Friday, June 18, 2010

Independent Book Sellers


You know, part of the downside to the technology revolution is the demise of independent book sellers. Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting with Allie Larkin and her husband Jeremy at one of those amazing places, Third Place Books in Lake City, just north of Seattle. A really good book seller, I was amazed at the space and size, and really amazed someone would house a bookstore in the same building as a branch of the King County Library.
We have the advantage here in the Northwest of still having an array of independent book sellers. In Seattle, although they had to move to new digs on Capital Hill we have Elliot Bay Books, which is only dwarfed by one other in size, Powells in Portland. But this was my first visit to Third Place. I was impressed by the layout and the restaurants - it had like 5 different eateries all connected together - sort of a food court. You could get espresso, sushi, pizza or mexican. All served on a plate. All good.
As for Burien, My fair city, we have two booksellers, Burien Books, which was owned by the same lady for over fifty years, and was rumored to be the model of the bookstore in the movie "You've got mail", Sadly the owner recently passed away, but happily new owners have been found. We also are home to Page 2 books, a local 2nd hand book seller that has been around for a couple of years. Used book stores are a weakness of mine.
Anyway, I am tired of Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Borders. I say it is time we support our own independent book sellers, where ever you may live.

No comments: