Real and Fictional Bookstores

When I read trashy fiction, I tend to read books about books. The Thursday Next novels, The Club Dumas, Shadow of the Wind (which was fabulous and not at all trashy), etc. I am a total bibliophile: I love books, libraries, bookstores, and most places that worship the written word. I read much more slowly now-- as I primarily read nonfiction, and read more articles than books, but I love books in the same way that I did as a child.

In all of the books-on-books, there seems to be some vision of a perfect bookstore or library. Often the bookstores are in exotic stone buildings or have underground tunnels with musty shelves and rare volumes. In my lifetime, I have yet to encounter such a place. Powells (Portland) and Elliot Bay (Seattle) are fabulous to be sure, but they lack the grandeur of my dream bookstore or library. As it turns out, some of these bookstores still exist, or did until recently. Servia sent me a wonderful piece on an old man who ran a bookstore devoted too early editions of Jules Verne. I am not a fan of the author, although I read plenty of Verne in my time, but the bookstore sounds marvelous enough to be out of one of my trashy novels. It must have truly been a magical place, and I wish that I had been able to visit Paris in time to see it while it lasted.

The Bookstores of the West

One of my favorite things in the world is shopping for books. I love books. I love the way they feel in one's hands, the way they smell, the differences in paper, binding, and cover art. Even though I also own lots of electronic books and a Kindle DX, I will always love and own lots of books.

I do a lot of shopping for books online, partially because books are often cheaper from Amazon or Half than in a store, and partially because it is convenient. However, nothing compares to browsing a bookstore. My job on campus when I was in college was at the bookstore and I bought a lot of books because of the discount.

Two of my favorite bookstores in the world are in the Northwest. I splurged, with the remainder of a gift-certificate, and bought six books today because one of them was having a sale. So, I thought I should profile these two great stores:

Powells, and specifically the immense location on Burnside, is one of the greatest places ever. The store is two stories tall and takes up about half of a city block. It includes a coffee shop and a rare book room. The books are organized by subject and color coded by room as well as given a Dewy Decimal number. It's amazing. Used books are interspersed among the new books and rare editions are displayed in glass cases. It's awesome. Right now, they are having a set of sales to celebrate the 16th anniversary of their founding. They also sell books online.


The other great Northwestern bookstore is Elliot Bay.I fell in love the second I set foot in this store. Most of the books are new, but there is a huge used book room and when I was there the coffee shop walls were lined with shelves of $1 books. It is absolutely fabulous.