Bookstores

     Perhaps you are too young to remember when bookstores were a more prevalent thing?  Barnes and Noble, Indigo, WHSmith, and Borders were all massive chain bookstores with cafes where one could buy a mediocre pressed sandwich of some kind and an overly milky espresso-style beverage.  

    Those who believed in independent bookstores thought the big chains would put the small places out of business, but ultimately Amazon put the big chains out of business and some of the hardy independent stores survived.  Thank goodness.

    The real threat is that people don't read.

    The other real threat is that we have found the pleasure of typing specific searches into computers and getting specific answers straight away.  There's a strong upside (if I want to replace my toilet tank, I don't want to browse information; I do want the most specific advice only).  The downside: you have to know what you are looking for. 

    What if you don't know what you are looking for?  What if you want to wander into a palace full of enticing options arrayed artfully, curated wittily?  

    What if you want to find a book you wouldn't have ever thought to ask for?  

    Then you need a good bookstore, one in which someone knows how to present books in manageable, interesting assortments so that you can browse pleasureably, without overwhelm.  It's an art, I think, putting good combinations of books into appealing displays.

    My home base bookstore in Baltimore (Bird in Hand in Charles Village), does a fairly good job of this.  So does Greedy Reads.

    Really superlatively good, however, is a bookstore in Harrisburg, PA called Midtown Scholar.  Midtown Scholar is huge.  It sells new and used books.  It is curated extraordinarily well.  At my recent visit, there was a large entry area ringed by "Famous Authors," and peppered with tables grouped in some predictable ways (“current bestsellers”), as well as some joyfully unpredictable ones ("for the revolution," "gothic horror and romance").  

    There's a whole room of children's books, a large wall upstairs of YA fiction.  Art, Art History, Literature, Literary Criticism, Philosophy  . . . it's a lot. It could be overwhelming.

    But it is so thoughtfully laid out: if you want to come in and buy an iced chai, a funny book about recipes based on The Hobbit, and a manga, you can do that easily in a comfortable browse, probably before your chai has even gotten drippy with condensation.

    I bought the following:

The Groff and Kwan were happy finds in a densely packed upstairs shelving area (fun for those who like a good hunt).  The others were eye candy in the artfully configured main room.  Smith in "Famous Authors," and Yuzuki in a "Featured Authors" display.

    Did I need more books?  Absolutely not.

    Did my soul need Midtown Scholar, as a balm in these trying times?  One thousand times, yes. Yes.

    Go check it out.  While you're in Harrisburg, visit the Pancake Row Houses in Shipoke.