One of the Nation’s Best – Tattered Cover Bookstore

There are a few bookstores that are talked about over and over again – The Strand, Elliot Bay Book Company, Powell’s, Shakespeare and Co and The Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, Colorado.  I could move to Denver for the Tattered Cover, it’s that good.  The staff is fantastic.  I overheard a customer walk in and ask for a book that he couldn’t remember the author and only one word of the title, with that the clerk immediately led him to the book he was looking for.

One of the employees was so excited about Neil Gaiman and his graphic novels that she convinced me to try one.  I know that graphic novels are a huge publishing phenomenon, but comic books never appealed to me (but I did like Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) and I don’t like scary stories (I’ve never read King or Straub), so imagine my enthusiasm, but hers was so genuine and it’s almost Halloween, what better time to try one?  On her advice, I bought Neil Gaiman’s The Doll’s House from The Sandman series. 

The introduction described two types of fantastic fiction, one is a reality similar to our own but an alien element arrives that either must be eliminated or assimilated (like Superman), the other is haunted and mysterious where there isn’t a reality to hold onto, just a relative reality among the characters (like Poe).  The Doll’s House is of the second variety.  There are familiar aspects that feel normal such as family relationships, transportation and housing, but how they interact is just weird.  The story straddles a dream world and reality with characters in each that are creepy, but some that care about each other.  I think that is what struck me the most, there were more instances of characters watching out for each other than I’ve experienced in a comic book or in Poe’s writings.  The artistry in a graphic novel is equally important as the writing.  I think the creep factor, for me, comes through more with the pictures than the storyline.  Pictures of stares devoid of emotion, skeletal images and inflicted pain abound.  Take out my reaction to the subject matter, The Doll’s House contains an enormous amount of excellent illustrations that justify its $20 cost.  While I’m glad I tried a graphic novel, and it wasn’t as scary as I feared, I’m not going to be a fan.

In the children’s section, the employee spent a half an hour talking to me and my girlfriend about books for our daughters, who read as much as we do, so finding a book they haven’t read is no easy feat.  In the children’s section, there are recommendation cards for kids to fill out and place on the shelves, I love the idea of kids concisely telling why they like a book and communicating to each other about its merits.

There are three locations, I visited the new store on Colfax Avenue.  It’s located in a

The former orchestra pit and the original theater chairs

renovated theatre, it’s huge.  What a joy to be in a store where space isn’t an issue.  There are alcoves all over the store with comfy chairs and couches to curl up on.  Each section housed a separate topic with a front table or bookshelf highlighting specific books.  Plays and theater books surround the former orchestra pit complete with the original theatre chairs for reading.  I went with one of my favorite former pastors and she found the religion and psychology sections excellent.  The cookbook section was huge, the largest I’ve ever seen outside a specialty cook bookstore.  I chuckled when I found the form requesting that patrons recommend cookbooks or recipes, what a way to spread the word about a cookbook without spreading your hips by trying recipe after recipe.

The Tattered Cover is a prime example of using a bookstore as a catalyst to create community interaction:

• Author events occur almost daily with a combination of well known and lesser known authors, October 2008 included T.A. Barron, Louis Sachar and Dennis Lehane.
• Regularly held series include the Rocky Mountain Land Series which highlights environmental books and issues, the Active Minds Lectures on various topics, the Senior Sunday Presentations, the Tattered Cover Film Series showing classic films and the Out of the Book Film Screenings featuring shorts on authors and books.
• The Tattered Cover offers book groups on a variety of topics including travel, politics and mystery and employees a Book Club Outreach Coordinator who will meet with book groups to recommend books for them and also distributes an extensive list of recommendations available via the website.
• The Colfax location sponsors an annual Educator’s Night complete with information about books, discussions on how the store can work with the school and publisher give aways for the classrooms.
• Tattered Cover monetarily supports the community in a variety of ways, members of the Tattered Cover Gives Back program chose a local non-profit to donate 1% of the proceeds of their purchases (membership is free and comes with a 10% discount coupon), over $31,000 has been donated to local charities through this program.  Children’s book drives are held in June and December (for every 10 books donated in December, Tattered Cover contributes a new book).
• The Family Reader Card provides that for every 10 children or young adult book purchased, the card holder receives a 25% discount card and Shea Homes donates a book to a local literacy program.  I love how two business are working together to aid literacy.
• Tattered Cover promotes youth writing with a variety of contests:  an essay contest during Banned Book Week for teenagers, a scary story contest and a bookmark contest for elementary school students and a poetry contest for all ages.
• A special book club I’m tempted to join, members of the Autograph Book Club receive a collectible autographed first edition signed book once a month selected by the Tattered Cover Staff.  The books are a combination of fiction and non-fiction, hmmm . . .

Denver citizens have something to be proud of with Tattered Books.  In my opinion, it’s worth traveling to Denver just to visit.

The Tattered Cover

2526 Colfax Ave.

Denver, CA 80206

T:  303.322.7727

F:  303.399.2279