Once a year, my family meets up in Chattanooga, TN to chat, enjoy each other’s company, and yes, usually we wander around in downtown Chattanooga to pick up a cup of coffee and see a movie. It wasn’t until more recent trips that I was able to add shopping at Star Line Books to my list of yearly activities in downtown Chattanooga. Star Line just opened their doors in August of 2015, and they are a welcome addition to Chattanooga’s charming downtown area.
Read moreFeatured Bookstore: Unnameable Books, Brooklyn, NY
This month’s featured bookstore post might be one of our shortest yet, not because the store doesn’t deserve a lengthy description, but because it is one of the more mysterious businesses I’ve encountered. Located on Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, Unnameable Books certainly lives up to its name — so much so that when I asked the man working behind the register if he knew the name’s origin story, he told me that he wasn’t really allowed to say. This man, my unofficial source for this blog post, told me I could refer to him as “the old guy who isn’t the owner.”
Read moreFeatured Bookstore: Lemuria in Jackson, MS
Lemuria’s inside entrance
Even though I’ve lived in Mississippi for the past few years, I’ve only been to Jackson once on a school trip. I’ve heard about Lemuria from friends, but never actually been there until a few weeks ago, when I invited myself on a trip to drop someone off at the Jackson airport.
Read moreFeatured Bookstore: The Strand, NYC
If you’re a book person and you’ve been to New York, this month’s featured bookstore is probably not going to be a new discovery for you.
The Strand Book Store, home to 18 MILES of books, is arguably the most popular bookstore in New York City, and shows no signs of slowing down in its 90th year of existence.
For my first two featured bookstore picks, I went with shops in Brooklyn that are a little more off the beaten path, but if I’m being realistic, the place I frequent the most (and drag visitors to the most) is definitely the Strand. Part of the reason for this is that it’s located very close to where I work, part of it’s that they have a large selection of gently-used — and therefore cheap — books, and part of it is because the store is legitimately intoxicating. When I leave, I feel drunk. This is the only explanation for the amount of money I end up spending there when I already have a full bookshelf of unread material at home.
Read on for more info about this magical place, and if you’re so inclined, click through the book links on our homepage to purchase your next #BSG read from the Strand!
Read moreFeatured Bookstore: Ernest & Hadley Booksellers - Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Photo: ernestandhadleybooks.com
When you hear “bookstore” in a college town, you typically picture one of those mega-corporate university stores filled with fan gear and running light on actual books. I was so pleasantly surprised to discover Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This shop is everything you could want in an indie bookstore (including our absolute favorite thing: shop pets!).
Read moreFeatured Bookstore: Parnassus, Nashville, TN
Also featuring, my silhouette.
Mary tells you a little bit about Parnassus, an independent bookstore in Nashville, TN that you should definitely check out!
Read moreFeatured Bookstore: The Twig, San Antonio, Texas
Mary talks about The Twig, a local bookstore in San Antonio, Texas, for this month’s featured bookstore!
Read moreFeatured Bookstore: Murder By The Book
On a hot summer day in Houston, Texas, my friends and I found ourselves wandering into a very special bookstore called Murder By The Book. Why is this bookstore so special, you're wondering? Well, the most obvious reason is that they're a delightful independent bookstore that specializes in all things mystery. But there's so much more to love about this bookstore, and I'm here to tell you all about it.
Read moreFeatured Bookstore: Books Are Magic! Brooklyn, NY
This month, I’m super excited to feature an indie bookstore that’s brand new to me — and new to a lot of people, really, since it’s only been around for a little over a year. Books Are Magic opened in May of 2017, but you wouldn’t know it from anything about their business. They have a beautiful space with a great selection of books across all genres, a good-looking website where you can order most any book your heart desires, an impressive calendar of events, several different subscription services, and distressingly cute merch… and all of this in their first year of operation. Basically, the people at Books Are Magic have their shit together.
The store is located in the extremely adorable neighborhood of Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, where Emily and I paid them a visit a few weeks ago. Not only did we have a romantic photoshoot in front of their outside mural, but we also spoke with Books Are Magic’s Colleen Callery (Marketing and Communications Coordinator) about the store, which has quickly become a staple of its Brooklyn community.
Read more