rigorousintuition.ca

Brick and mortar bookstores are hard to find, but with the demise of the chain bookstore which Barnes & Noble seems to have a monopoly on, I think that independent new and used bookstores have become more popular. Certainly that is the case with The Last Bookstore in downtown LA. It's a two-story building of 22,000 square feet that not only houses 250,000 new and used books, not only contains a great selection of vinyl records, but it also houses an artist collective on the second floor and the place is filled with amazing sculptures, paintings and other artwork.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfZZFR2bsuQ


The only other bookstore I've seen that I think is more impressive is Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon. Anyone else know of any great book stores worth checking out?

there was a wonderful small bookstore in my town..been there forever...then a few years back both Borders and Barns and Nobel came to the next town over and beat my lovely bookstore out of business ....now Borders and Barns have closed and we have no bookstore at all

seemslikeadream » Fri Oct 14, 2016 12:53 pm wrote:there was a wonderful small bookstore in my town..been there forever...then a few years back both Borders and Barns and Nobel came to the next town over and beat my lovely bookstore out of business ....now Borders and Barns have closed and we have no bookstore at all

Ain't that a sign of our sad pathetic times. I know Borders did that to a lot of great small independent bookstores - and now Borders doesn't even exist, I think it went Chapter 7 after the 2008 Meltdown. B&N must feel lonely at the top.

My favorite bookstores are Powell's in Portland and Moe's in Berkeley.

I worked in Portland from 1987 to 1993 and was in Corvallis from 1994 to 1998.

I was in Berkeley in all or parts of 1973 to 1975, 1977 to 1979, part of 1982, and 1985 to 1987, mostly as a student at Cal but also as a Fed employee.

In recent years long time brick and mortar book sellers in Berkeley have gone out of business such as Black Oak Books, Shakespeare and Company, and Shambhala Books (the publishing company remains but this was a most excellent esoteric bookstore).

Pegasus Books still exists on Solano Avenue in Berkeley (and now has other locations). I lived very near Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto (location of Black Oaks) in 1985 to 1987 but liked to hang out and shop in the more sedate (than Shattuck or Telegraph) Solano Avenue business strip. I bought one of 100 limited first edition copies of the Underwood Miller Collected Stories of PKD off the shelves in 1987 at Pegasus and got turned on to Jim Thompson Black Lizard re-issues when they first came to market from Pegasus.

Other good books stores are The Strand in Manhattan, Elliot Bay in Seattle (but my understanding is that Elliot Bay has changed from what was a familiar location to me back in the 1990s), and City Lights in San Francisco's North Beach. These stores like the now closed Black Oaks and Powell's have (or had as recent years I have hid in mountains) regular author events.

There was Redding Bookstore (closed) in Redding CA that was quite nice with new books mixed with used (and good buyers) and an associated coffee shop forced out of business by the internet and Barnes and Noble. I found a 1st hc OTO edition of Crowley's Book of Thoth there (book #13) about 25 years ago.

A hidden book lover's gem in Redding is Cal's Books. Cal's Books is located in an industrial area with zero street traffic and is never very busy, hard to realize how Cal's has survived so long. The inventory is huge and rare and specialty books (and comics) abound. They also sell herbals.

https://m.facebook.com/pages/cals-books/115659681788145

Eureka Books in Old Town Eureka is a quality bookstore and has good local collectibles but most of the quality used book sellers in the Humboldt Bay have closed shop in the past 20 years. Booklegger that sells used books a block from Eureka Books is OK and Northtown Books (new books) and Tin Pan Mailman (used books) in Arcata are also OK. I want to give a shout out to the gone for 10 plus years small Bohemia Books in Arcata that specialized in new and used "literature, metaphysics, and eclectica" and looked like the non-scientific part of my own library.

Blackberry Books and The Book Bin were OK during my time in Corvallis, some collectibles at Blackberry: 1st Edition with dust cover Electric Koolaid Acid Test and 1st Edition with dust cover Stewart's The Earth Abides. Blackberry's Books seems to no longer exist.

Ashland OR has a number of bookstores on a tourist oriented but funky commercial strip with good restaurants adjacent to the Oregon Shakespearian Festival complex. I was going to point out a favorite new / used book store heavy to the esoteric but cannot find a listing so also must be gone.

I went to a book festival at Hay-on-Wye in Wales back in the early 1980s.

I used to travel a lot for work when in Portland and always searched out local bookstores and made regular stops at favorites such as Elliot Bay and The Strand.

Not bookstores but interesting books for sale - current ongoing auction of books from the Frank and Gail Zappa estate.

http://www.julienslive.com/view-auction ... lot/82104/

Sad and disappointing what has happened among the Zappa children.

Thanks for those links, PufPuf93. That is a great list of stores! I am also a big fan of City Lights in North Beach, I've been there several times over the years.

I used to live in Ashland, Oregon during the 90's. Shakespeare and Company was a fantastic used book store there, I'm not sure if it was affiliated with the Berkeley store you mentioned, but that has now closed. But Bloomsbury Books and Soundpeace are still open and thriving. Soundpeace is more focused on New Age-oriented material, but it's still a cool place. Bloomsbury was actually much larger in the 90s, they used to have an upstairs coffeehouse that was a great hang-out spot back when I was going to college. But it's still a great place with a large book selection.

stillrobertpaulsen » Mon Oct 17, 2016 12:14 pm wrote:Thanks for those links, PufPuf93. That is a great list of stores! I am also a big fan of City Lights in North Beach, I've been there several times over the years.

I used to live in Ashland, Oregon during the 90's. Shakespeare and Company was a fantastic used book store there, I'm not sure if it was affiliated with the Berkeley store you mentioned, but that has now closed. But Bloomsbury Books and Soundpeace are still open and thriving. Soundpeace is more focused on New Age-oriented material, but it's still a cool place. Bloomsbury was actually much larger in the 90s, they used to have an upstairs coffeehouse that was a great hang-out spot back when I was going to college. But it's still a great place with a large book selection.

I first went to City Lights on a "North Beach Cultural Field Trip" while attending a boarding school near San Francisco in the late 1960s.

I first went to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland as part of the senior trip from Hoopa Reservation High School in Spring 1971. We stayed in the old hotel, the name slips my mind, prior to the restoration.

It could well be Bloomsbury Books is the book store in Ashland whose name also slips my mind. Is it possible that they had the major location and a 2nd small location that specialized in collectibles? When I made the post above I checked to see the current online presence of my memories.

I do not believe that the Shakespeare named book sellers in Ashland and Berkeley were related in any sense.

My anecdotes are limited in that I last traveled farther than Eureka/Humboldt Bay or Redding last in 2003 and have spent 99% plus of my time in the Klamath River canyon since (which is far different from my prior life).

PufPuf93 » Mon Oct 17, 2016 5:07 pm wrote:

It could well be Bloomsbury Books is the book store in Ashland whose name also slips my mind. Is it possible that they had the major location and a 2nd small location that specialized in collectibles? When I made the post above I checked to see the current online presence of my memories.

I do not believe that the Shakespeare named book sellers in Ashland and Berkeley were related in any sense.

You know, that does sound familiar. I think Bloomsbury did have a smaller second location in Ashland at one point. It's possible Shakespeare may have even been it. But it's gone and I'm not certain.

After we went to The Last Bookstore, we tried to get lunch at Grand Central Market. Damn, was that a surprising experience!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vF8haBj_ns

I used to travel a lot for work when in Portland and always searched out local bookstores and made regular stops at favorites such as Elliot Bay and The Strand.

Elliot Bay is in Seattle not Portland. Sorry to be a dick or nag or whatever you wanna call me, which I am not being. But still exists, though it has moved. It is in Capitol Hill now.

82_28 » Thu Oct 20, 2016 7:20 pm wrote:

I used to travel a lot for work when in Portland and always searched out local bookstores and made regular stops at favorites such as Elliot Bay and The Strand.

Elliot Bay is in Seattle not Portland. Sorry to be a dick or nag or whatever you wanna call me, which I am not being. But still exists, though it has moved. It is in Capitol Hill now.

Note from my first post above, "Elliot Bay in Seattle (but my understanding is that Elliot Bay has changed from what was a familiar location to me back in the 1990s), "

I knew Elliot Bay from the late 1980s to mid 1990s and it was near the waterfront and I think it may have been you here at RI who pointed out the move in an earlier thread. You maybe misread or I typed not that clear for you to think that I said Elliot Bay Books was in Portland and not Seattle. I haven't been in Seattle since 1996 maybe, 1995 for sure, or so.

I traveled a lot when I worked in Portland (consulting work as employee of Portland management consulting firm for clients (Simpson, Weyerhauser, Plum Creek, Zurn-Nepco, Ebasco, Parametric, EA Science Engineering and Ecology, US Forest Service, Coastal Forest lands, US Timberlands, others) in or near Seattle. I also made many trips to Seattle between 1993 and 1995 (and I think into 1996) as I was doing consulting work for a Seattle based engineering firm (Parametrix and US Forest Service clients) as my own employer from homes in California and then Corvallis.

Peace.

stillrobertpaulsen » Thu Oct 20, 2016 1:34 pm wrote:

PufPuf93 » Mon Oct 17, 2016 5:07 pm wrote:

It could well be Bloomsbury Books is the book store in Ashland whose name also slips my mind. Is it possible that they had the major location and a 2nd small location that specialized in collectibles? When I made the post above I checked to see the current online presence of my memories.

I do not believe that the Shakespeare named book sellers in Ashland and Berkeley were related in any sense.

You know, that does sound familiar. I think Bloomsbury did have a smaller second location in Ashland at one point. It's possible Shakespeare may have even been it. But it's gone and I'm not certain.

After we went to The Last Bookstore, we tried to get lunch at Grand Central Market. Damn, was that a surprising experience!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vF8haBj_ns

Another fine video. What is the sound track? Reminds me of trying to play Hollywood tourist with my 80 year old Dad circa 1990. He found on a street map and wanted to go and we went to the Farmer's Market expecting to see a "Farmer's Market".

I discovered the name of the Ashland Bookstore previously mentioned but not named; Blue Dragon Bookshop, located just across Main Street from Shakespeare's. I have a pristine with dustcover in plastic 1st American Ed / facsimile of 1st Ed pub. Causeway Books (1970) The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin - translated by MacGregor-Mathers and there is a store bookmark still inside. There was also a small comic book store on a 2nd floor on Main. I bought a full set of the Freak Brothers Comix there, pristine in plastic and also the Crumb Religious Experiences of Philip K Dick Weird comic there. A fast glance at the internet does not confirm whether either still exist.

I made many trips to Ashland over the years for Shakespeare or other theatre or as a good stopping point on longer drives. I used to go to different production's of A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest by habit. Midsummer's was what I saw on that high school field trip and also once saw in Stratford-on-Avon and have seen maybe 12 to 14 different productions (ACT in San Francisco, Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, several high school productions, Los Gatos Old Town, Shasta College, 4X Ashland, etc.). I almost moved to Ashland but moved to Corvallis instead for a job in 1994. Haven't been to Ashland since 2003.

Elliot Bay Books definitely kept the character of the joint but I think they moved up the hill due to some reason or another (drug users/earthquake fears). Still there but hard to get to on the bus for me. Damn, PufPuf93, you've seen a lot of shit.

PufPuf93 » Fri Oct 21, 2016 6:05 am wrote:Another fine video. What is the sound track? Reminds me of trying to play Hollywood tourist with my 80 year old Dad circa 1990. He found on a street map and wanted to go and we went to the Farmer's Market expecting to see a "Farmer's Market".

I discovered the name of the Ashland Bookstore previously mentioned but not named; Blue Dragon Bookshop, located just across Main Street from Shakespeare's. I have a pristine with dustcover in plastic 1st American Ed / facsimile of 1st Ed pub. Causeway Books (1970) The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin - translated by MacGregor-Mathers and there is a store bookmark still inside. There was also a small comic book store on a 2nd floor on Main. I bought a full set of the Freak Brothers Comix there, pristine in plastic and also the Crumb Religious Experiences of Philip K Dick Weird comic there. A fast glance at the internet does not confirm whether either still exist.

I made many trips to Ashland over the years for Shakespeare or other theatre or as a good stopping point on longer drives. I used to go to different production's of A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest by habit. Midsummer's was what I saw on that high school field trip and also once saw in Stratford-on-Avon and have seen maybe 12 to 14 different productions (ACT in San Francisco, Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, several high school productions, Los Gatos Old Town, Shasta College, 4X Ashland, etc.). I almost moved to Ashland but moved to Corvallis instead for a job in 1994. Haven't been to Ashland since 2003.

Glad you liked the video! The music we used is a song titled Cielo and the artist is Huma Huma. We found it on the YouTube Music Library.

I miss the old Farmer's Market in LA! It was torn down sometime in early 2000s and replaced by The Grove, which is a huge center of commerce complete with movieplex and 8 level parking garage. The Farmer's Market was so much more intimate and inviting.

Blue Dragon! I remember that place! I think it was near Paddington Station, which is still there. But I think Blue Dragon went out of business sometime after I left Ashland in 1996. It was tinier than Bloomsbury, but I seem to recall there was a coffee house right next door that you could walk through to and enjoy your book and a hot drink.

It's been a while since I've seen an Oregon Shakespeare Festival production but I used to catch them all the time during the seven years I lived there. You used to be able to watch shows for free just standing out by the sidewalk when the Elizabethan Theatre didn't have the dome enclosure. I worked there for a year when I was a teenager selling snacks and desserts. Good times!

Oh they tore it down there in LA? I am thinking of the right place right? The one next to CBS if I remember correctly? I loved that place as a kid.

82_28 » Thu Oct 27, 2016 1:35 am wrote:Oh they tore it down there in LA? I am thinking of the right place right? The one next to CBS if I remember correctly? I loved that place as a kid.

Yeah, the thing I liked about the Farmer's Market was that in addition to great organic food and wonderful baked goods, they also had a number of cool antique shops there. When I went there in the 90s, they had a whole stack of lunchboxes from the 60s and 70s from TV shows like Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Planet of the Apes, Battlestar Gallactica. I wish I had bought some of them cuz they're probably worth a lot more now. It's just disappointing how nothing seems to last too long in LA.

One exception is the Bradbury Building. That opened in 1893 and is not only still standing, it's in beautiful condition. It's probably most famous for being featured in Blade Runner, but it is still used today in many films and TV shows. Neek and I stopped by there after getting shut out at Grand Central Market. It's a cool place to chill out on a hot afternoon!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mHIQp2kt80