What would you guys consider to be the best bookstore? They could be a big franchise bookstore or a "ma and pa" store. I was a huge fan of BORDERS, and I am still disheartened that it went out of business! I now go to Barnes & Nobles, and I know about Books A Million. However, I am always looking for other bookstores with better variety and more selections. I like the idea of bookstores having a cafe close by as well, but it doesn't have to be located within the store itself.
I had no idea Borders went out of business! My favorite bookstore is Barnes & Noble. They have a fairly good selection, and they also host lots of great events. Two years ago I got to meet Ozzy Osbourne at a book signing there. I'm sure that brought them a lot of business.
I remember Border's being very popular, but had no idea it went under. That really stinks. To be honest I forgot about it until you said something. I usually buy my books either from Barnes and Nobles now or Amazon. It really depends. If I need it now I'll get it from the store. If I'm willing to wait for it I can usually get it way cheaper from Amazon than I can the store.
Hands down my favorite bookstore in the world is Powell's in Portland. It is a unique bookstore in that it sells new and used books shelved right together by category. The main store takes up a whole city block and is 3 floors high, and it is a landmark in Portland, Oregon as the largest book store west of the Mississippi River. They also have an outstanding out of print department that can research and find all sorts of out of print stuff. You can shop online there for both new & used books at Powells.com Oh, and it's independently owned so if you like shopping those places you can feel good about that too.
Powells has a lot of cache, I've heard of it talked very highly about all the way over here on the East Coast. I've had the pleasure to meet the owners of the Blue Bunny in Dedham Massachusetts, and they are absolutely wonderful, as is there store. They are children's authors and their store is exceptionally well set up for kids.
I used to really like Barnes and Noble, and also Books-a-Million, which has an awesome coffee shop (at least the one here does). Now, I mostly read e-books and have a Kindle e-reader that I just love. I have an account with Bookbub.com, and they send out an email every day with new e-books that are either on sale cheap, or sometimes, free. How Bookbub works, is you sign up (free) and fill out a profile of what kind of books you want to read, and they send you a list every day of books that meet your profile. it is very easy to do, and a cheap way to get books to read.
I generally try to go to the mom-and-pop bookstores for the sake of supporting local economy, but if I don't have the choice of doing that my next go-to bookstore would definitely be Barnes and Noble. I haven't gotten too used to reading on my kindle yet (I love holding an actual book in my hand) so I don't usually shop on online places such as Amazon.
My absolute favorite bookstore was Waldenbooks. It was folded into Borders. I was so sorry to see it go. Barnes and Nobles are closing too. At least the ones in my area. I think that there are only two (maybe three) left in the city. Books-a-Million isn't on the West Coast of the US. Many of the smaller bookstores are closing too. It just sucks.
I used to go to bookstores all the time. I love reading and before ebooks came out I would buy a bunch of books all the time. I love the smell, the feel, the environment of bookstores, but now I pretty much only read ebooks and don't even go to bookstores. When I did go, my favorite was always Barnes & Nobles.
I get almost all of my books from Amazon... I get them used, very cheap, and in perfect condition. Delivered to my doorstep and ready to use. I know romantic people really like bookstores because they saw "You got E-mail" back in the day But Amazon just makes it too easy for me not to use it...
If you're looking for the most consistent quality, I'd go with Barnes & Noble. Now, that doesn't mean that they are the BEST store, necessarily (more on this below), but rather that if you liked one Barnes & Noble location, you can be fairly certain that a different Barnes & Noble in a completely different location will be just as good. They are kind of akin to Starbucks in that respect - which, I suppose, makes it somewhat unsurprising that many Barnes & Nobles locations have a Starbucks cafe inside. More often than not, the truly best bookstore is going to be a local shop. While bookstore chains ostensibly exist to spread the joy of reading, they are part of a corporation whose primarily goal is to make money. While local bookstores must make money in order to survive, they are primarily driven by the fact that books are awesome and people should read them A subtle difference in priority, perhaps, but the offshoot is that local bookstores will often tend to be vastly superior. In my area (Tampa, FL), the best bookstore I've ever visited resides conveniently just over the bridge in St. Petersburg. It is called Haslam's Book Store, and it is just enormous and simply packed to the gills with books about every little thing under the sun. It is set up to encourage people to read, and there are people who spend their entire day browsing through the billions of pages contained at this store. It even smells like books, the ambiance completely surrounds you while you are there - you just can't order something like that through Amazon, my friends...
I'm surprised there are even book stores that people go to, to tell you the truth with being able to just buy them online. I haven't been in a book store in so long. The last time was Barnes and Noble to get a book for a relative and now it's closed down. I had heard that Barnes and Noble was also going out of business as well. I prefer to just buy books online. I would be more inclined to go into a book store for the bells and whistles of starbucks and comfy couches to either read or hold a book club or something.
While I am not going to give you the name of a specific store, I will tell you what I believe, as a self proclaimed book addict, are the best places to acquire your books. My personal favorite are flea markets or swap meets and yard sales. There is nothing more satisfying than going through a box of used books and finding some really awesome stuff to add to your collection for a dollar or two. For one, you get the opportunity to find old and possibly valuable editions of classic literature. And for two, you will find yourself buying books that you might not normally purchase, just because of how cheap they are. So now and then, you get to read a book you might not have read otherwise, and it turns out to be fantastic.
I think that the best bookstore that I have went to was Barnes & Nobles. They have great prices on their book and they sell other things in the store. They also have a wide selection to choose from. Almost any book that you are searching for they have it.
I usually order my books online, but I also like to shop in the used book stores, and thrift shops, because you can often find excellent books there, and get them almost free. Because Amazon has free books every day, you just can't go wrong with ordering from Amazon, providing that you have a tablet or e-reader to read the kindle books on. I just got a Kindle Fire, which is like a small iPad, and now I can read books with pictures in them and actually see the pictures. The kindle touch was great for books that were like paperback novels, with no pictures; but basically useless if you got a how-to kind of book that had illustrations.
We don't even have a bookstore in my city. The only bookstore we ever had was Waldenbooks (Borders) and it went out of business about three years ago. The only options I have left in town are Walmart, Target or Sam's Club and their selection is dismal. I buy most of my books from Amazon or from library sales. I really think that my library's bookstore is the best bookstore ever.
My favorite bookstore is: Read It Again Books 39733 Grand River Novi, MI 48375 (248) 474-6066 Log In While they need to update their website, it is my favorite bookstore because like one of the posts above mentioned; the best place to find good books is used book stores. The prices aren't that bad either. Also, libraries often have good used books for sale. Libraries help support the community and so its important to support them. Many are going out of business because so many buy everything online. While I buy a lot of my books online too, there is something to be said for sitting in a comfy chair and holding a good book in your hand.
