Amongst the flurry of Kindle-this, ebook-that and the news that Harry Potter’s taking to the virtual world, it’s nice to sit down quietly with a cuppa and a well-thumbed tome and remember that it was recently Independent Booksellers’ Week.
I’m not going to go into the reasons why we need independent bookshops, or even the reason why progress in publishing/retailing isn’t necessarily a bad thing (short version: Publishing’s a business! It needs to stay commercial and sometimes that means moving with the times). Instead, I’ve been thinking about indie stores and what they’ve meant to me.
My very first weekend away with my now-husband was to the Mecca of independent bookshops: Hay on Wye, to search for a copy of a book that we couldn’t find online (this was back in the olden, pre-Abe-books days). Really it was an excuse to laze around venturing out only for more wine and more tattered copies of books we didn’t need but couldn’t live without. We were in that blissful discovery stage of a new relationship and learning each other’s book taste was as important as knowing almost anything else about each other.
Just these few to begin with, then I'll move over there...
Clearly, we passed each other’s silent book test. When we moved to Seattle two years later, the first place I visited was one of the best independent bookshops in the world. Well, the very first place I visited was its astonishing library, but the next one was Elliott Bay. I remember standing on a street corner in what’s not necessarily the most salubrious part of town, my feet all blistered because I had no idea how HILLY Seattle was, or how the block system worked against the hills, and had utterly miscalculated and parked the car about an hour away. It was getting dark, and it was a bit drizzly, and it was my second day in Seattle. I knew nobody, had visited the city only once before, and getting to Elliott Bay had begun to feel talismanic in my quest for this Brave New Life. I began to feel a bit desperate and realised quite how much significance I’d placed on this damn bookshop, which from my fevered readings of its website in between packing up my life to move 5,000 miles away, was going to be the answer to all my questions, even the ones I didn’t know I had yet.
{I’m aware I’m raving, but Elliott Bay honestly changes lives. It was part of the inspiration for Nic and Juliette’s glorious Mr B’s Emporium. It’s not just me who feels this way.}
Eventually, I stopped a passerby and asked them for directions, and it turned out I was standing almost directly opposite the bookstore (‘kitty corner’ remains one of my favourite American expressions, possibly because I first heard it in the context of the bookshop). I looked across the street and it really was as if angels sang. The candy-striped barber’s cane; the signage that stretched across two corners; and God, inside! Book nerds, you should all go STRAIGHT AWAY to Elliott Bay. It’s book heaven on a grand scale. There was a travel loft, a a second hand space, and two huge floors of every book you could ever want. A few months later, I began working at a publishing house two doors down from the bookshop and used to stop into their basement coffee shop every morning. Nothing before or since has given me a greater sense of living the life I was supposed to be leading. And this in the city that created Amazon.com; you can kind of see where the inspiration might have come from.
Anyway. Much as I love bookshops I just don’t think I’d have got that same succour from a Barnes and Noble. Or a Waterstones. Or, for sure, Eason’s.There’s something about an indie that makes it somewhere you can love for itself, as well as for the books it contains.
What are your favourite bookshops? Any we should know about that we can all visit and keep alive?
I submit The Gutterbookshop in Temple Bar and Raven Books in Blackrock: excellent shops, owned and operated by excellent people.
I second The Gutter Bookshop in Temple Bar, and propose the Rathgar Bookshop in, yes, Rathgar; and also, Charlie Byrne’s in Galway. I want to LIVE in Charlie Byrne’s bookshop.
Oh, Charlie Byrne’s is heaven. An absolutely perfect bookshop. I remember the first time I visited it I literally stood in the middle gazing around in wonder – it was the sort of huge, bright, character-ful (is that a word?) well-stocked second hand bookshop that doesn’t really exist in central Dublin anymore.
My fave Dublin shop is definitely Raven Books in Blackrock – I’ve stopped using Amazon altogether and buy all my American books (and British and Irish ones too) by asking Louisa, who runs the shop, to order them in for me. It’s just as quick AND you’re supporting an independent shop! The shop’s new premises are gorgeous too, and there’s a great mix of second hand and new stuff.
The best thing about running an Independent is doing something I love which attracts like-minded wonderful, interesting, supportive people and gives me back ten-fold what I put into it. This morning certainly hasn’t been the first time I’ve been moved to tears by overwhelming generosity. I am regularly humbled by being given a glimpse into how the lives of customers have been changed for the better by books, and to be a tiny cog in that huge wheel is truly magical.
I love your shop, Louisa, and you’ve often helped me out with a readiness and good humour that couldn’t be further from the Amazon shopping experience.
That’s why you can establish a relationship (sorry, hurl, I know) over a couple of visits to an independent, whereas no matter how many THOUSANDS of euro over the years have haemorrhaged (sp?) out of my credit limit into Amazon’s overflowing coffers, no matter how many times they tell me people who browsed (once, for a laugh) Wicca by Moonlight later bought vampire-print ironing board covers, or whatever, I feel no sense of loyalty to them. In fact I feel a lot of resentment towards Amazon, which is really weird, considering how many superb books I’ve had from them, what jewels have come into my life wrapped in brown corrugated cardboard. But they will never, ever notice or care that I have been a customer of theirs for an astonishing (to me – hasn’t the Web only just been invented?) fourteen years. They will never even metaphorically look up from the counter and acknowledge me with a smile that says in two silent seconds: I see you, you’re welcome, I’m here if you need me, feel free to rummage around, isn’t it a vile day, I’ll leave you to it.
But the other reason I feel cold towards Amazon is because we all know it doesn’t matter a tuppenny damn to them what it is they’re selling. Ironing board covers, drills, deodorant, inner tubes, the reprint of Saplings – they couldn’t care less, so long as it’s product, and shifting. I don’t believe all bookshop owners should be in it for the love of it, not caring whether they sell a book a week so long as they get to run their hands over a half-calf binding or sniff the ancient pages of a Bible – it’s about turning a profit – but I prefer to shop with someone who knows their books and understands their value to the customer.
Oh dear – practically an entire post in a comment. Sorry, Sarah! Great post. Never come across “kitty corner” before – have googled, and love it.
My very favourite book shop is Powell’s City of Books in Portland Oregon…
68,000 square feet of books, on every subject under the sun packed into multi levels that you can get lost in for days and days. I also adore the fact that brand new books, and second hand copies of the same are shelved side by side so you get the opportunity to flick through the shiny new copy and buy the slightly battered and truly loved book beside it.
The Loft Bookshop on the top floor of the Twisted Pepper building on Abbey Street is a recent addition to Dublin’s indie bookshops, and is really good, especially for fantasy/graphic novels. You’ll always get really good personalised recommendations there, and they have a book club too
For a big corporation, Hodges & Figgis on Dawson Street is kinda cool. otherwise, The Secret Book and Recordstore on wicklow Street always throws up a few gems as they have a stricy policy on not just buying any old shite in. I also love the Winding Stair and Chapters. some charity shops can also give you a lot of browsing pleasure, as they tend to have more books than they can get rid of.
These are all fantastic comments – so great to see such love for independent bookshops! I should add that I’m not actually ANTI Amazon, possibly because of its hippy Seattle past – I have a number of friends who worked there in the early days, when it was all about books still. But the experience of an indie store is just an entirely different entity.
Raven Books was very close to my old publishing company when I worked in Dublin – I wonder if publishing houses are always close to bookshops? And Naomi – I ADORE Powells. I went there a couple of times for work & they had to be the best ‘business’ trips ever (talk about spending your salary in 30 seconds…).
The Tattered Cover in Denver and Book People in Austin
Sitting Pretty: Home of the (not so) average hero.
Julia Talbot – https://twitter.com/juliatalbot