The bookstore feast

Last week, I ran away to my favourite bookstore in Bangalore - Blossom on Church Street.  Anyone who has not been to Blossom needs to go, just to live a little more.  If you are like me whose idea of shopping starts with a bookstore, then you absolutely have to go here, again and again.  They have used books in good condition, nicely organized in sections.  You will find out of print books here.  Some even signed by the author!  They are reasonably priced - a factor paramount for bookcrazies like me who are also trying to eat.  And best of all, they will buy books and give store credit.  Is there a more perfect system anywhere?!
I thought back to all the awesome bookstores I have been to in life.  The first one was Devathi Bookstore in Singarathope, Trichy.  Used books and a library.  He could and would source any book for you.  And this was a small shop with books piled in neat columns.....all the shop assistants knew which book was where.  They knew to ask "Shukla? Cost Accounting or Financial Accounting?".  They also knew about the latest Nora Roberts.

A really cool and quaint bookstore near Tenleytown metro station in DC. I forget the name.  It was in an old house, run by a woman, had a resident cat and several comfortable chairs.  Picturesque, with gable-y towers, everything that a bookstore could be in my imagination.  The owner let a poor student just sit and take in the ambience....read without really buying as much as both might have liked, sitting in an armchair on a rainy Washington afternoon with a book.....this one was on the free shuttle route and I could have a soul refreshing outing for no investment except time.  For someone penniless, living away from country and family, with a room mate with a penchant for throwing knives and tantrums, whose dog-sister had just died, this bookstore was a haven beyond mention.

The Kramer Books in Dupont Circle and Barnes and Noble in Georgetown were parts of so many weekends.  More homes away from home.  If I don't have a fortune, this is why.  And for an accountant to admit to not using 'the power of compounding', these stores have to be pretty spectacular.  It is the eternal development versus flavour debate - these were the ones that made up in book selection/service/location/glitz versus good, personal service by owner type small indie bookstore.  The 'You Got Mail' story.  These stores were part of my life as a newly working professional, who for once had a couple of coins to her name.  Still scarce resources and all the more precious for that.  They were part of my romance - the first weekend with my internet-romance-to-turn-husband started with a visit to B&N.  He had the worst haircut of his life that weekend....appearances did not matter because he knew his way around a bookstore! :-D

And then I moved.  Boston with its universities had one good thing going for it - lots of bookstores.  Without that, I might have totally moved out....again, a move away from friends and all that was familiar and comforting to a place that was cold in weather, with society that needed an ice pick to get through to.  There were bookstores everywhere.  On Beacon Street - a tiny little basement book store.  A travel bookstore nestled on Mt. Auburn Street.  A downstairs book store on Newbury Street.  The biggies in Cambridge - the Harvard Coop, the world newspaper stand where all newspapers from around the world were available, scholarly used books at Raven ( I only saw this store....not the scholarly type, so passed this one quite easily!).

The big store bookstore I really liked for being comfortable, convenient and combining the good features of big stores and the indie ones was a few streets further from Harvard Square.  A corner store whose name I totally forget now.  They had these out of the mainstream type recommendations for books and I remember liking and being able to read the recos of one guy called Pete who I only knew from the label ' Pete's Picks'.  My thoughts on adoption came together here with books that ranged from the how-to to the finer aspects.  Thank god I bought some books then.  Adoption books are not that easy to find and now, converting from rupees to dollar, I have to pause and think "Do we really need to eat for the stomach or the brain this month?!"

One winter trip was to my most favourite book store of all was to The Montague Bookmill.  Set near Amherst and Smith College (general vicinity - it is really close to nowhere in Indian terms!), it is located in an old saw mill or something of the sort, some industry that used hydel power and is located on top of a river.  Yes, a river really runs through it! It has wooden floors and these tall ceiling to floor book shelves.  The tag line is "Books you don't need in a place you can't find".  I don't know how we came across it - we were planning a bike ride and I think we were researching the area for that.  Of course, once we read of it, we had to do the weekend drive over.  It is my best book store to date. There was an artist's studio space below where there was a potter and a weaver when we went.  I fell head over heels, splashing into love with this place.  Used or 'pre-loved' books.  What's not to love?!

Homesick for the Book Mill now.  Teleporting, anyone?