Friday, July 1, 2011

Love My Indie - Vacation Edition

Love My Indie is a feature where fellow bloggers, readers, and authors tell me about their favorite independent bookstores. I love the feeling I get when I go into an independent bookstore - like it is filled with hidden treasures just waiting for me to find them. 

This week I wanted to share a treasure of a bookstore that I found while on vacation:


Literary Bookpost

I found out about Literary Bookpost last week while vacationing with my family on Lake Norman in North Carolina. While taking a break from swimming and riding jet skis, I visited some of my favorite blogs and book sites. I was checking Random Buzzers and they had new listings of author events. When I saw the book launch in Salisbury, NC for Jenny Hubbard's Paper Covers Rock, I was thrilled because this was a book from on my wish list and thought it would be pretty cool to go. I wasn't sure how close we were to Salisbury but after a quick Map Quest search, I saw that we were less than 45 minutes away. Too cool. What wasn't so cool was realizing that the book launch was that day. We already had plans that night, so I would have to miss it, but I made sure to visit at some point during my vacation.

On Saturday, my husband and I headed out for a little book buying adventure. Literary Bookpost is perfectly located among other independently owned businesses on S. Main Street in downtown Salisbury.


As soon as we walked in we saw the display for the Paper Covers Rock book launch just a few days earlier. It had hoped to purchase a signed copy but wanted to take my time to look around and see all that Literary Bookpost had to offer.  I loved to see so many other readers checking out the shelves so early on a Saturday morning. Several people were milling about or talking with the book sellers like they were great friends. I immediately felt that this place was just as comfortable as being in their own home.

After scoping out the  offered, I headed to my favorite section of any bookstore - the young adult section. Located on the lower-level, the children and teen section was spacious and colorful. An inviting place, that would encourage any reader to pick up a book and stay and read for a while.


I was excited to see so many young adult books that I couldn't find at my local chain bookstores. It was easy to see that a lot of effort was put into selecting some lesser known titles that are deserving of readers attention. This is definitely my kind of bookstore.

While I was there, I met bookseller Daphne. We talked about books and a told her a little bit about my blog (I'm still a bit shy talking about it) and how I found out about Literary Bookpost and what initially brought me there - Jenny Hubbard's Paper Covers Rock. I didn't see any copies on the shelves and she told me that they completely sold out the night of the launch and that turnout was greater than they had ever imagined. I was a little bummed, but I was happy to know that it was a huge success.

I could have stayed and talked books all day with Daphne (she was just that nice), but I could tell my husband was ready to get back to the lake, so I picked out a couple of books Displacement by Thalia Chaltas (which was on my wish list) and Divergent by Veronica Roth. I hadn't considered reading this book before,  but I purchased it solely on Daphne's recommendation. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and will be going there again on my next vacation to Lake Norman and maybe even before then. You can check out Literary Bookpost online at http://www.literarybookpost.com/ They offer online shopping as well as Google e-books (another great way to support independent bookstores).
Please read their Mission Statement to learn more about this amazing bookstore.

If you're interested in participating in this feature, please send me an email at actinupwb@gmail.com - I'd love to hear from you and discover your favorite indie bookstore! 

3 comments:

  1. Couldn't agree more about loving independent bookstores...I just posted about this on my blog recently and shared the treasure spots I found!

    http://everydayadventure11.blogspot.com/2011/06/being-bookish-on-vacation.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to have found this; I may have been one of those Saturday browsers. If I showed up on another day, they'd often ask what I was doing there!

    I'm sorry to say, though, that this place has undergone a bit of a transformation. A new partner joined in at the beginning of the year, and the entire existing front-end staff have departed (the founder Deal, Daphne, Gary, and the cats, though Daphne was leaving to be a stay-at-home mom, anyway). It's a changed environment, now. Once I pick up one book that was on order, I'm likely not setting foot in there again. It pains me, because I first walked in probably weeks after it opened, and some of the genre shelves got fleshed out with my requests for particular authors. That's a lot of history, but without people in there I can relate to, it's a deal breaker. Had they smoothed the transition at all, and the changes occurred over the course of six months or a year, I doubt anyone would have said a word. As it stands, it looks like they ran everyone off based on philosophical and business differences, and that makes it a place I no longer wish to do business with.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by my blog and taking the time to comment!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
 
Imagination Designs