What’s Your Favorite Bookstore?
It was recently announced that Stacey’s Bookstore, the oldest continually-operating bookstore in San Francisco, will be closing its doors in March after 85 years. Many people came forth to discuss how much they loved the store…which leads to me asking:
Q: What’s your favorite bookstore?
For me, I would have to say Half Price Books, a used bookstore chain. There are about a dozen of them in the Houston area alone…not that I’ve been on book hunting trips or anything. [Looks up and to the left.] They have a great selection of older science fiction books and more often than not I have to convince myself not to buy something.
Give your favorite bookstore a plug…tell us what it is!
[Pictured: Borderlands Books in San Francisco, an excellent sf/f bookstore which would definitely be my favorite if I lived there.]
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For my money, it’s White Dwarf Books, the SF specialty bookstore in Vancouver, BC. The owners are nice, easygoing folks who know the science fiction and fantasy genres inside and out. They’ve built a very strong and well-deserved customer loyalty and have the respect of authors. The store is small but jam-packed with good books and if they don’t have something you want in stock, they’ll scour the Earth to find it for you. And let’s not forget the store’s basset hound, Judd, who keeps an eye on the door and every now and then insists that you stop looking at the books so you can pick up his rope toy and play tug-of-war with him. With the free parking on the street, you’ve got the full package. White Dwarf isn’t just a bookstore, it’s a centre of the SF community up here.
For me it’s Wonder Book in Frederick, MD (northwest of Baltimore about a half hour). They have tons of books and several locations within easy driving distance of each other. When I lived on the east coast, my job took me to Frederick a few times a year and I always made sure to stop at Wonder Book.
Where I live now there are NO used bookstores. *sigh*
We basically have two choices where I live; corporate owned like Borders or one small used books store. I don’t live in a small area, it’s just that the Borders and the B&N have driven out the smaller new book stores.
Our used books store is great. It’s called the “Almost Perfect Bookstore” and they’ve been around for years. They don’t always have the newest releases used, but they will try to make sure they have them offered new and at a discount. I always check them first before looking at the big stores. Of the corporate types– I’d have to go Borders. Better selection than B.N., at least in my neighborhood.
Tidal Wave Used books in Anchorage Alaska is great. New books but also tons of great older books on any subject you could want. Check them out.
http://www.wavebooks.com/catalog/index.php
Definitely <a href= “http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/”>McNally Robinson</a>. They’re a local indepdendent bookstore that’s enjoyed a lot of success over the past ten years or so. They’ve been able to expand their business into neighboring provinces, and recently built an absolutely gorgeous new location to compliment their flagship store here in Winnipeg. The selection is great, the booksellers know what they’re talking about and they’re always willing to order things in for you if they don’t have them on the shelves.
There are so many:
- several of the Books, Inc. stores, required stops during business trips to Silly-con Valley; the one in Mountain View on Castro Street is a frequent stop.
- BookPeople in Austin (what is not to like about a multi-story book palace in downtown Austin that has excellent and frequent signings?)
- The Twig in my hometown San Antonio on Broadway where I had my first book signing;
- and I am a Half-Price Books prowler like John, having hit them in Dallas, Austin and Houston.
For me it is Audible (http://www.audible.com) as they offer what no other store does, thousands and thousands of audio books. I find that using audio books to supplement my normal reading allows me to get through more than twice the number of books that I would normally be able to every year. It allows me to take advantage of travel time, time spent waiting in lobbies, and most recently time spent on jury duty, to blast through some fantastic books and escape from some of the more mundane times in one’s life. An iPod of almost any size allows one to carry dozens of books. Just fantastic.
Borderlands. When I lived in San Francisco, I went weekly. I miss it, and their frequent author events, terribly.
For me, it’s definitely John’s house. With a large list of new and used books plus personal delivery service, you can’t beat it!
I have three. Half Price, of course. For crime fiction, none other than Murder by the Book in Houston, TX. And a small little bookstore in Cypress, TX, Books Abound. They have a good selection of SF and mystery fiction but the, uh, gold mine is the collection of Gold Medal books, all grouped together and bagged. Fantastic.
I have three. Half Price, of course. For crime fiction, none other than Murder by the Book in Houston, TX. And a small little bookstore in Cypress, TX, Books Abound. They have a good selection of SF and mystery fiction but the, uh, gold mine is the collection of Gold Medal books, all grouped together and bagged. Fantastic.
Hmm…there are a few that I should mention
There aren’t a lot of choices where I live in northern Arizona, but Bookman’s has by far the best selection and atmosphere – of course they only deal in used books so there are some drawbacks.
Down in the Phoenix area I like both Changing Hands and The Poisoned Pen (especially great for author events), but neither has a very robust SFF section. But to be completely honest, it’s hard to beat the prices and convinience of Amazon.
Uncle Hugo’s/Uncle Edgar’s in Minneapolis. I don’t live there so I only get to go to the store once or twice a year but I look forward to those trips so much. Great selection of both new and used books.
I second neth on Changing Hands in Tempe, AZ. It’s a perfect, friendly place to browse. Nice coffee shop next door. It’s a bit of a hike from where I live (Phoenix) but always worth the trip.
Lately I find that when I know what I’m looking for, I’ll order from Amazon; when I don’t know what I’m looking for, Changing Hands or Bookman’s are good places to go, if only to woolgather.
Let me also put in a plug for the public library, including Phoenix’s awesome Burton Barr location.With the economy doing as well at is, I find myself relying on the library more and more. Anybody else?
Olsen’s in Washington, DC. I love the staff recommendations and just the general atmosphere. Where I live now, there’s nothing like that. I basically have a Barnes & Noble and a Borders.
I’m sure anyone who, like me, lives in the San Diego area would mention “Mysterious Galaxy”, the best genre bookstore I’ve found in the US. Wonderful selection, friendly staff, and some amazing author events. http://www.mystgalaxy.com
In terms of general bookstores – not specifically genre – I’d have to say The Strand in New York City. It’s chaotic and dirty and impossibly big, but a great place to spend a few hours.
I’d love to say that I have a fabulous little bookshop that serves all my needs. But I don’t so I have to make do with two chains. To be fair they both serve my needs very well and seeing that they are stores around Cardiff they are quite big and well stocked. The two store are Waterstones and Borders and if I had to choose one I’d go with Borders every time. They have a great atmosphere. They usually have a few of the books I want and the sci-fi/fantasy section has some great US imports.
I am blessed in the Twin Cities area to have two fabulous genre bookstores:
Dreamhaven and Uncle Hugo’s.
If I had to choose, I’d pick the latter (poor Dreamhaven just had to move into a smaller space, so its not quite as comprehensive as Uncle Hugo’s anymore, IMO.
Rediscovered Bookshop in Boise, Idaho. The first bookshop I did a signing at and the first bookstore that carried my book – Starstrikers. Bruce and Laura who own and run the shop are big SF/F readers. You can get new and used books at Rediscovered and they are very invloved with the local community.
Half Price Books are definitely fun to have around. We have several in the Kansas City area and whenever I manage to get to them I generally don’t come home empty handed. By and large I just love bookstores. My local Barnes and Noble is one of the better ones, even though things about it annoy me at times. My local Borders has some real problems, but even there I am surrounded by books, many that I want to take home. My favorite used bookstore has to be The Antiquarian in Jefferson City, Missouri. It is a used bookstore and comic book store that has a large, amazing selection of old mystery and science fiction paperbacks, with covers by the masters. My Robert McGinnis collection has grown mostly because of that store. I don’t get there often, it is a couple of hours away, but when I do I settle down for a looong trip through the aisles.
In San Diego we have the very good science fiction/fantasy bookstore, <a href=”http://mysteriousgalaxy.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp”>Mysterious Galaxy</a>. Genre bookstores are so rare that I consider them all priceless, but even if there were a genre store in every town, Mysterious Galaxy would still get my support. The staff knows and loves SF, they sponsor lots of author signings (including all the Clarion instructors every summer), and since they offer a 10% discount on every purchase once you’ve spent $100, their prices are competitive with the big chains.
Two for me: Borderlands (Bay Area resident) and also Stacy’s downtown. Their sci-fi section is decent and they regulary feature scf-fi and fantasy books in their empoyee picks which qualify for 20% discounts.
And not a store but excellent resource for me for books if the Mechanic’s Institute Library. It’s a private library, cost $100.00 a year to belong (membership is open to the public) and depending on their book buyers has a great selection of new sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers. Also DVDs and a host of other services.
Green Apple Books and Borderlands are easily my favorite bookstores here in SF. It’s a shame to see Stacey’s close – they have a great computer section, and the SF section isn’t too shabby either. Powells is another favorite when visiting Portland, OR.
In NYC, we’ve seen a bunch of bookstores go under (including <a href=”http://www.jennbrissett.com/oldstore.php”>mine</a>). If I had to say which bookstores are my favorite in the big city I would have to say <a href=”http://mcnallyjackson.com/”>McNally Jackson</a> and <a href=”http://www.stmarksbookshop.com/”>St. Mark’s Bookshop</a>. They are both really wonderful bookstores and fulfill all my bookish needs. And if they can satisfy <i>this</i> old bookseller’s needs they have to be pretty good.