I noticed one of my favorite aromas five steps before I entered the store, Chicago’s oldest bookstore smells like aged paper and binding. O’Gara & Wilson has serious books.  This is a haven for academics, anyone researching specific topics, or collectors of antique books.  I noticed an extensive religion section, quite impressive actually.  Also, significant collections of music books, German books, and other collections in various languages.  As with all good used bookstores, the offerings may change over time as collections are purchased and added to the shelves.  O’Gara & Wilson look for and buy significant book collections, if you have one to sell, this would be a good place to start.  Not everything is serious, Keith found a stack of Popular Science magazines and bought two.  Decades ago each cost 25 cents, we paid $7.50 and $12.50 for each – don’t automatically throw out those magazines in your garage, they may be worth something.

This store wins the prize for oddest decor.  Immediately apparent is the buffalo head hanging over the center aisle.  Further back is a stuffed monk.  It’s a little creepy, but in an inviting way.  I was immediately drawn into the back of the store to figure out if the statute was a witch, a monk, made out of wax or wood, was it holiday decor or permanent?  The clerk explained that when the Museum of Science and Industry was refurbished, the inscribing monk didn’t make the cut and was headed for the trash heap.  In swooped the owner to save the monk and give him a second life as guardian of the stacks.

Founded in 1882, the store has a nice history of passing from one owner to the next.  Wilson was an apprentice to O’Gara and eventually became the owner of the store.  I asked the clerk if he was next in line, he chuckled and refused to commit.

O’Gara & Wilson

1448 E. 57th Street

Chicago, IL 60637

T:  773.363.0993

Beautiful view of Coos Bay from North Bend, OR

I effectively had a seven hour “lay over.”  My plane arrived in the little town of North Bend, OR at 8AM (I flew in with the Governor of Oregon, nice to see him flying commercial and working the entire flight), but Keith and Kyle didn’t arrive until 5PM.  What to do?  Set up shop in a bookstore, of course.  This is a real small town, in the sense that it isn’t a tourist town made cute for visitors.  These people live and work here, and they visit their bookstore.  Books by the Bay is a used bookstore with lovely coffee shop.  I was reading The Brothers Karamazov and was just starting the Grand Inquisitor section so I settled down with some great coffee and quiche while eavesdropping on the tables around me.

Many of the books are mass market paperbacks at great prices.  As with many used bookstores, there’s a wide selection of romance and mysteries.  However, every genre is available from history to non-fiction to young adult to literature.  I was impressed by the support for local authors.  These books were prominently displayed at the front of the store.  Readings and signings are held along with books clubs.

It is an inviting environment.  This isn’t the musty used bookstore that entices a treasure hunt.  Books by the Bay is bright, airy, and nicely organized.  The books may be a bit worn, but the surroundings are not.

Books by the Bay is a place for readers.  In the couple of hours that I camped out in the coffee shop, I heard an intense discussion about a novel that would put any book group to shame.  These women picked apart every character and plot device.  One of the local authors dropped by to chat and check on his books.  The people at the table behind me discussed books and travel plans while looking for books about their trip.  Everyone knew someone in the cafe.  No one entered without stopping to say hi to a friend.  Books by the Bay is the epitome of the community bookstore.  Even for strangers like myself, it’s a lovely place to spend a morning.

Books by the Bay

1875 Sherman Ave.

North Bend, OR 97459

T:  541.756.1215

It is an odd looking machine

I’d been looking forward to visiting this venerable bookstore for years.  While not as flashy as the Coop down the street, Harvard Book Store is what an independent bookstore is all about.  The atmosphere is cozy and dripping with a love for literature.  While the only thing I heard the staff (really, just cashiers) say at the Coop was “NEXT,” at Harvard Book Store everyone was chatting about books.  I had a long conversation about Sarah Vowell’s visit.  I had just missed it, but the staff was willing to fill me in on it and direct me to a podcast on the website.  (The store hosts numerous author events, it’s one of the standard stops on an author tour.)

After reading about the Gutenborg machine several times, I was excited to see it in action.  Harvard Book Store has one of the few in the nation, thus far, and it looks like a laptop with a very, very big printer attached.  It’s a a little endearing in an R2D2 kind of way.  The machine runs about 10 hours a day, sometimes printing from the Google backlist but frequently printing self-published books.  Sometimes local histories, sometimes papers and topics from Harvard students and professors, but also books that have been picked up by publishers.  I overheard a conversation from the staff that some of the self-published books are quite good, that the knee jerk reaction that all of them are not the same quality as traditionally published books will be changing.  This especially could be true as established writers may be able to make more from self-publishing than from their big houses.  It made me stop and think about taking a better look at self-published books.

Harvard Book Store offers all the latest new books worthy of your time, plus a nice array of used books.  Any fiction you may want is available.  As with many university book stores, there is a strong selection of non-fiction genres in both new and used books.  Even better, the store supports the publications authored by the Harvard professors, and with that brain power, the reader is guaranteed to find interesting reads.  Pick up some Harvard garb at the store and look the part while reading the latest school masterpiece.

While I didn’t notice a display of Author Recommendations in the store (it may be there), check out this link online, several authors name the books he or she recommends.  I immediately looked to see what David Sedaris and David Mitchell liked, odds are good I’ll enjoy their favorites.

And if all that book shopping builds an appetite, head next door to Mr. Bartley’s for the best burgers in town.

Harvard Book Store

1256 Massachusetts Ave.

Cambridge, MA 02138

Tel:  617.661.1515

The Indie Reader is quite impressive.  Twenty pages of book suggestions and event schedules, there was practically a book on every page that sounded fascinating.  Kepler’s is certainly a player in the ebook age, many of the books in newspaper had a QR code, just scan the code and download the book.  The newspaper also directed readers to Kepler’s other social networking endeavors, three blogs (one for teens, one for writers and another for everyone else) and a Facebook page.  Anyone who still believes bookstores are remnants of a bygone era needs to stop by here.  Efforts to create a community aren’t limited to the internet.  The newspaper highlights the store’s Literary Circle Membership, a group of people willing to put their reading money to good use.  A variety of membership levels offer members discounts, rewards and special access to author events.  It’s perfect for anyone who wants to participate in the active literary scene at Kepler’s.

Does the store back up the image in The Indie Reader?  Absolutely!  It’s a spacious full service store with plenty of stock.  I appreciated the bulk of reading recommendations for kids and teens up front, Kelsey was absorbed from the moment we walked in.  The literary fiction section winds down the length of a large wall, ending in a shelf dedicated to Europa books.  I always find book group shelves interesting, it’s a way to keep up with what many people are reading around the country.  Here, it’s a delight.  A whole row of shelves is given over to dozens and dozens of book groups, some with clever names like “Hotties” or “1961″ (the year the group started, I had to ask).  The non-fiction and genre sections are just as extensive, this is a store where odds are good you’ll find what you need.  There are used books also, not a huge section but definitely some good choices.  Moreover, Kepler’s has an extensive selection of magazines, one area of the bookstores that is getting harder to find.

After meandering for quite awhile, Kelsey found me with two books she had to read.  After reading about them in The Indie Reader I wanted them too and so as I paid for the two hardbacks, I told the cashier “I came in here saying only one paperback.”  He looked at Kelsey and said “well done.”

Kepler’s Books

1010 El Camino Real

Menlo Park, CA 94025

Tel:  650.324.4321

Josh Stephens is the editor of the California Planning & Development Report, a newsletter covering urban planning and land use. When he is not writing, he is a college counselor and freelance journalist. And when he’s not maintaining journalistic and academic objectivity, he enjoys places designed for humans rather than for unbridled commerce.  Josh is assisting my son with his college essays and I have to say we learned more from him in an hour than we gathered from several college tours and talks and time with our own college counselor.  Love the store he describes and how much it means to him.  He also has an understanding of the independent bookstore world, check out his book review of Big Box Swindle.

Primrose Hill Books

Some years back I was corresponding with a wonderfully erudite woman named Eleanor. After braving a bedrizzled crossing of Regent’s Park I arrived at my friend’s flat and composed an email to her:

“Speaking of bookstores, I made a delightful find today: Primrose Hill Book Shop.  The whole store is about the size of a dining+living room, but somehow every book seemed worth buying.  I told the owner that she had a better selection than Barnes and Noble, and I meant it. It made me wonder why people are so eager to suffer those enormous stores when every neighborhood could instead have its own little Primrose Books replete with carefully chosen titles.”

While I took Eleanor on her first virtual visit to Primrose Hill through e-mail, mine own first visit had taken place years ago, when most reading still involved books and not computer screens. At age 10 I knew it as the place from which Pongo, Missis Pongo, and their 15 puppies disappeared—and to which they returned with 84 more. At that age I don’t think I considered whether Dodie Smith had set her story in real place or not.

But on that July afternoon, I found a little high street that, true to its name, overlooks Regent’s Park from a modest rise. It was exactly the sort of a place where mother or father might stroll, pushing a pram with one hand and restraining a full-of-beans firehouse dog with the other.

In the middle of this happy scene sits the blue and white face of Primrose Hill Books.

Orderly without being stuffy, and small without being cramped, Primrose Hill Books strikes an expert balance between endearing and twee, erudite and snobbish. For me, it confirmed London as a place of understatement and refinement. And, as I told Eleanor, its restraint—by not trying to be all things to all customers—reminded me that a small selection, chosen by people who care, surpasses any arrangement in which mere commercial pwroducts, printed and bound so they look like books, are allowed to overwhelm works of art and genius.

I cannot recall whether I saw The One Hundred and One Dalmatians among its titles. But I’m sure it was there somewhere, waiting for a nice family to come by and add it to their collection.

Primrose Hill Books

134 Regent’s Park Rd.

London NW 18XL

Tel:  020 7586 2022

Twice Told Tales

121 E. Ojai Ave.

Ojai, CA 93023

Tel:  805.646.4064

The “cult reader” bookshelf brought a smile to my face.  These are the old-fashioned “if you liked book x, then you’ll like book y” books, but clearly so popular at the Book Trader that they need to be chained to the shelf.  I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve seen books in a store, or anywhere, chained like a bike to telephone pole.  I perused a couple, they worked quite well even if you have to stand fairly close to the shelf to read them.

There are all types of books and the day I visited and towers of newly arrived used books that the staff was processing, so turn over looks lively.  Two more areas that I recommend you visit, first, the cookbooks in the cafe section.  There were several classics that if I wasn’t flying home, I would have been tempted to buy, especially the Alice Waters books.  Out front the ‘cheap rack’ contained several great beach reads, how many times can you say that about the cheap rack?

Stop by, check out the chained books, find a great beach/after finals read and, oh, and did I mention how great the chocolate chip cookies are?

Book Trader Cafe

1140  Chapel St.

New Haven, CT 06511

Tel:  203.787.6147

Bart’s Books of Ojai

For years I’ve wanted to attend the Ojai Music Festival, an extravaganza of classical music the first weekend in June every year.  This year it finally happened and in between the day and evening concerts, I dashed to Bart’s Books, a used bookstore I last visited 19 years ago and one that Claire wrote about a few years back.  It’s better than I remembered.

This has to be one of the best used bookstores in the nation.  (I’d love to hear of any you think could top it, or even compete.)  It’s certainly unique in that it’s mostly outdoors.  The store was a residence and now every foot of the property is used for the bookstore.  A few sections are located inside the former home:  rare books, first editions, the few shelves of new books and, of course, cookbooks reside in the former kitchen.  There is a separate room for art books (I still have the multi-volume Canady art history survey I purchased 19 years ago).  If you wander past the fiction, then through the science fiction, you’ll find a room dedicated to literature and poetry.  It can feel a bit like treasure hunt with the best surprise of all at the end, a room full of wonderful books.   The rest of the shelves and the great majority of the books are all outside.  The flooring is meticulously swept concrete, there are numerous tables and chairs scattered amongst the shelves, and classical music quietly plays.  Every type of book that you can imagine is available, this is a bibliophile’s wonderland.  Our own Southern California version of Hay-on-Wye.

The store began in 1964 as a book exchange on the front lawn and developed over time.  Almost all of the books are under some sort of overhang, so unless it is a fierce driving rain, the booksellers wait out the storms at the cash register.  It’s sun damage that is the biggest problem and there were certainly a couple sections where every binding is bleached white.

The first stop should be the ‘recommended shelves’ to the right of the cashier.  These few shelves contain the books the staff finds most appealing when unpacking donated books or when cleaning out shelves in the store.  Next, head for the first editions inside, many of these treasures are gorgeous books at reasonable prices.  One of the speakers at an  Ojai Music Festival Symposium mentioned he bought a Willa Cather first edition for $25, then added that Bart’s Books is a great store.  After that feast on your choices!  You could easily spend hours here.  If you get a little tired, ask the bookseller to help you make a cup of coffee from the community espresso machine and then relax on the patio until you’re rejuvenated.  Keep your eyes open, who knows who’ll you run into, I literally bumped into Peter Sellers (the opera director, not the actor) in the fiction section.  I tried to see the title of the four books he was hauling around, but feared looking obnoxious.

Bart’s Books of Ojai

302 West Matlija St.

Ojai, CA 9302

Tel:  805.646.3755

I was intrigued by a floor to ceiling bookshelf filled with beautifully bound books, all seemingly from the same source.  The bookseller filled me in on Black Sparrow Press, a now defunct Santa Barbara publisher.  Most famous for publishing Charles Bukowski novels, every Black Sparrow Press volume I pulled from the shelves was gorgeous.  The Book Den has the publisher’s un-numbered copies, some of which are highly sought after and prized.

In addition to collectible books, the store offers a selection in many non-fiction genres, most notably to me essays, gardening, and cooking but history, politics, and biography are well represented.   The literature section shelves new and used together and lines the entire back section of the store.  An entire table is dedicated to local history and topics.  I complimented the bookseller on an “intellectual” selection of used books.  He said it wasn’t so much that the books were overly intellectual, but that they were the finest available.  Anyone can buy a mass market book online for a cent, there is no competing with that, the niche for The Book Den was supplying the best books.  I couldn’t agree more.

The store opened in Santa Barbara in 1933 (in Northern California earlier in the century) and plans to be in open for another 100 years.  The bookseller noted that The Book Den is the only downtown store that survived two Borders stores, both of which are closed.  He said that The Book Den experienced added foot traffic, but only a slight uptick in sales.  In his opinion, the Borders stores with libraries where coffee was served, people went there to hang out but didn’t buy any books.  Alas, many stores are experiencing a similar phenomenon.  I was happy to hear the cash register rang several times while I visited on a sunny holiday afternoon.

The Book Den

15 E. Anapamu St.

Santa Barbara, CA 93101

T:  805.962.3321

The store serves as a vendor for textbooks for Amherst College, Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  Yet, there wasn’t a university feel to the store, it was homey.  I like that these independent bookstores serving as campus bookstores provide students with the opportunity to buy their required reading from a local business while also tripping over books for enjoyment or discovering the chance to meet an author at a signing.  These stores give students the chance to build relationships with the communities they are living in for four years beyond the campus structure.  As a student, I could have hung out in Amherst Books for hours reading school work and books discovered at the store.  What a gift to the community.

Amherst Books

8 Main Street

Amherst, MA 01002

T:  413.256.1547