We were at a tiny bookstore in a small town. I was crawling on the floor, searching for Tacitus. The foreign language section has been dismantled and banished to two bottom shelves in the philosophy section. I had to adopt a yoga pose with head lowered to read the titles.
A couple of years ago I saw an old battered Latin edition of Tacitus here. It was overpriced and in barely acceptable condition. I wanted to look at it again.
It is gone!
Darn! Who would have bought it?
Oh well, I have another Tacitus at home. True, I’ve already read it. I COULD buy a nicer (and cheaper) paperback copy online, except I cannot: I have resolved this year to shop at bricks-and-mortar stores.
Shopping at indies will make me a better person. Well, I’m already a good person.
Anyway, I am weeding books to find shelf room for books in boxes (including my London books).
Supporting the brick-and-mortar culture is part of my resolution to be more “present.” The experience of browsing among physical books is electronically inimitable. I miss it.
Although I hear that independent bookstores are having a comeback, I don’t see that here. As I’ve often explained, we have to travel 100 miles to find a good independent bookstore.
Anyway, here is a list of the excellent brick-and-mortar indies and chains I visited last year.
IN LONDON (THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY!): Skoob, London Review Bookshop, Oxfam, Foyles, Waterstones, and several used bookstores on Charing Cross Road.
IN IOWA CITY: The Haunted Bookshop, Iowa Book, Prairie Lights
IN OMAHA, NE: Jackson Street Booksellers, The Bookworm
IN OSKALOOSA, IA: The Book Vault
IN NORTHFIELD, MN: Content
IN DES MOINES, IA: Barnes and Noble, Half Price Books
IN ANKENY, IA: The Plot Twist
Very sadly, the last independent bookstore in Ames, Firehouse Books, closed last year.
I expect this to be a more leisurely year, with less shopping and more rereading.
Let me know your favorite brick-and-mortars. I’ll support them if I’m there!
mirabile dictu 
Well done on sticking to the bricks and mortar – I hope to be visiting some of those lovely ones in London you list in the next couple of weeks!
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They are the best bookstores I’ve ever been to!
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Independent bookstores in this area (Connecticut) have closed also. My favorite book shopping takes place at the annual and semi-annual Friends of the Library sales at local libraries. They are large, well-organized and leave one with a virtuous feeling for supporting the local library.
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The sales are the best bet here, too, now that so many bookstores have closed. You can always pick up interesting books.
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When I was in Texas recently, my friend took me to a wonderful used book shop in Denton called Recycled Books. I did very well there and can’t wait to go back. I’m sure you know all the ones in NY.
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Texas this time of years sounds VERY good! I love used bookstores.
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Kat, here in Buffalo, NY, we have the wonderful Talking Leaves with two locations, along with Barnes and Noble. I lived in the Boston, MA area for over thirty years and recommend both Porter Square Books and Harvard Bookstore (not to be confused with the Harvard Coop). I am trying not to buy many books this year. I have many many unread books and there are many I want to reread. Since I hope to be in Nebraska in early spring, I plan to reread all my Willa Cather and Bess Streeter Aldrich books.
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I have been to Talking Leaves in Buffalo! I even have an old Talking Leaves t-shirt, My husband seems to have adopted it, though.
I’d love to go to those bookstores in Boston. What a cool city to live in.
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I love Blake’s Books in McKinleyville, California.
Yesterday I visited the Eureka (California) library and shopped at its Friends of the Library bookstore. I came away with Shakespeare (Othello, Troilus and Cressida, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Dostoyevsky (Crime and Punishment), Virginia Woolf (Jacob’s Room), Trollope (Phineas Redux and The Duke’s Children) and three books of nature writing: Edwin Way Teale (North with the Spring), Hal Borland (Beyond Your Doorstep) and John Muir (The Yosemite), plus The Penguin Book of Garden Writing. I was thrilled.
The drawing at the top of your post is wonderful.
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What a great haul! I love library sales. One of these days I’ll get to California…
The drawing came up when I googled “Edward Gorey cats.” It doesn’t actually look like a Gorey drawing, but I took it on faith!
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Well, it was not me that bought the Tacitus. I have a version in English which suffices.
The ongoing closure of bookshops continues here in Berkshire, UK. Most of my in-the-flesh purchases are now from charity shops; the books are of course cheaper. But on the plus side, when I DO find a bookshop, it is a great joy ….
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Glad you didn’t buy my Tacitus! I do miss bookshops so much. The newspapers keep claiming indies are coming back, but it seems to be a PR thing. I wish we had those charity shops here.
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