BootsnAll Travel Community

I just came back from what constitutes a small press publishers' book tour and thanks to my ingrained habit of traveling on the cheap, there's still 300 bucks in the budget for promotion. I'd say that's also a three hundred dollar opportunity to visit a wonderful city on someone else's nickel (or 60,000 nickels).
how do! I'm all rested up from the small press version of a book tour and due to my apparently deeply ingrained on-the-cheap travel ethic and my love of those $20 Chinatown bus fares, I still have 300 bucks left in the budget to play with. I reckon it's an opportunity to go somewhere fun, ideally an American city I've yet to visit.
(somebody please tell me that New Orleans has an amazing bookstore with tons of well-attended, well publicized author events!)

So - lay it on me. Where are your favorite bookstores? Why are they your favorites. The only restriction is that they have to have author readings and they have to be in a town that has more than one newspaper, ideally a couple of alternative newspapers ... and maybe a local NPR affiliate. Oh, and I've already covered Chicago, Baltimore, NYC, Seattle, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Berkeley on this trip....

Ah, the joys of traveling on someone else's nickel (60,000 of them.)

Thank you!

Columbus, Ohio isn't exactly an exciting travel destination, but they have the coolest bookstore I've ever seen. It's called The Book Loft and it's in Germantown south of the interstate. This place is amazing. It has 32 or so separate little rooms, and if someone else is coming down the hallway you have to duck in to one of the rooms. The building has been around for around 150 years, which is really old for anything in the midwest.

I dunno about author signings, or even if they would have space for one...

I actually like Amazon.com and MIT's press... all the stuff that I've got an intrest in isnt on the local stores shelves!

Not that this helps...

I do think the best brick and mortar bookstores are the ones near a beach, that are not a chain... that share the building with a cafe. For that Hatteras,NC has/had one at hatteras landing, right by the ferry to go to Ocracoke.

Hey Ayun,

Excluding Powell's since you were just out this way....

The Tattered Cover used to be a great bookstore in Denver. (Haven't been in 15 years so no promises.) Definitely a two-paper town. And it'd give you a chance to wear those shit-kickin' cowgirl boots you've got hiding in your closet since everybody in NYC laughs when you wear them. Boston makes sense with all the uni's.

Cheers,

Travis

quote:

The Tattered Cover used to be a great bookstore in Denver.

I've also heard good things about Tattered Cover, never been there, but their indie creds are impecable

I go to the tattered cover all the time.. it's still a great book store. There's two now (the original and a location downtown), but both retain their atmosphere and independant vibe quite nicely.

Book People in Austin. Supposedly the "Largest Bookstore in Texas", it's got a nice alternative feel to it. By far, it's the largest independent book store in TX! Home grown business. Regular author events, local and national authors.

Their website is crap right now..um..needs some work (512)472-5050 And they're located at 603 North Lamar and 6th Street (by the new Whole Foods headquarters).

About Austin...
- Unfortunately, only one main newspaper
- One main alternative paper - Austin Chronicle, but there are a few smaller alternative papers as well (I think some focus on music/art, etc).
- We've got a local NPR affiliate, KUT. Great station!
- Third largest? university in the US. 50,000+ students
- Tons of local eateries, supporting local farmers, and tons of healthy or vegetarian options!
- "Live music capital of the world"
- largest urban bat colony in North America. Hey, you can see them fly for free! Just be sure to cover your head
- we like trees. Unlike the other big cities in Texas, we have green areas, greenbelts, and outdoor activities (hiking, biking, river, lakes, climbing, etc). Yes, it's a concrete jungle still, but far less so as compared to Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio.

New Orleans - Garden District Book Shop
first signings for Anne Rice, and signings by you, too?

Oxford, Mississippi - Square Books
native son is William Faulkner, sometime home to John Grisham, a Southern town named after Oxford, England aiming for the same literary and cultural pretensions. University town, home of Ole Miss, and the vibrant Center for the Study of Southern Culture.

Boston - what to say? I am sure you already are familiar with Cambridge and its practically a bookstore a block, but I do love the perennial Harvard Square favorites, Globe Corner Bookstore and Harvard Book Store.

If a foray into the south tickles your fancy, I can dig up more info from a friend, who reads books and is a born-and-bred Southerner.

Thanks everyone!!!
keep em coming!
yes - tattered cover and book people are exactly the kind of tweaks my leaky brain pan was requiring! and i've never been to either city. (well, rushed to denver's airport once, when a snowstorm closed down aspen and I had to get to chicago to make a flight to romania, but that's before the children were born, when i was lighter footed and fancier free)
and I'm going to work the globe corner angle too!

Oh good, Book People's website is back up now! It had a gazillion errors on it before

This thread is actually inspiring. Is there anything greater than a truly great book store?

Tunk mentions what sounds like a great one in Columbus, Ohio. Pepdrug mentions one not only in New Orleans, but also in Oxford, MS. (Oxford is the only place I've ever been in that state and it was surprisingly -to me- enjoyable.) Marisa mentions Book People in Austin (good one, been there!).

This is very cool....makes me want to go to all of them.

I vote for Tattered Cover in Denver as well- awesome place. Interesting selection of books and i dig the feel of it.
If you're up for a northward trip I'd say check out Title Wave Books in Anchorage, AK. I'm not sure its really what you're looking for as now its kind of a jumbo bookstore (I haven't been to their "new" building but its supposed to be huge and may be lacking in ambience). The upside is that its in Alaska and everything in Alaska has character!

'Bound to be Read' in Saint Paul would fit your description, I think.

It's a fairly large store, independent, I know it has book readings, and it's in a city with at least 2 major papers, some independent papers, and quite a few colleges.

Lynn

thank you thank you all -
i think book people is going to gobble up that 300... soon i hope to be bugging everyone for austin recommendations, come fall!

Ayun

you might be interested to know that last weekend I marched into my local book store, smashed a review copy of Sarong in My Backpack on the counter and demanded that they stock it...after some discussion with the manager and an impromptu reading they have decided to follow my advice...

Is any of your other stuff published here in the UK?

cheers

Philip

THANK YOU, Phillip!!!!

none of my other stuff has been published in the UK, though i'd love to find a home for the other two...

and I reckon I'll be in London this spring, so if you have any recommendations of fine places for authors to read, - is there a travel book shop? - give a yawp and I'll set my sites on a read aloud.

thank you again - that's real hand to hand guerilla marketeering!

Best bookstore in Miami is Books & Books, an indie bookstore in Coral Gables and in South Beach. They get all the best authors. I've seen David Sedaris, Zadie Smith and even Jamie Oliver (who did a cooking demonstration and concert!).

I spent a little time in Portland, Oregon and fell in love with Powells, a store the size of a city block! I don't know if they have readings, but I imagine they do. Great store for new and used, and great web site too.

Shakespeare and Co. in Paris, right near Notre Dame - is a beautiful English-language bookstore. There are two stories, and art covers every wall space not filled with books. Beds are found tucked in corners of the store, and George, the owner who also runs an antique book place nextdoor, let's people stay in the shop or above it in the attic for free, as long as they work a few hours in the shop and contribute something creative to the walls.

He also likes to invite random, special people for a Sunday tea. I got invited and then had to leave before I could go :-( but ask him what books you should read and you won't regret it. Need a place to crash? Well, talk about books first, tell how much you love the shop, ask about the beds upstairs.... you get the drift.

This place has also been seen in "Before Sunset" where the two long-lost random lovers meet again (a great follow up to Before Sunrise - two young adults meet on a train and spend a night in Vienna).

Visit S.&Co. if you get a chance!

i LOVE shakespeare and co in Paris!
i would LOVE to read there.
it has a really interesting history pre-George, founded in the early 1900s by an American woman, Sylvia Beach, who went broke publishing James Joyce's Ulysses...and paid for him and his family to live in high four star hotel style while she did so. she was pals with Hemingway and Gertrude Stein (who hated each other) There's a book called Sylvia Beach and The Lost Generation that's really juicy reading for those who like that period in history and those players.