Earlier this summer I made a long awaited pilgrimage to the used book capital of the UK - Hay on Wye, which is a tiny town on the Welsh borders with about 30, yes 30 used bookshops. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Bookshops of every kind, some specialist and some general, big and small (one is in a converted cinema), even an outdoor bookshop. Bliss!
I’m amazed that no one from Chicago has yet mentioned my all-time favorite bookstore of all!
The Stars Our Destination is the bookstore I miss oh-so-dearly now that I live in Texas…when I go back home to visit, I promise I’m going to bring home a metric ton of books from their store.
This is a bookstore that sells ONLY sci-fi, fantasy and horror genre books. Nothing else. They also have THE most amazing used book section wherein you can find hardcover books in wonderful condition for a mere FRACTION of their cover price. They used to be located in Wrigleyville, near the intersection of Belmont and Sheffield, but have since moved to Evanston.
I so miss this store, I used to spend hours there, and especially after spending hours in the used book section would have to make several trips to my car to carry all my purchases. It used to be that the 2nd Tuesday of the month was half off the already incredibly low cost of their used books, I’d walk in with 50 bucks, and walk out with 20+ fantasy/sci-fi/horror books I’d either never read before, or did not currently have as part of my collection. (Which is five 6x3 bookselves and growing weekly…is books an addiction? If it is, I have no wish to be cured)
Well, I know that Atticus started feeling the crunch around the time that Amazon got popular. Fortunately, the owner was pretty quick to jump on the Internet bandwagon and we did some sales via that method. However, our demise happened when the area we were in (U St in DC) started gentrifying; our building was sold to another owner and nothing in DC was affordable enough to rent. We wound up moving to Alexandria VA, where two things did us in: the owner’s unwillingness to change stock (we had a lot of stock pertaining to black/queer radicalism; the people in Virginia were more interested in gardening) and the lack of support from clients around us. For all their supposed enthusiasm about having a bookstore in the area, we did less than $100 a day most of the days I was there.
Neil’s Books on 17th St in DC went out of business due in part to jacked-up rent rates; Kulturas Books has had to move two times in the past few years for the same reason.
And so it goes… 
Old books in old bookshops?
http://www.hay-on-wye.co.uk/bookshops/frameset.htm
oh Sparrow has cited already, have a look anyway. The place is insane I think the whole economy runs on second hand books.
I miss the Camberwell Book Shop (south London), it had
- Eccentric owner, check.
- Smelly pet, check
- Authentic old-book-smell, check
- Unpredictable opening times, check
Bonus, spiral staircase.
On weekend nights they would leave trays of books out front, if you wanted one you stuck the money through the letterbox
I am addicted to used book stores.
Most of the ones I haunt are run by little old ladies who are computer-internet phobic, which just slays me as they could probably move alot of books in clumps rather in one at a time. I, for one, when I find a new author I like, I will want to read the entire stuff by that person.
John King Books in Detroit is phenomenal and worth a stop if you go to the Detoit Auto Show in January. It’s about two blocks south or so of Cobo Hall.
When my favorite used book store owner-store went out of business, I was depressed for weeks. This woman knew my tastes and would hold books aside for me or keep them in mind when I would amble in. If I ever lays eyes on her in public I will probably cry on her shoes and then beat her to a pulp for going out of business. WAH!