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News & ArtsWednesday, May 6, 2009
Books A Guided Tour of America's Independent Bookstores
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, May 6, 2009 at 2:08 PM
Marc Fitten has written a new novel called Valeria's Last Stand. To support the novel's release, he is touring to 100 independent bookstores throughout America. And to commemorate the tour, he's writing a blog about what makes each one so great.
The most recent one, #5, is Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is a great idea, and a perfect example of what authors and bookstores need to do to keep people's attention in the current economic climate. I hope Fitten gets out to the Northwest; I bet our bookstores would blow him away.
1
Paul,
I was just in Watertown and Cambridge in November, and from what I can recall, Harvard Bookstore isn't nearly as independent as it used to be. There is, however, a very nice independent bookstore (they also do book binding!) right around the corner on the same block. I wish I could remember the name.
I was just in Watertown and Cambridge in November, and from what I can recall, Harvard Bookstore isn't nearly as independent as it used to be. There is, however, a very nice independent bookstore (they also do book binding!) right around the corner on the same block. I wish I could remember the name.
2
Harvard Books isn't even the best in a thousand-yard radius. I would vote for Starr Books. Wordsworth used to be a great new store until they shut. McIntyre and Moore has apparently moved twice since I last visited, and is now in Porter Square, but they are awesome. Harvard Books is pretty good, but tainted slightly by the presence of Harvard sweatshirts and stuff -- but no more than the U Bookstore is by all their gimcrackery, I guess.
There used to be a crazy warren of a shop up a couple of flights of stairs, in the same building as a bookbinder's, run by a crazy old white-haired man who knew EVERYTHING, and had the pictures off the walls of Mark Twain's house. I bought a lot of stuff from him, and spend a lot of hours chatting about various bookish matters. I can't remember his name, or the shop's; I assume he's dead now.
Seattle's bookstores are relatively pale in comparison. We have some fine ones, but nothing like the Brattle Book Shop. Boston is a REAL book town, though, like here, many of them have gone. I spent a lot of time in Avenue Victor Hugo Books on Newbury as well; closed.
There used to be a crazy warren of a shop up a couple of flights of stairs, in the same building as a bookbinder's, run by a crazy old white-haired man who knew EVERYTHING, and had the pictures off the walls of Mark Twain's house. I bought a lot of stuff from him, and spend a lot of hours chatting about various bookish matters. I can't remember his name, or the shop's; I assume he's dead now.
Seattle's bookstores are relatively pale in comparison. We have some fine ones, but nothing like the Brattle Book Shop. Boston is a REAL book town, though, like here, many of them have gone. I spent a lot of time in Avenue Victor Hugo Books on Newbury as well; closed.
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