Saturday, March 29, 2003
This week I'm in Madison, Wisconsin checking out the area, which of course means I was checking out bookstores...
Canterbury Booksellers
It's a strange experience walking through the double set of doors into Canterbury. It's a dark bookstore, with gray walls, dark-stained wood bookshelves, and accent spotlights instead of fully lit. A row of white bulbs light the top edge of the bookcases. To the right are two king's throne chairs, decorated in a swirling green paint that makes them feel straight off the set of a Harry Potter movie. The main room is filled with kids books, fiction, hot new nonfiction, and poetry. POETRY! In the FRONT ROOM!! This is wonderful. Through a wide archway, I enter into a small room that feels like a medieval courtyard. Big display tables, and side rooms jutting off from different directions. I can see a backroom that is probably used for events, and meeting rooms to another direction. Another side room has textbooks for the local UW-Madison campus.
Framed poems, broadsides, and publisher posters decorate all the available walls. Numerous nooks and alcoves give privacy and seclusion while browsing. Above the bookcases hang quotes about books on large signs. "If I get a little money, I buy books, and if any is left, I buy food and clothes," -Erasmus.
I overhear the bookseller on the phone telling the owner about Tori Amos, who stopped in the store to buy a few books before her show tonight at the Civic Center.
Guarding Hanna, the hot title from the first list of Scala House Press, is displayed prominently on their independent publisher table.
Later, I stop in the adjacent coffee shop to drink coffee and admire the store some more. Crazy to think about the "inn" next door that's also a part of the bookstore. They take their "Canterbury" references seriously here.
www.madisoncanterbury.com
AVOL's Bookstore
A large, well-organized used bookstore in the heart of the downtown State St area. How often do you hear "well-organized" and "used bookstore" in the same sentence?! That's how unique this place is. Well-kept, clean books, lots of scholarly and specialized titles. Mostly non-fiction books that would appeal to the grad student and professor population in town. Some nice collectibles though too. I'll spend some time browsing their inventory on ABE.
I found a great room of literary criticism and Books on Books sections (my current territories). Argh, there's two first editions of "Wise Men Fish Here," the biography of the Gotham Book Mart in NYC, the venerable bookstore that helped fan the flames for many author careers, including James Joyce, e.e. cummings, Paul Auster, etc. etc. Two copies sit next to each other on their shelf. Either copy would be great for my books on bookstores collection, if only they didn't have the more expensive advanced copy with note from publisher. I'd have bought the less expensive, slightly more banged up copy if they only had that one. But knowing there's a more pristine copy out there, I can't buy the more used one. Is this the Gentle Madness?
Most book collectors say never pass on a book you really want just because it's slightly out of your price range. You'll always regret it. But then again, most book collectors are bibliomaniacs who seriously have to think before deciding between a needed book and rent. I pass on the book (for now).
AVOLS website at ABE
A Room of One's Own
One of the top feminist bookstores in the country. Great mix of new and used books with a small cafe area and large community bulletin board. This is the model for how a specialized bookstore helps create identity and inform its community. Wonderful staff rec's all over the store, a wall of bumper stickers with quotes.
www.roomofonesown.com
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Canterbury Booksellers
It's a strange experience walking through the double set of doors into Canterbury. It's a dark bookstore, with gray walls, dark-stained wood bookshelves, and accent spotlights instead of fully lit. A row of white bulbs light the top edge of the bookcases. To the right are two king's throne chairs, decorated in a swirling green paint that makes them feel straight off the set of a Harry Potter movie. The main room is filled with kids books, fiction, hot new nonfiction, and poetry. POETRY! In the FRONT ROOM!! This is wonderful. Through a wide archway, I enter into a small room that feels like a medieval courtyard. Big display tables, and side rooms jutting off from different directions. I can see a backroom that is probably used for events, and meeting rooms to another direction. Another side room has textbooks for the local UW-Madison campus.
Framed poems, broadsides, and publisher posters decorate all the available walls. Numerous nooks and alcoves give privacy and seclusion while browsing. Above the bookcases hang quotes about books on large signs. "If I get a little money, I buy books, and if any is left, I buy food and clothes," -Erasmus.
I overhear the bookseller on the phone telling the owner about Tori Amos, who stopped in the store to buy a few books before her show tonight at the Civic Center.
Guarding Hanna, the hot title from the first list of Scala House Press, is displayed prominently on their independent publisher table.
Later, I stop in the adjacent coffee shop to drink coffee and admire the store some more. Crazy to think about the "inn" next door that's also a part of the bookstore. They take their "Canterbury" references seriously here.
www.madisoncanterbury.com
AVOL's Bookstore
A large, well-organized used bookstore in the heart of the downtown State St area. How often do you hear "well-organized" and "used bookstore" in the same sentence?! That's how unique this place is. Well-kept, clean books, lots of scholarly and specialized titles. Mostly non-fiction books that would appeal to the grad student and professor population in town. Some nice collectibles though too. I'll spend some time browsing their inventory on ABE.
I found a great room of literary criticism and Books on Books sections (my current territories). Argh, there's two first editions of "Wise Men Fish Here," the biography of the Gotham Book Mart in NYC, the venerable bookstore that helped fan the flames for many author careers, including James Joyce, e.e. cummings, Paul Auster, etc. etc. Two copies sit next to each other on their shelf. Either copy would be great for my books on bookstores collection, if only they didn't have the more expensive advanced copy with note from publisher. I'd have bought the less expensive, slightly more banged up copy if they only had that one. But knowing there's a more pristine copy out there, I can't buy the more used one. Is this the Gentle Madness?
Most book collectors say never pass on a book you really want just because it's slightly out of your price range. You'll always regret it. But then again, most book collectors are bibliomaniacs who seriously have to think before deciding between a needed book and rent. I pass on the book (for now).
AVOLS website at ABE
A Room of One's Own
One of the top feminist bookstores in the country. Great mix of new and used books with a small cafe area and large community bulletin board. This is the model for how a specialized bookstore helps create identity and inform its community. Wonderful staff rec's all over the store, a wall of bumper stickers with quotes.
www.roomofonesown.com
