Spotlight on Local Indie Bookstores - Part Three

Part three of the Spotlight on Local Indie Bookstores is here! 

1. Tattered Cover Bookstore, Denver/Littleton, Colorado, USA, submitted by ex-pletives

From first impressions, Tattered Cover Bookstore appears to be a large bookstore with a huge variety of books that would easy to become lost in. Tattered Cover is an indie bookstore and cafe that sells both new, used, and "crisp pre-discounted bargain editions" books. It was founded in 1971, and there are now four different locations of Tattered Cover throughout Colorado, each embodying its own unique atmosphere and style. 

The newest location - Aspen Grove!

Three of the locations are located within Denver: one on Colfax Avenue, another in historic LoDo, and the last at Union Station. The fourth location recently opened at Aspen Grove in Littleton. Each site has an immense amount of books spread throughout large stores where you are sure to find something you will love.

Who doesn't want to sit in that gorgeous chair?

Photos of Tattered Cover Bookstore are courtesy of their Facebook page. 


2. Atlanta Vintage Bookstore, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, submitted by anonymous

Owned by Bob Roarty and Jan Bolgla, Atlanta Vintage Bookstore specializes in selling rare, used, and collectible books. Roarty and Bogla acquired the store from the original owners in 2006 and have been fulfilling their bookstore dream ever since.

You can watch a short video about the store (found on the Atlanta Vintage Bookstore website) below.

As what appears to be in most bookstores, they also have a variety of lovely cats roaming around the shelves to assist customers when necessary. 

Just keeping an eye on things..

This bookstore is lovingly packed full of books, which shelves upon shelves of wonder-filled books in every room.

Images courtesy of Atlanta Vintage Bookstore's Facebook page.


3. Skylight Books, Los Angeles, California, USA, submitted by anonymous

Located in Los Angeles, California, Skylight Books can be found right near the famed Griffith Observatoryin the heart of a popular downtown destination. Skylight books was opened on November 1, 1996, and continues to provide fresh, "eclectic," and exciting books to its customers on a variety of subjects.

They have a huge list of book clubs, memberships, gift cards, and you can even order books online through their website! However, with such a gorgeous physical location with so many stocked shelves and incredible layouts, I would highly suggest making your way to the store itself if at all possible.

Skylight books also owns a cat named Franny, but their website states that you are also more than welcome to bring your dogs!

Photos courtesy of Skylight Books' Facebook page.

4. The Wild Rumpus, Minneapolis, MN, USA, submitted by thebeanandi

I spent no more than two minutes on The Wild Rumpus' website when I realized I was in love. This bookstores looks incredibly delightful. There are animals. There are books. There is an awesome staff. 

There are bookstands surrounding sleeping cats. 

Wild Rumpus' history page states that the general idea and layout of their store was inspired by Anna Maze's The Salamander Room, which is a story in which a young boy happens upon a salamander while in the woods and subsequently imagines how he could turn his room into a salamander's dream habitat. Looking around of pictures of the Wild Rumpus, I can certainly see the influence. I implore you to read their entire history page, but this excerpt describes the store beautifully: 

"Architecture doesn't have the luxury of page-turning, but instead allows us a front-to-back spatial progression.   Our store's front doors open into a fairly conventional interior with carpet, a comfortable reading chair and floorlamp.   Midway, things begin to change, there's a tree-trimmer sheetrocked in the ceiling on a ladder, and the ceiling itself at this point starts to crack open to the sky.   At the back, with birds above and rats beneath a garden shed, the store wants you to feel like you're outside."

The Wild Rumpus specializes in children's and young adult books, but is truly a home for all. They have book clubs for a variety of ages, in-store book fairs, and plenty of author events. They also accept recycled books that are then added to their one dollar book section - for those kids that maybe only have one dollar to spend!

If you're ever in the area, you should definitely stop by the Wild Rumpus - I know I will be!

Photos courtesy of the Wild Rumpus' Facebook page.


5. Chapters on Main, Main Street in Van Buren, Arkansas, USA, submitted by chaptersonmain

Now, it's time for some young blood in here! Chapters on Main is a soon-to-be-opened bookstore located on Main Street in Van Buren, Arkansas. They are to be an independent coffee and book shop that will celebrate their grand opening in May.

Renovation time!

The owners of the store purchased the store as a old, falling apart bookstore, and have taken on the task of renovating the bookstore to bring it back to life.

Progress!

If you live near Chapters on Main or will be in the area around May, go support them with their big opening celebration - hooray for bookstores!

Photos courtesy of Chapters on Main's Tumblr.

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Spotlight on Local Indie Bookstores - Part One

About two weeks ago I posted about a few of my favorite local indie bookstores and subsequently asked you all to send me some of your favorite local (or not so local) indie bookstores as well. I was originally planning to then pick just a few of these at random to spotlight, but every single store submitted was amazing and I realized that I had to post them all. So what I've decided to do is indeed post them all, but in various parts. I'm going to make this a mini ongoing series until I reach the end; I'll be posting about four bookstores each week. I think indie bookstores are so vital and important to our communities, and they provide an incredible way to foster a love of books and local experiences, so I really love this idea of sharing some great bookstores from all over that you have all personally recommended. So without further ado, here are the first four bookstores!


1. The Book Cafe - Gorey, Co. Wexford, Ireland, submitted by zero-redeeming-qualities.

The Book Cafe is just what it sounds like - a bookstore and a cafe! What two things on earth are better than books and food? Nothing, in my opinion, which makes this place seem like heaven. This particular bookstore is located in Ireland, so if you're in the US it is a bit of a distance, but quite frankly it seems like it'd be worth it. I've been reading some pretty great things about this store, but I think zero-redeeming-qualities described their experience best: "Many a dark and cold afternoon was spent there with a hot chocolate or mocha, a warm bread and butter pudding, and some little gem of a book I'd find tucked away in some nook of the shelves down the back."

I actually found a great Youtube video created by Aaron Broughall about the store/cafe, which I have embedded below!



The bookstore itself appears to be Zozimus Bookshop.
Photos courtesy of The Book Cafe's Facebook page.

2. Page 158 Books - Wake Forest, North Carolina, USA, submitted by possiblyimaginary and easttennmtngrl.

Two people submitted this bookstore within minutes of each other, which I thought was incredibly awesome and coincidental - it must be a good bookstore, right?

Lights!

easttennmtngrl informed me that this store actually used to be known as Storytellers Bookstore, but that they changed the name since new owners took over a year ago. She also said that she loves it not only for the books, but also because the owners seem to actually care about their customer's lives, rather than just the business end of it, and I really think that's what sets bookstores apart.

Anyway, Page 158 appears to be a lovely store with tons of books and even some local art! (Always a bonus.) They also seem to have events nearly every week (or more), which I think is one of the best things about bookstores, since they do such a great job of bringing together book lovers and the community.
It also appears that they have a membership club for $10 a year and you can receive discounts on books and have access to various sales/flash sales.

3.  The Book Barn - Niantic, Connecticut, USA, submitted by imthatmusicnerd.

This one sounds amazing. If you want bookstores with personality, then this is your place. I don't even know where to begin describing it. If you want to see more of this bookstore, check out their Yelp page, which seems to have some of the best pictures and descriptions from people that have visited.

Just look at how amazing that is; this location is called 'Hades.'

Yes, that is indeed a Haunted Book Shop. 

One of the best parts of this bookstore - you know, besides the awesome books, layout, and owners - is the animals. There appears to be cats all over the bookstore, as well as some goats and dogs and such outside. We had a bookstore with books and food earlier, and now we have books and animals. These bookstores are all truly hitting the best combinations possible.

All images are courtesy of The Book Barn's Facebook page, which I highly, highly recommend you take a peak at to see how incredible this place is. Look out Connecticut, I'm coming for you. (Your bookstore, that is.)

4. White Pine Used Books - White Pine, Tennessee, USA, submitted by otherguy81

The first thing I noticed about White Pine Used Books when looking was that this bookstore is huge. Their Facebook page boasts 6,300 sq. ft. of books. That's a lot of books. They also have book clubs (and a needle work club!) and a huge array of events, so this store is a definite winner.

Just look at them all...

I'm extremely impressed with this bookstore, and from looking at their website and Facebook page, I really get a sense that these people (obviously) are passionate about books and sharing books with others.

If you have kids or loves children's books, they have a huge selection of those as well!

Photos courtesy of White Pine Used Book's Facebook page and website.



Well, that's a wrap for part one! I'm going to leave you all with these four to begin with, and I'll be posting another four more or so next week. Thank you so very much to everyone who submitted a bookstore, and I look forward to sharing more!

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