My dear husband bought himself a Nook and this evening we went for Nook training at the Lakewood Barnes & Noble. No, really. It is a darling little machine and the training was good. While I enjoy print books, I have no problem with ebooks and appreciate that I can order most books and have them in hand (as it were) in the matter of minutes. And I love that I can save space and perhaps even let some of my secondary books move on to a new home.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
Today I ran into the Grace R. Moore Branch of Tacoma Public Library at 215 South 56th Street to pick up a book (Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses). The library’s webpage says “Coming to the pioneering community of Tacoma in 1884, Grace Moore missed the easy access to books she enjoyed in her native San Francisco. In 1886, Mrs. Moore led a group of 18 women to organize a circulating library in her South Tacoma home. The club’s charter members donated their personal collections of books and patrons paid 25 cents for the privilege of borrowing from the Puget Sound area’s first circulating library. Bachelors, wishing to use the home as a quiet place to read, paid 50 cents.” http://www.tpl.lib.wa.us/Page.aspx?nid=55
The top photo was taken in October 2008 and the lower photos today.
With word that Borders Books is restructuring and one of my favorite smaller Seattle bookstores is closing, I wasn’t sure what to expect during my visit to Powell’s City of Books in Portland. I was pleased to see that it was very, very busy! Everywhere I looked there were folks perusing books.
Powell’s main store is located at 1005 W Burnside, Portland OR and is one of the world’s largest bookstores. The building contains 73,000 square feet of retail space and more than 3,000 people visit day. Their stores feature more than 1.5 million books, of which 65% are used (they buy 5,000 used books each day).
Today we went to the Artist Craft Fair and walked away with a darling pair of earrings, some pie on a stick and an interesting new book. But more importantly I walked away with the feeling that in my small little way I was supporting the local community.
Their website is here
http://www.kingsbookstore.com/
An article about the store can be found here
http://www.tacomaweekly.com/citylife/culture/kings_books_an_old_favorite_revamped/
As a side note, I just heard today that one of my other favorite bookstores in Seattle is closing because of the economy. It is so important to support quality local businesses!
