The Greatest Indie Bookstores in the World
Though the pictures make it pretty, in many ways, it’s kind of a lame piece: it includes no thoughts or reasoning, or even what would have helped ge
t these stores on the big list, but I do like the idea of celebrating the very best indie bookstores. In “America’s Greatest Independent Bookstores,” The Daily Beast includes little beyond great photos of 23 great stores.
Mind you, a lot of the books on this list make any list of great stores pretty much all the time. Powells in Portland, for example. The Strand in NYC. The incomparable Book Passage in Corte Madera, California; West Hollywood’s Book Soup; City Lights in San Francisco and Book Hampton (pictured) in East Hampton, New York.
Check it out: the list is here. Are there any truly great bookstores that haven’t made the list? Or, heck: add your vote for one or more of these. And what about other countries? Who says America’s bookstores are best? Anyone care to comment? What are the greatest bookstores in the world… and why? Send us your thoughts on the greatest bookstores in the world, with pictures if you like, and we’ll revisit this thought during the holidays.
t these stores on the big list, but I do like the idea of celebrating the very best indie bookstores. In “America’s Greatest Independent Bookstores,” The Daily Beast includes little beyond great photos of 23 great stores.Mind you, a lot of the books on this list make any list of great stores pretty much all the time. Powells in Portland, for example. The Strand in NYC. The incomparable Book Passage in Corte Madera, California; West Hollywood’s Book Soup; City Lights in San Francisco and Book Hampton (pictured) in East Hampton, New York.
Check it out: the list is here. Are there any truly great bookstores that haven’t made the list? Or, heck: add your vote for one or more of these. And what about other countries? Who says America’s bookstores are best? Anyone care to comment? What are the greatest bookstores in the world… and why? Send us your thoughts on the greatest bookstores in the world, with pictures if you like, and we’ll revisit this thought during the holidays.
posted by Linda L. Richards at 10:15 AM
7 Comments:
Top bookshops in the WORLD? There can be only one: Hatchards of Piccadilly, no question. If it is not THE best bookshop in the world, it is certainly amoung them.
Words Worth Books in Waterloo, ON! Everyone who owns and works at the store is passionate about the written word ... There's always at least one fascinating, impromptu conversation going on ... The store owners are very engaged with the larger community in many ways ... Everyone is friendly, helpful ... The store has spawned several book clubs ... Children are always welcome and there's lots of space for kids to pull bookies off the shelves and explore ... One of the store owners is especially interested in YA and children's books ... I could go on and on ... ♥ Words Worth is cherished in our town! ♥ :-)
What makes a bookstore great? If it's fancy staircases as shown in the article then my favourite won't win. But if it's about how many books are on a topic I love, then it has to be Oscar's Art Books on Broadway in Vancouver. They've been there since I was a kid and long before Chapters moved right across this street. And they're still there selling hard to find and hard to source art books from all over the world. (A fancy staircase would be nice, but I'm not sure where it would go.)
Elliot Bay in Seattle is everything a bookstore should be. Cozy and vast. Comfortable yet intellectually stimulating. Esoteric yet accesible to everyone. I'm sure you'll get a lot of votes for the Elliot Bay Book Company.
Two worth mentioning are Parnassus Book Service of Yarmouth, Massachusetts; and The King's English in SL, UT.
Munro's in Victoria, Canada.
Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City, IA prairielights.com
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