Independence

[mrissa]

I like specialty bookstores best. I like going in and knowing that the clerk has read some stuff I've read, that the clerk has some idea of what kind of books they're trying to sell, that even if we have different opinions, the clerk will have opinions about the stuff I have opinions about.

Some people keep trying to claim the virtues of specialty bookstores for independent bookstores, though, and I just haven't been buying it. I go into "mainstream" or "general" independent bookstores, and for the most part I don't see the diversity of stock they claim. Some manage it. Most coast by on the same bestsellers you can find everywhere else. Most have clerks who are more into the indy cred of working at an independent bookstore than they are into knowing all their sections well. (If I was into a local poetry scene, I probably wouldn't feel this way, as local poetry seems to be one thing a "non-specialty" independent bookstore will have that's different from the chains.) I've felt that it's all nonsense, this "independent bookstore" thing.

But. I found some things at Schuler's, which is a large general independent, that I haven't seen elsewhere. They had a good big stock of Albert Goldbarth poetry, and they had The Latvians: A Short History. I got those. I also saw the middle book in the K.J. Parker series I'm reading, which is a British import. I'll buy it at Uncle Hugo's instead, but it was good to see something genuinely different in the stock. And they had YAs divided into mainstream and SF/fantasy/mystery, and their "genre" section was large and well-stocked.

So there were things to like at Schuler's. It was doing the independent "general" bookstore well. Maybe the ones I've run into before have just been poorly done, or maybe they've been too small -- Schuler's is the size of a Borders or a B&N, and it has music and a cafe, so it's competing with the big stores on their own turf. It makes me a little more willing to listen when people talk about independent bookstores as though they're the same thing as specialty bookstores. I'll still probably point out that many independents are not the way they describe them at all, but at least I won't have to give people the "what are you smoking?" look.

Where do you buy your books?

Comments

[baronlaw.livejournal.com]

Mostly at a used bookstores or online. I love to browse at Borders, ocassionally pick something up.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

Borders. Mainly because, to me, they're not a big evil chain since I grew up in Michigan. And I'm sentimentally attached to Borders, too, since that's where I met manos74.

When I lived in Lincoln, I bought a TON of books at A Novel Idea. If you've never been there, you should *totally* go. Best. Used. Bookstore. EVER.

[jenett]

Any bookstore whose magnetic forces I fail to resist. (I am capable of walking by a bookstore. I have a hard time not buying anything in bookstores I walk into, though.)

In practice, I bounce between speciality and Borders, because Borders is easy for me to stop at on the way to or from at least 3 places I go very regularly.) I also like Borders for their "Place an order online, pick it up when it comes in" option, which I do for specific stuff I want.

I would like to shop at Dreamhaven and Uncle Hugo's more often (but either of them is much more of a conscious decision to get to: not near other stuff I'm doing regularly, which makes it harder.) I do a moderate amount of shopping at Magus now that I'm in there every couple of weeks for classes, some of which is books.

I was in Bound to be Read for the first time on Saturday (I'm not usually down that way either...) and liked it much. (Small SF section, but well-stocked with stuff I like reading. I didn't even make it to the non-fiction.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We, too, have to make conscious decisions to go to Uncle Hugo's, but we don't have a daily commute to factor into our decisions about driving further.

Bound to be Read is nice. I've had to look hard to find their unusual stock, but I have found it.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

And I, too, will probably step into any bookstore just on principle.

(nodding vigorously here) It's a principle I hold dear. :)

[dendrophilous.livejournal.com]

Lessee..

Here (Toledo), I shop at the B&N. I hear we're getting a Borders next year sometime. I also shop at the moderately-sized independent that is within walking distance, but its SF section is not to my liking. And Amazon. If we have any used bookstores they aren't in convenient locations.

In Boston, mostly at the Harvard Bookstore (not affiliated with the school), which had a wonderful used section downstairs. Also Pandemonium. And McIntyre & Moore, though mostly before it moved to Davis Square. And the actual Harvard bookstore. And the Borders and B&N downtown. And pretty much anywhere that had books.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

When I was in Toledo for the summer, I bought my books at the Dawn Treader in Ann Arbor. I'm not sure that signifies, though, since we went up to Ann Arbor an awfully lot.

[dendrophilous.livejournal.com]

I have not actually been to Ann Arbor. Everyone keeps telling me I should.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

When I came to look at the campus at U-Mich, Borders was a big independent bookstore. And I went to Borders, after touring the campus (and eating at Seva) and found no less than twelve--twelve! books (including the Ivory trilogy by Doris Egan that I had been looking for forever) that weren't stocked anywhere in North Carolina. And said to m'self: "I want to go to a school in a town with a great vegetarian restaurant and a big independent bookstore."

Three years later, Borders was well on its way to being the corporation you all now know, and I had started eating meat.

I still eat at Seva though, and I definitely still shop at Borders. But the "new" Borders out by the highway doesn't cut it; it's Store 1 for the feeling of true happiness. Perplexingly, bookstores all over Britain thwarted me at every turn with crappy, crappy genre selections, except one tiny independent store in... (blanking on the town name. I bought something there. I'll report back some day, but I doubt anyone cares)--until I went to the Borders in York, where I found a Store 1-worthy selection of genre goodies.

That said, my favorite (not-used) bookstore is The Regulator in Durham, which is a small independent. Just because I have a history there. They had a well-stocked YA fantasy section when I was growing up--and still do.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am not all anti-chain. We made pilgrimages to the B&N in Lincoln when I was a teenager and wept with joy when one came to Omaha.

I still haven't seen Sean Stewart's new book, and I've been to large chain, large and small "general independent," and specialty bookstores since it came out. Bah.

[palinade.livejournal.com]

There are a bunch of used bookstores here in Seattle. Most of them are small and aren't part of a chain. I poke through there for rare finds (but not so rare that I'd be paying more than $10 for a book that originally cost $0.50). I also look for paperback originals that are now out of print.

I mainly look for new titles and Must Haves at the University Bookstore. It's a tightly packed, dense and overflowing section that often has older titles competing with new releases on the shelves. They sell back issues of Locus and have a fairly wide selection of collections, anthologies, graphic novels, and other small print titles. Lots of local writers have signed stock and given readings.

Occassionally, I'll go to B&N or order off Amazon. But that's only when I'm particularly lazy. It's not that I dislike the big box stores, it's just that I feel better supporting the smaller stores. I can go into any one of the smaller stores where the buyers are interested in customer feedback and/or will go out of their way to special order something they don't have in stock.

There are some small specialty stores that aren't very warm and fuzzy. They aren't interested in hearing from their consumers or going out of their way to make a sale. They don't cater to fandom in any way, shape, or form, so I frequent those kinds of stores less often.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'd describe our old clerk at The Other Change of Hobbit as warm or fuzzy, at least not until the very end. He was sarcastic and abrasive, but he remembered our names and what we liked and harangued us most affectionately.

[palinade.livejournal.com]

I've found issues of Locus dating back to 2002. But I think it's not the usual SOP.

Unfortunately, the UW sff section is small. And it feels so much smaller now that the children's section seems bigger. The store is remodeling now, so I don't know if that includes more floor space/shelf space for the sff section, but it would be great if there was more room for backlists.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I know Know Knew.

What a great thing to be able to type....

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Sf, fantasy, and mystery at the Uncles and Dreamhaven. Others, online, mostly. And in big-box chain stores.

My experiences with general bookstores have been mediocre, until the big-box chains, so I also lack the habit of liking general independents.

Before Uncle Hugos, the B. Dalton at Southdale had the best SF section in town.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We were briefly at the mall in GR and looked at the Waldenbooks wistfully. "Remember when those were cool?" I said. markgritter shook his head. "They were never cool, they were just all we had." Oh. Yeah.

What I like about Uncle Edgar's is how darn patient the man back there is with me. It's always the same guy, and when I explain what I want (often for my grandpa), he knows what they have and what else I might get if they don't and also whether I should maybe get something else on the list because lots of people who like Grandpa's list have been disappointed with X and liked Y much better. I don't know if he's as good with people who buy a lot of mysteries (I read them from the library, mostly, and am still primarily a spec fic reader), but he's awesome with a blundery girlgeek who really belongs in the front of the store.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

You should be sure to get on their mailing list if you haven't already -- either paper or online (online is of course cheaper for them). Starting at the web site (http://www.unclehugo.com). (Yet another web site that I had a part in.)