Did you know that April 29 was Independent Bookstore Day?
As a kid and teen, I could spend ages at Waldenbooks or B. Dalton at the mall, and I was blown away the first time I visited the Hungry Mind in St. Paul. I don't make it to bookstores as often as I'd like these days, and I was thinking about where I have gone within the last year or so. The Red Balloon is the store I go to most often, particularly for events. They provide free gift wrapping year-round, which I appreciate every time I don't have to frantically wrap a birthday present at the last minute. I took the boys to an event at Wild Rumpus last spring and they loved it, though they were so caught up in looking at—and following—the various animals that inhabit the store that they hardly noticed the event.
It occurs to me that there are bookstores for adult books (as in: non-children's books) as well. Most of my books come from the library—I feel so lucky that Hennepin County has a fantastic library system and that I work just a short walk from Central Library. I did make it to Common Good Books for the first time last fall, and it was fun to see what they had on the shelves.
On my list to visit locally:
Ancestry Books
Birchbark Books
I'm not sure if Babycake's Book Stack has opened yet, but I'm curious about that one as well.
So . . . where do you get your books?
I get my books almost exclusively at these four places:
Half-priced Books (used, physical), B&N (new, physical), Amazon.com (new and used, online), Alibris (used, online)
Although it wasn't recent, I was sad to see my favorite go-to bookstore in LA is gone. Cool though that MN made this list (good call, Pepper).
I get all my books from the Spencer Road Library (and AbeBooks.com)
Birchbark - that's Erdrich's store!
After last month's discussion, I decided to go get an Erdrich book from the library. I'm about 1/3rd of the way into The Plague Of Doves and it is everything I remembered liking about Erdrich. I laughed out loud several times in the first pages, and the historical tragedy at the center of the book is palatable.
I go to Birchbark the few times I have brunch at the Kenwood. I like Magers & Quinn, but most of my books come from Half Price, thrift shops, or little free library trades.
There are too many used bookstores to mention, but our favorite is Blue Cypress Books in NOLA.
I recently found out that Dr. Chop escaped high school without reading Catcher in the Rye. We'll be correcting that sooner rather than later, you phonies.
I get most of my book ideas by reviews in The Economist, by the World's Greatest, and the New shelf at the H'istan Public Library.
Digitizing a monster