My husband’s been reading an article in Monocle Magazine about the top global cities and he’s been telling me about all sorts of cool things about Copenhagen. We’ll be going there for vacation this year so needless to say we’re excited. One of the items that interested me the most about this article was that they listed how many bookstores are to be found in each of these 25 cities.
For example: Tokyo has 1,051, Paris has 677, Hamburg has 354, Copenhagen has 83 and San Francisco has more than 50. We are planning to stop in Hamburg on our way to Copenhagen so I think that was a good call.
Of course this made me think of the bookstores in our city and while we do have quite a few our number certainly falls below some of the cities mentioned in the article.
Still here are Austin’s bookstores:
BookPeople – Great indie bookstore
BookWoman – Fabulous feminist bookstore
Farewell Books – Used to be Domy Books which was a great place to find zines and art/design books.
South Congress Books – Used bookstore specializing in art, photography, fiction, music, and popular culture.
Blue Awning Books – Another indie used bookstore which I haven’t explored yet.
Half Price Books – There are four and a new one is opening at the end of month.
Barnes & Noble – Only four but luckily one is close to my home.
Recycled Reads – Austin Public Library’s used bookstore
Comic Bookstores – There are several around town but I’ve never been in them so can’t give you the nitty gritty.
Of course I still miss Borders and I’ve seen a couple of other indie bookstores close but at least I do have a good variety of stores to choose from. How about you? Do you have quite a few bookstores to choose from in your city? Do you have some indie bookstores?
Dallas is so terribly lacking in indies. But you know this. I make a beeline for BookPeople whenever I’m in Austin, and I’m determined to get to BookWoman the next time I’m there.
Andi @ Estella’s Revenge – I know I remember the Dallas bookstore scene. Tragic! Although there was a very cool used bookstore I remember – Lucky Dogs? But anyway, yes next time you come to Austin you have to go to Bookwoman. It is awesome!
My comment basically echoes Andi’s–especially as we are currently mourning the recent loss of our indie in Fairview/Allen. Now the closest shop is Barnes and Nobel and it’s just not convenient for me to drive all the way over there. I do feel blessed in our abundance of Half Price Books, though!
And WOW Tokyo has a lot of bookstores!!!
NYC has quite a few good indie bookstores – The Strand, Housing Works, McNally Jackson, 192 Books, Three Lives and Company to name a few. Also, someone is about to open an indie bookstore in my neighborhood – Astoria Bookstore.
And I love that European cities have an abundance of indie bookstores! We saw quite a few just in different small towns around France.
Trish – Oh that’s too bad that your B&N isn’t nearby. For DFW being so large it’s amazing how lacking they are in bookstores. You are right, thank goodness for HPB! Do you ever go to the one by Northwest Hwy? I do miss that one!
Christine – I love Three Lives! That’s so cool that you are going to get your own neighborhood indie! You’ll have to blog about that. I want to see it. And, NYC also has some specialized bookstores too right – like art/photography?
There are. Dashwood Books is dedicated totally to photography books. Rizzoli is a beautiful bookstore – focused on illustrated books in art, photography, architecture, design and a lot more. Clic which is a photography bookstore and gallery. I am sure there are many more but those are a few. 🙂
Wow–it looks like Tokyo is the place to be! 🙂 We have a handful only–a few indie bookstores, B&N, some used places and a few specialized bookstores. It’s been ages since I’ve gone into a bookstore and browsed. You’ll have to hit some good bookstores when you are on vacation!