My Top Five Bookstores, Plus A Few Others

1. The Upper West Side B&N. On Broadway in the 60's, i think. Three floors. Even on Saturday night it's packed with people not just browsing, but actually reading. You have to wade through readers just to walk upstairs. i'm confident that if i asked any patron or employee "would you recommend Turgenev?" i'd get a lucid answer. i'll bet Tom Hanks' megastore in You've Got Mail was based on this B&N.
2. Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon. They simply have everything. i found an old astronomy book that we had when i was a kid, but got lost in one of my family's moves. i found an original play by Edna St. Vincent Millay. They had a vintage copy of Grover's The Monster at the End of This Book, which i loved as a kid.
3. Strand Books, Downtown Manhattan. World famous. i aspire to buy something here. i was there once, but didn't buy anything because i was traveling with carry on bags only, and didn't want to pack a book back. The next time i was in NY, i looked and looked but couldn't find the store. i thought it was by the Library. i asked one of those dudes that sells books on the sidewalk and he, quite predictably, told me he'd never heard of the place.
4. The Fisherman's Wharf B&N, next to the original Cost Plus World Market (which Callahan staked out in the first Dirty Harry.). i spent so many wonderful hours browsing in this B&N. It's light and airy and comfortable. Nothing bad can ever happen there. The store has good karma.
5. The Calabasas B&N, on the outskirts of the Valley. Two stories. Not the greatest selection, but the weather was always perfect whenever i went there. All the shoppers seem rich. There's a pretty good fish restaurant in the shopping center. Anne of Straight From The Hip used to blog about working there.
6. Vroman's near Cal Tech. Pleasant. Has a nice card selection and a decent cafe, and sells lots of pen stuff. Nice gifts too. You can sign up so that a portion of each purchase goes to charity. Good local interest section.
7. B&N in Twin Falls, Idaho. That and the Evel Knievel jump site are the only interesting things to see in that town. i bought something by Thomas Merton there on a Good Friday. Ironically, i read it while eating a steak at a local greasy spoon. Don't ask me what the fuck i was doing in Twin Falls, Idaho.
8. City Lights, on Columbus in North Beach. i always stop in there even though i never buy anything. Ferlinghetti owns it. Afterwards, you can drink a Guinness next door at Vesuvio's. If you do, sit upstairs, look down at the store and imagine Kerouac walking in the alleyway. He probably did once.