I love Duck’s Cottage and Downtown Books https://www.duckscottage.com/ in Duck, NC. It’s not the worlds most amazing bookstore, but it has such happy memories. We used to walk to this little strip of shops that has some restaurants, a toy store, a candy store etc right on the Sound side in the OBX. When I was older but single, my dad and I would go to this bookstore so he could get the paper and we could get coffee, and we’d just enjoy being together. Later, when i had kids, we’d stop in at least once per trip so the boys could pick a book and then we’d go sit on the boardwalk over the Sound and read and hang for a bit. Good memories.
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I always loved The Strand in NYC. Parnassus is great. But two of my favorites, both small and opinionated in their curation, have both been “renovated” in the last two years, and it feels like they both had the same consultant advising them… Said consultant makes far less use of “staff picks” and “owner’s quirky choices”, and I realize that part of what I loved about both of them in their prior incarnation was the "boutique " nature of them. There weren’t a gazillion books, and many were ones you’d never heard of, but you could reliably leave with a bag full of joy that’d last for at least a month or two.
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First time I visited San Francisco in the late '70s we wandered into City Lights Bookstore, and I thought all the winding staircases enroute to discovering oddly placed rooms was the coolest thing in the world. Up until then my idea of bookstores were places like Waldenbooks and B. Dalton in the mall.
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Its location is good. It is huge. I love the Photo spot in the basement, which isn’t particularly scenic. It’s amuses me. It has a spacious seating area for coffee and pastries. It’s not worth a trip to Oxford on its own, of course. I just like it. And the Bodleian. Please bury me there, haha.
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This sounds a bit like the Book Barn main store in Niantic. But they also have a huge indoor set of books (no heat or AC…so dress accordingly) complete with books store and very friendly cats.
This link contains some picture.
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Here is the link…for some odd reason this site would not allow me to edit to include it!
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Something tells me a cross country bookstore trip would be amazing!
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Yes! At least I could start taking detours when I’m doing some of the more regular, tedious drives.
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Oh wow! I think you just pointed me to my next vacation! That looks amazing.
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You had me at “haunted.” The cats sealed the deal. A bookstore without cats is not a bookstore. Both the bookstore and hardware store in our lake town have cats who run the places. Sometimes I go to the hardware store just to play with Laverne and Shirley. Dante at the bookstore is a bit more aloof.
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On a dark desert highway…you really need to be in the middle of nowhere to find Red Rock Books in Ridgecrest, California. Off 395 in the eastern Sierra. This bookstore has the best selection of biographies…an entire long row. It’s a military town and I suspect those being tranferred to other bases leave their used books behind, thus the great selection.
Barts Books in Ojai had too many spider webs to suit me.
What a great idea!!! You should start a trend!
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The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City. Staff Picks | The King's English Bookshop
Funny thing is, I do not normally go to any bookstore because I will ruin our budget if I do. But when I go to SLC to visit out daughter, then she knows she has to take me there for a visit. I appreciate their banned books shelves. 
The King’s English is who got me hooked on Libro.fm, where you can buy audio books and have the proceeds go to your favorite independent book store. That is one way many indie store had an income stream during covid times.
Blackwell’s was the best bookstore in Oxford but unfortunately, they sold out to the man (Waterstone’s).
My son has been studying in Latin America this spring/summer. He passed on news of the Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires, tagged by Nat Geo as the world’s most beautiful bookstore, located in an old theater:
Perhaps we’ll see it when we visit him in July! (Though I understand the English language section is smallish.)
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Happy to say that I have been to 95% of the stores mentioned! Here are a few of mine:
I didn’t see anyone mention Beacon Hill Bookshop in Boston. Just lovely!
Daunt Books in Marylebone, London.
Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Delaware!
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The Beacon Hill place is fairly new, only a few years old. They have a lovely cafe, and host lots of events. Definitely worth a stop if you are in Boston.
The Boston area has lots of interesting bookstores - Trident on Newbury (a cafe also), Brattle used books downtown (they sell books outside year round and also books by the pound by color), More Than Words in the south end (a charity used bookstore supporting youth development), Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner (fantastic gifts as well as books), Porter Square books 2 locations (great author visit venues), Newbury comics (great collection of manga), and Posman books on Newbury (cute gifts).
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So much love for Browseabout Books in Rehoboth - lots of books and really great memories there of years and vacations gone by for me.
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I haven’t found a bookstore that I didn’t like. Love stopping by old/new, second hand, any bookstore we see when we are on vacation.
Barnes and Noble in the town next to ours was a favorite when the kids were young. We’ve spent many a friday evening there, reading and browsing.
Bart’s books in Ojai, CA is a very cute bookstore. The Loft in Columbus, Ohio is a new favorite after D moved there. We’ve made it a practice to go there xmas eve and do a book gift swap - it’s fun trying to go through the store’s multiple rooms trying to hide the books you are picking from the others!
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