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

[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.