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Hay-on-Wye Part 1: A Brief Background

September 8, 2010 in bookstore, used books by Kim | No comments

A village on the border of Wales and England for over a millennium, Hay-on-Wye reinvented itself in the 1960s as the “Town of Books.”  In 1963, this market town was dying, sure for the morgue when it lost its train stop in 1963.  Richard Booth opened a used bookstore in 1962 and discovered there was money to made in used books.  He bought books en masse, from estate sales and private libraries, and started filling the empty store fronts.   In 1977, he bought the town castle, declared himself King and his horse Prime Minister.

Now, Hay-on-Wye has over than 30 used bookstores and more books per square mile than anywhere else.  The Guardian hosts a 10 day literary festival every June that is attended by thousands.  Booth’s vision grew into quite a literary kingdom.

I learned about Hay-on-Wye from The Best of Britain’s Countryside:  The Heart of England and Wales by Bill and Gwen North, a driving and walking itinerary.  I bought the book 20 years ago, it’s out of print, but found the directions remained accurate.  We approached Hay from a single track road after surmounting the “Gospel Pass.”  What’s a single track road?  Picture a two-way road about the width of a sidewalk, closed on both sides by high hawthorn hedges with occasional pull outs for when you come upon a driver heading the opposite direction.  Imagine my husband driving a stick shirt with his left hand navigating the roads and the pull outs (he did great).  We reached the top of the summit for an incredible view of the Black Mountains.  There is a reason it’s called Gospel Pass, it is steep for Wales, but not so much for Westerners used to the Sierra Nevadas and the Rockies.

After the beautiful and challenging road trip, we were all happy to pull into Hay, eat lunch, and split up for our own personal bookstore excursions.  What we found will be the subject of future posts.

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A Guest Post from North Carolina

August 7, 2010 in bookstore, textbooks, used books by Claire | 1 comment

As you know, I love guest posts and not just because I don’t have to write them.  I love that they allow us to cover bookstores Kim and I haven’t actually visited.  Alexis Bonari has kindly written about her favorite local Indies.  The rest of the post is hers.

I love to read, but sometimes it’s a drag going to the big bookstores. I love the quaint feel of smaller local store so much more. I live in Raleigh, NC and we have some incredible stores. You get a lot more help and personal attention I feel. Also, in smaller stores, they tend to have rare and older used books which on their own have charm and a cheaper price ;)

Here are a few of my reviews on some in my area.

Dancing Moon is a really sweet store. What’s great about this store is that they also have a great audio and video selection. Its a pretty cool store because they also offer spiritual healing and massage by appointment. They have rooms for rent for book clubs and classroom type environment. It has an amazing vibe and excellent selection.

My second recommendation is Quail Ridge Books and Music. Again, it’s an amazing store but what’s different about this store is that they also host events and bring in different authors, artists, and speakers. This is great if you want that small town feel of sitting at a warm bookstore and hearing your favorite author speak. Not to mention that on occasion they have wine tasting. LOVE IT!

Now, if your looking for textbooks I have the place for you. It can get super expensive if you go to a bigger chain and most of them don’t have exactly what you need.  So for this I will recommend two of them. First is Edward Mckay Used Books with four locations in North Carolina. They have a huge selection of text books and the prices are more then reasonable.  Another great store for textbooks is Hillsborough Street Textbooks. Great store and they have extended fall semester hours and are very helpful.

Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education, researching areas of online education. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Dancing Moon Bookstore
1840 Wake Forest Rd.
Raleigh, NC 27608
Phone: 919-833-8081

Quail Ridge Books and Music
3522 Wade Avenue
Raleigh, NC  27607
919 828-1588

Edward McKay Used Books
Four locations around North Carolina

Hillsborough Street Textbooks
2420 Hillsborough Street
Raleigh NC 27607
919-664-8733
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Court Street Bookstores – Brooklyn, New York

July 16, 2010 in bookstore, used books by Kim | 3 comments

I like it when Leslie travels, I like it more when I’m with her, but regardless of who she’s with, she finds bookstores.   Her daughters, who receive new books, and I, who learn about great stops, are direct beneficiaries of her adventures. Here’s a sampling of the bookstores she recently in Brooklyn (Book Court, Community Bookstore and Pranga Bookstore):

I LOVE Brooklyn.  During our latest trip, we spent much time discovering, yet again, a new Brooklyn. The borough dates back to the 1600’s when the Dutch settled it.  The population exploded in the 1880’s when the Brooklyn Bridge was completed. It’s gone through it’s ups and downs over the last hundred years, but in the last two decades most areas of Brooklyn have undergone major changes.  Brooklyn is “hot” again and just gorgeous. (By the way, the nickname for Brooklyn is “The City of Churches”. There are magnificent churches, of every denomination throughout the borough with stunning architecture and appointments including Tiffany windows).

One of my favorite neighborhoods is Cobble Hill.  It’s a neighborhood where there are scores of unique, reasonably priced, privately owned shops all within walking distance of each other.  Court Street runs the length of Cobble Hill and hosts three bookstores within a mile of each other.  Each is quite different. Nestled in between the book stores are other wonderful retail stores and restaurants or storefronts where one can get Brooklyn egg creams, Italian ices, fabulous pastries, Brooklyn style pizza, frozen hot chocolate  - which is just heavenly – Italian hoagie sandwiches, just baked bread and other gourmet goodies! Reading and eating are my two favorite past times, especially since you can do them concurrently.

Book Court

Book Court is the bright community oriented bookstore that every area needs to be a true neighborhood.  It has a terrific selection of staff picks, along with well chosen fiction, non-fiction and books about Brooklyn and other local sites. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, one of my bigger challenges is finding age appropriate books for my pre-teen girls. I’m a fan of any bookstore that can point me to books for them that are new to me.  Three cheers for Book Court, they suggested new reads for both of my around-the-clock reading daughters.

Luckily for the Court Street neighborhood, Book Court is expanding its role as a community anchor by expanding the store.  A plan is in the works to expand the store to allow for more books, a cafe and an event room.   I look forward to visiting it again when the expansion is completed, or if I’m lucky, even sooner.

Book Court

163 Court Street

Brooklyn, New York 11231

Tel.:  (718) 875-3677

Truly, books everywhere

Community Bookstore

Community Bookstore is truly the most unique bookstore I’ve ever seen. It is a large store by indie standards and offers just about any book, new or used, that you could possibly want. Best sellers and current fiction are available at fairly substantial discounts. This is the place to find literary treasure.   It is truly disorganized. Books are everywhere – scattered among overflowing bookshelves, stacked on the floor in the middle of the aisle and stacked on tables. I’m sure there was a method at one point, but there no longer seems to be a rhyme or reason to how things are arranged. Unfortunately, I did not meet the owner (he may know exactly where everything is), but I did browse around and found some very interesting finds at bargain basement prices. There probably are, among the stacks, some real gems waiting to be uncovered. Digging through the books in this Read the rest of this entry »

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Paulina Springs Books – Sisters, Oregon

June 17, 2010 in bookstore, used books by Kim | No comments

Sisters, Oregon is a lovely small town in the shadow of the beautiful Three Sisters Mountains.  The downtown decor is western quaint.  With only a population of 1925, Sisters supports two stores, Paulina Springs Books and Lonesome Water Books. I dropped by Paulina Springs Books three years ago and picked up Owl Island by Randy Sue Coburn on the booksellers recommendation and I was looking forward to seeing how the store changed.

Bucking the bookstore trend of hunkering or closing down, Paulina Springs Books has expanded since my first visit.  They opened a sister store in Redmond, Oregon (see my review of that store and how to pronounce Paulina) and are enlarging this store by breaking through a wall and taking on additional space.  Larger didn’t change the chatty atmosphere.  I remember during my first experience that a discussion about books became a store wide conversation among the various customers and booksellers.  The same open conversations occurred again, where customers and booksellers bantered back and forth about upcoming books, YA recommendations, and great reads.

Like it’s sister store, Paulina Springs Books has a strong outdoor/nature section.  Of course, there is an emphasis on Oregon, remember the Three Sister Mountains are looming out the front window, yet I found several books to accompany me on my southwest trip (since cancelled).  I found a shelf talker recommending Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams, and when I told the bookseller I bought the book to read for a trip to the southwest, she pointed me to Red by Williams, Read the rest of this entry »

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Downtowne Book Store – Riverside, CA

June 1, 2010 in bookstore, essay, used books by Kim | No comments

I  have to admit that when I first heard that my daughter would participated in a dance competition in Riverside, CA, I inwardly groaned.  I grew up about 90 miles from Riverside, but we called it ‘Reeferside,’ a moniker that wasn’t meant as a compliment.  It had been years since my two week work stint when my employer initially tried to house me in a Motel Six knock off until fearing for my safety, I switched to the local Hilton where the staff would forget that my room was rented and walk in during the night.  You can see why I wasn’t excited.

It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised.  There is a lot of down time during a dance competition, so our first foray into town was to the Downtowne Book Store.  A small used book store tucked away off Main Street, it is quaint.  The well worn wooden floors were covered in throw rugs and squeaked as we walked up and down the aisles.  Mixed in with bookshelves were pieces of original art from local artists, all for sale.  I even noticed a few bowls of fresh fruit, I assumed free for the taking.

The store is a long standing fixture in Riverside.  We asked what was the secret to its success, the bookseller said it’s the fact that they sell everything.  The selection is impressive.  The standard fiction, mystery, romance, all at nice prices, yet I spent most of my time in a row with bookshelves of essay collections, criticism, theology, history and cultural topics.  I came home with two essay collections, The Courage of Turtles by Edward Hoagland and Paper Trail by Michael Dorris.  I chose the Hoagland collection because I enjoyed the actual essay “The Courage of Turtles” and want to experience some of his other writing.  Paper Trail caught my attention for three reasons, the New York Times Book Review blurb on the front, the fact that Dorris wrote A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, and the notes written about the essays on the inside front cover by the original owner.  I was curious to see what the notes meant, but I have to read the essays first.

Mission Inn

The Downtowne Book Store isn’t the only treat in Riverside.  The city is famous for its Mission Inn.  I always pooh-poohed it because it’s fake, it has nothing to do with California’s beautiful missions, all of which are closer to the coast.  However, the dance competition was two blocks from the Inn and a family has to eat dinner.  We walked into the most beautiful courtyard.  My daughter said “we’re in San Miguel again!”  My son thought it reminded him of Italy.  It was a warm night, we sat outside eating lovely food, laughing and enjoying the meal.

So Reeferside isn’t so bad after all.

Downtowne Book Store

3582 Main St.

Riverside, CA

T:  951.682.1082

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