Love the smell of old books? This bookseller would like you to leave

Re:Love the smell of old books? This bookseller would like y... by gumby on Thursday July 21, 2022 @03:02PM (#32183420)

> She was the town's "book lady" or "just the bookstore everyone goes to" so it's obviously been a disappointment when that wasn't the case everywhere as I've moved on and visited other stores

Palo Alto used to have seven (!) bookshops downtown; now there is but one but that survivor is indeed run by a pair of "book ladies" as you describe (except for the tea or coffee).

I had a vacation house in a small town of about 2500 people that had a similar bookshop with a bunch of the usual staples and a somewhat esoteric mix of others. In a very deeply "red" area the owner also carried a lot of books that would definitely not appeal to that crowd, and they sold well. She eventually sold the business and it became a boring bookshop.

One thing that matters to me is opinion. One day I decided I had to see what the fuss about Ayn Rand was all about. So I went into another favorite palo alto bookshop (now gone) and asked the owner where they were as I couldn't find them on the shelf. He got a funny look on his face and said, "Oh, we always keep a few around for thoooose people as he led me to the spot.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Love the smell of old books? This bookseller would like y... by inamberclad on Thursday July 21, 2022 @04:52PM (#32184883)

I have great memories in the downtown Border's Books, reading through the stacks in the ornate former theater. Sadly, it's now a Blue Bottle cafe (not bad) and a coworking space (horrible) with corporate offices upstairs (sigh).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Love the smell of old books? This bookseller would like y... by rmason on Friday July 22, 2022 @02:50AM (#32189275)

Used to love visiting two places on my yearly visits to Silicon Valley. One was the Computer Literacy bookstore and the other was Fry's computer store. Always spent money at both on each visit. Neither Detroit or Chicago had anything to compare to them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Love the smell of old books? This bookseller would like y... by joedavison on Thursday July 21, 2022 @05:53PM (#32185671)

The closing of that Borders was a tragic loss and the end of an era in Palo Alto.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Love the smell of old books? This bookseller would like y... by gumby on Thursday July 21, 2022 @06:30PM (#32186038)

The opening of that Borders was a tragic loss of an art house theatre (the New Varsity) and the arrival of a corporate behemoth that drove most of the rest of the bookshops (one next door!) out of business.

The permit for that building required that it be possible to turn it back into a live/film theatre. A friend of mine and I looked into turning it into a nightclub but in the end it was too much of a hassle (and Palo Alto is no longer the kind of place that has nightclubs and porno theatres (not the New Varsity!) downtown).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Love the smell of old books? This bookseller would like y... by rmason on Friday July 22, 2022 @02:45AM (#32189247)

There was a time in the nineties when I was living in Portland (Michigan) which is a town of 3500 and it had a great bookstore downtown. Yet East Lansing where I live now, the home of my alma mater, Michigan State University, lost it's remaining bookstore downtown. That still boggles my mind.

Yet right after the dotcom crash the bookstores that had multiple aisles of programming books shrunk the computer section to half an aisle. They told me however they could order anything I wanted. I used to browse the bookstores on Sundays. Now I browse the web and order what I need from Amazon. Have to think they did it to themselves.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Love the smell of old books? This bookseller would like y... by PuppyTailWags on Thursday July 21, 2022 @07:07PM (#32186365)

There continues to be indie stores, but I find one has to hunt online as well as offline for them. Importantly, to spread good word of them via word of mouth and also to purchase from them when one is looking for specific titles on top of usual browsing. A useful thing is to also follow authors you love; they frequent their own local bookstores and actively sign books that you can pick up! I know this is the case for Jeff Vandermeer and Martha Wells.

[ Parent | on HN ]