Friday, July 02, 2004
Kansas City Notes
After a long weekend of scooter racing in Reno (longer story), I was in Kansas City showing off books again. here are some random comments...
Rainy Day Books remains the best bookstore in the city. Amazing author events (look for a Clinton announcement soon), fantastic attention to buying quality books, attentive view to community needs. I'm impressed with this store.
One of their best ideas is to have a prominent wall of signed stock in the middle of the store. Instead of spreading the signed books throughout the store, they are in an easy-to-browse section of their own. You can bet the turn rate for this wall is very high.
The downtown area of KC is making a comeback. From the Crossroads Arts District to the renovation of their taller buildings, this is a place I'd like to live. The Central Library building reopened in February, 2004. This new location has a beautiful reading room, fun staircases, and great architectural details. Look for a gallery space and rooftop terrace to open soon. What caught my eye was the parking garage, yes the parking garage. Instead of empty concrete walls, they have hung two story signs depicting the spines of famous books. I'm still looking for a pic on the web to show y'all.
Reading Reptile is a great children's bookstore with papier mache sculptures of favorite characters and murals on the walls.
Bloomsday Books is the best used bookstore for browsing that I found. Last visit I found a great addition to my "Books on Books" shelf. This time I chortled at their James Joyce marionette puppet. Act out your favorite Joyce story!
I laughed at this story from The Pitch, an alt weekly KC paper: Prairie Dogg by Nathan Dinsdale.
I should limit myself to two quotes:
"if libraries have learned anything from Joe Camel, it's the importance of targeting kids. Hook 'em when they're young, and they'll be habitual readers for life, the kind of people who take "reading breaks" at work and ask strangers if they can bum A Light in the Attic. Before long, they'll be smoking through two or three books a week."
and
"I'm a book nerd. Or at least I would be if I weren't having so much sex. Bookstores are my crack houses. I can't pronounce Dostoyevsky, yet I own two copies of Notes From the Underground, neither of which I will ever read. I want my dead, bloated carcass to be buried in the discount bin at Powell's City of Books."
I'm having lunch at the Webster House next time I'm in town. It's a beautiful mansion on a hill with antique dealers on the lower level and an exquisite restaurant on the top floor. Overlooks the rejuvenating Crossroads Arts District below.
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Rainy Day Books remains the best bookstore in the city. Amazing author events (look for a Clinton announcement soon), fantastic attention to buying quality books, attentive view to community needs. I'm impressed with this store.
One of their best ideas is to have a prominent wall of signed stock in the middle of the store. Instead of spreading the signed books throughout the store, they are in an easy-to-browse section of their own. You can bet the turn rate for this wall is very high.
The downtown area of KC is making a comeback. From the Crossroads Arts District to the renovation of their taller buildings, this is a place I'd like to live. The Central Library building reopened in February, 2004. This new location has a beautiful reading room, fun staircases, and great architectural details. Look for a gallery space and rooftop terrace to open soon. What caught my eye was the parking garage, yes the parking garage. Instead of empty concrete walls, they have hung two story signs depicting the spines of famous books. I'm still looking for a pic on the web to show y'all.
Reading Reptile is a great children's bookstore with papier mache sculptures of favorite characters and murals on the walls.
Bloomsday Books is the best used bookstore for browsing that I found. Last visit I found a great addition to my "Books on Books" shelf. This time I chortled at their James Joyce marionette puppet. Act out your favorite Joyce story!
I laughed at this story from The Pitch, an alt weekly KC paper: Prairie Dogg by Nathan Dinsdale.
I should limit myself to two quotes:
"if libraries have learned anything from Joe Camel, it's the importance of targeting kids. Hook 'em when they're young, and they'll be habitual readers for life, the kind of people who take "reading breaks" at work and ask strangers if they can bum A Light in the Attic. Before long, they'll be smoking through two or three books a week."
and
"I'm a book nerd. Or at least I would be if I weren't having so much sex. Bookstores are my crack houses. I can't pronounce Dostoyevsky, yet I own two copies of Notes From the Underground, neither of which I will ever read. I want my dead, bloated carcass to be buried in the discount bin at Powell's City of Books."
I'm having lunch at the Webster House next time I'm in town. It's a beautiful mansion on a hill with antique dealers on the lower level and an exquisite restaurant on the top floor. Overlooks the rejuvenating Crossroads Arts District below.
