sure what you’ll pluck from the shelf.
What are the bookstores like where you are? Are they bright, shiny and clean with a coffee shop tucked in the corner? Are they dusty and full of book pillars ready to topple on your head at an errant step? What do you enjoy most about a bookstore? Does it need to have comfortable chairs? Friendly staff? Actually have the book you’re looking for in stock?
I enjoy going to a Barnes and Noble every now and then, especially when writing at home is too distracting and I need somewhere that won’t hook me up with a steady supply of email pings and chores that I’ve put off for too long. Whenever I go, I always browse the shelves to see what has come out lately and maybe skim some inspiring chapters from some of my favorite authors. Then I get the experience of “I can write better than this,” or “I could never write as well as this.”
Where do you go to breathe in the literary atmosphere?
I see that smile.
libraries are a good option, those musty books, that smell of dying pages, couples coochi cooing among the bookshelves….lord…loveliest places 🙂
good one!
N
Libraries are good choices. I used them a lot in college, but haven’t taken advantage of them much since. If I read a book that was really good, I always had the hardest time making myself return it.