A Review of Nancy L. Dole Books

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20 State Street, Shelburne Falls, MA

From the waterfalls and the Bridge of Flowers to the quint storefronts and meandering river views, it’s easy to see why Shelburne Falls was one of the filming locations for a cozy New England film like The Holdovers, but it’s also home to some wonderful small, indie bookshops. Nancy L Dole Books is one of them, and it’s a trove of rare and hard to find tomes mixed in with classics and nostalgic pieces of historical kitsch.

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A Review of World Eye Bookshop

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134 Main Street, Greenfield, MA

Greenfield Massachusetts has the distinct pleasure of hosting three fine bookshops, and this is the third I visited during my travels there this last year. World Eye Bookshop is decorated with a variety of art and children’s book characters—little wildlife creatures in anthropomorphic clothes. It was very cute, and the shop’s specialty, it appears, was their selections of work from Astrid Sheckels.

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A Review of Spoonbill & Sugartown Bookshop

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218 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn NY

I’ve heard folks simply refer to this one as Spoonbill Bookshop, but either way this cozy L-shaped literary emporium is chock full of new and used books, and is finely curated to give the shop a distinctly Brooklyn feel. A bit worn, a bit artsy, a bit eclectic, and on the forward edge of creativity. While you can certainly find bestselling fiction, memoirs, and the usual universal fare of a busy modern bookshop, the store feels highly attuned to the interests of the neighborhood, with lots of books on art, design, architecture, poetry, and modern voices discussing the current social issues of the day.

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A Review of the Drama Book Shop

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266 W 39th Street, New York, NY

As one may have guessed from the name of the bookshop, this one focuses on all things dramatic, from plays and scripts to books examining the world of film, television, theater, acting, directing, writing music and writing for the stage, and much more. Not only is this the perfect bookshop to accompany NYC’s nearby theater district, but it’s the perfect place to hang out on a rainy afternoon, which is how I discovered the shop.

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A Review of The Abbey Bookshop

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29 Rue de la Parcheminerie, Paris, France

The Latin Quarter is rife with narrow streets and even tighter alleys where you’ll find late-night cafés, Greek restaurants, creperies, wine bars, tiny luxury shops, big and bright chocolatiers, and somewhere in the warren of cobbles pathways you will come across the Abbey Bookshop. The little sliver of a street where it resides looks more like a service alley, but the flags and bookshelves out front give it away. If you’ve spotted it, then you’ve arrived at one of the best bookshops in the neighborhood, possibly even better than Shakespeare & Co., if used books are your thing.

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A Review of Shakespeare and Company

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37 Rue de la Bucherie, Paris, France

You’ll find Shakespeare and Company in the shadow of Notre Dame cathedral, the two separated by the waters of the Seine lapping against stone quays. Above these are long green boxes on the parapet overlooking the river where old men resting on wooden chairs sell out of print pulp novels and magazines to passersby. Parisians weave their bikes through the traffic as police sirens wail in the distance before falling back into the soft bustle of endless human movement. In the small square beside the bookstore, tourists stand in line, coffee in hand, waiting to enter the famed shop, staring at the aging signage and bookshelves until the door opens and a member of the staff waves them in. As with most Parisian locations recognizable from films, television, and photographs, Shakespeare and Company has become as much a tourist landmark as a bookstore.

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A Review of Labyrinth Books

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122 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ

Ever since New Jersey poet Cord Moreski told me about the store, I’ve been eager to make my way to Labyrinth Books in Princeton, NJ. Expansive in scope and style, Labyrinth is not just a gorgeous neighborhood bookstore but a destination worth going out of your way to visit. From vintage titles in the basement and great merch on the ground floor to wallet-friendly deals on new releases and artistic coffee table books, this place had it all.

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A Review of Federal Street Books

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8 Federal St, Greenfield, MA

I drove to Greenville on a sunny spring morning, delighted to find not one but at least three indie booksellers open. The first one I stepped into was the delightful Federal Street Books, easy to spot by its stylish exterior design and large pillar signage out front. I also found a cart of dollar books out front, always a good sign, and things got even better when I stepped inside.

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A Review of Inquiring Minds Bookstore (New Paltz)

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6 Church Street, New Paltz, NY

As noted in a previous review, New Paltz has a unique “bookstore block,” in that both of the town’s indie bookshops are located directly across the street from each other right downtown. Directly across from Barner Books is Inquiring Minds, housed in a brick building and a bright red ground-floor exterior with $1 bookshelves built right into the wall. There were also display tables outside with large coffee table books on discount. Once inside, I realized the shop’s offerings were almost as expansive as the other location I reviewed up in Saugerties, NY.

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A Review of The Bear & Bee Bookshop

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28 Holden Street, North Adams, MA

North Adams is one of many artistic bastions in the hills and mountains of western Massachusetts, and Mass MoCA is one of it’s major draws, hosting art exhibitions, music festivals, and cultural events year-round. So for a town as interesting as North Adams, I expected a bevy of bookstores. I only found one, The Bear and Bee, a new and used bookshop, but it does a phenomenal job of representing the literary interests of the area.

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A Review of Barner Books

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The Hudson Valley has become an increasingly revitalized haven for NYC exp-pats, with towns like Hudson, Beacon, and Kingston blooming into re-gentrified versions of themselves in recent decades. But some towns, like Woodstock or New Paltz, always retained their ‘60s counter-culture vibrance and found ways to hold on to that quirky way of living even during leaner years. Driving into New Paltz these days could land you in a little traffic jam and a maze-like hunt for public parking on nicer weekend, but the trip is worth it. The cafes, art galleries, music and food, all a mix of new and old artistry coming together in the compact little town not far from the SUNY College campus. And of course, there are bookstores. By chance the two notable ones in town are right across the street from each other, and the first I visited was Barner Books.

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A Review of The Imaginary Bookshop

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365 Main St, Greenfield, MA

Sometimes I step into a bookstore and the first shelf I see catches me in a web. I’m stuck, peering eagerly at each spine and title, awash in desire to take home every other book I see. The next shelf is no different, and by the third I’m reading the first page of every book trying to decide which one is going be the lucky novel I pick. Yes, The Imaginary Bookshop had its hooks in me, and for one very good reason. All the books most shop hide in the back—the creepy horror novels, the gothic nightmares, the apocalyptic anthologies, and the ghoulish haunted house stories—were right up front, greeting me as I entered. I knew right away this was the store for me.

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A Review of Barnett Books

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15 Old Orchard Street, Old Orchard Beach, ME

We’ve all been on that vacation where we bring a beach read, a book for the plane, a paperback thriller for the cabin getaway, and we finish it way too soon with nothing else to keep us entertained. If you’re in an airport, you likely have access to one chain bookshop or another. But if you’re vacationing at Old Orchard Beach in Maine, you’re still covered with Barnett Books right downtown. *Note: I sometimes see this shop listed online as Wholesale Books, too.

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A Review of The Last Bookstore

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453 S Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA

Among the canyons of downtown Los Angeles on an autumn evening, the last remains of light fading to a monochrome blue against skyscrapers and sidewalk, the shadows turning black, the neon lights apoplectic up and down South Main Street. We’d only been in town for a few hours but we decided not to wait. I really wanted to make sure I crossed this bookshop off my bucket list, and when we turned the corner and saw the little red neon sign flowing in the distance, my steps quickened past panhandlers dancing to boomboxes on sidewalks as wide as streets in other cities. We were close, closer, and then we walked through the door, past the doorman keeping an eye on those coming and going, and into a vast open room sprawling out into other floors and wings and nooks, revealing one of the greatest bookstores I’ve ever stepped into.

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A Review of Longfellow Books

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Monument Square, Portland, ME

Portland, Maine is one of my favorite places to go book hunting, and not just because I can grab one of the best milkshakes in the universe at Duck Fat while I do it, but also because there are so many bookstore options available, from those exclusively selling brand new releases to those specializing in secondhand and hard-to-find vintage titles. Longfellow Books has a perfect balance between them, with all the best new bestsellers as well as loads of discounted books, new and old, and plenty of gifts too.

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A Review of The Ripped Bodice

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3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA

We took the coastal highway south all along Big Sur, Morro Bay, and down through Malibu, heading to Los Angeles on a road trip we’d been planning for years. After a quick stop at the beach just outside the city, where we carefully edged down a steep trail to bask in the cold waters of the Pacific as houses clung to cliffs overhead, Amelia and I finally entered Los Angeles proper and headed to one very specific bookshop she was very excited to visit. Before the hotel, before we ate, before anything else, we wanted to see The Ripped Bodice, a shop renowned for celebrating all things romance. And wow, did we made the right choice.

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A Review of City Lights Bookstore

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261 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, CA

City Lights has loomed large in my literary memory for decades, and as far as bookshop hunting goes it has been a sort of great white whale for me, waiting out beyond the horizon for some future visit. Well, this autumn I finally had the opportunity to stop in and wander the same aisles so many of my early literary inspirations roamed and see the impressive space for myself. And what can I say about this shop that hasn’t already been said by countless others? It’s legendary for a reason, not the least of which their extensive, wide-reaching selection over multiple floors.

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A Bookshop Interview with Robert Vaughan

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I remember sharing a stage with Robert Vaughan in 2014, connected by our mutual friend Bud Smith at a reading hosted by the late-great Chuck Howe at Jimmy’s 43 in NYC. It was a fantastic night of poetry shop talk, travel stories, and drinks with far-flung friends, and that kind of poetic camaraderie is what I think of when I think of Robert Vaughan, who is one of the hosts for a workshop series called Bending Genres, as well as the author of the stunning poetry collection Askew (Cowboy Jamboree Press). You can find more info about Robert and his many projects and books at his website, but I asked him about his favorite bookshop and I’m not at all shocked by his answer. I was just there myself and I can attest, this is the place to be.

Favorite Bookshop: City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, CA

1. How did you discover the shop, and what do you remember about your first experience there?

I remember hearing about (reading about?) City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco way before I physically visited it in the middle 1980s. It had history, the Beat Poets, and the West Coast Avant Garde. I love its North Beach location, and turning on new friends to this motherlode.

2. Does the shop have a particular vibe, theme, or atmosphere that stands out?

The Vibe is somewhat hip, but filtered down since its essence, I mean how could a Bookstore that opened in 1953, not have morphed over the years? For a closer look at its rich history and why I adore it so much: https://citylights.com/our-story/bookstore-tour/

3. What books have you bought there in the past?

Anais Nin’s Journals, The Journal of Albion Moonlight by Kenneth Patchen, The Waves by Virginia Woolf, Kathy Acker books, Junky and Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, The Thief’s Journal by Jean Genet, Just Kids by Patti Smith, The Rainbow Stories by William Vollmann, Girl With The Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace, An Angel at My Table by Janet Frame, and many, many more!

4. What part of the shop would we find you hanging out in the most? 

The fiction is on the main floor, but I also love and revere the poetry room upstairs (used to be the basement), and the current basement, which houses CNF, and often has unknown or indie authors. Part of why I adore this bookstore is their unfailing support of all authors, famous or not.