BenTha'er-Horizons

Bookstores

Thunder Bay Books

I am a big lover of books and bookstores. I don't like to pass up bookstores and can browse in them forever or as long as the feet and knees hold up. There seems to be a bookstore in Thunder Bay area which is Canada that is dedicated to books that are obscure. A description here and…………….

"What’s most fascinating about Nicky Drumbolis and his one-of-a-kind collection isn’t its value, which he estimates is in the millions, or its size – although it includes roughly 50,000 titles, and fills the building, floor to ceiling – but the focus. He has devoted a great portion of his life and livelihood to work that, as he describes it, “slips through the cracks.” Pamphlets and hand-sewn chapbooks that were produced in minuscule print runs; novels and poetry collections published by the most obscure of presses; the work of authors whose names the world has forgotten, if it ever knew them."
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10 Best Independent Bookshops

Too bad this survey was compiled by the Guardian newspaper. Not my favorite but I am glad that Powell's Books in Portland is number one. I do like Mr. B's Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath England. I will need to go back and check this out. But do read the list and look at the cool photos.
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100 Bestselling Used Books

I came across an article about another article covering what are considered 100 of the bestselling used books. I have read over time 31 of them and have around 10 more in my library that I have not read. So I am close to reading or buying about half of the list. I suppose that makes me a bookaholic or at least somewhat well-read. The list is found from AveBooks here. This is a good used book site.
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EReaders and Libraries

Well, I have to call myself a reader. One of my mottos in life is “reading is breathing”. That means it is essential to life, my life. In the last 5 years, ereaders have become part of the reading landscape. I have one friend who buys all his books, especially textbooks related to his field of work in electronic format. Easier to read and to store. I have a number of books in electronic format and have taken to reading them more on my IPad since I can buy Kindle, Nook, and IBooks as such. It is handy and easier than holding or carrying large books especially while traveling. I still take a print book on a plane since they have not allowed electronics powered on the first and last 10 minutes of a flight. I still take pleasure in sitting in a chair reading a good book and the joy of seeing my library shelves at home stuffed with lots of good books. We should be the Berlin library. I did find an interesting discussion about how some view ereaders versus having space taken for a physical library. You can enjoy the article here and see a bit of our library with the library cat, Oscar, standing in the doorway. What a life.......a recliner chair, a window seat, a cat, and books.
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Hello, Bookstores Again

Are printed books dead? Is reading left to just e-readers? Have bookstores gone the way of the dodo bird?
While I think e-readers have their place and I like to use them, I do talk to people about books and many still love the feel of a printed book. When you drill down discussions about what is successful as a business, one thing that always seems to stand out---relationships. if you make it about relationships and what is unique, you have a chance to make your idea or project work. People want to connect and also feel they are doing so with what was special to them at some point in their lives. I enjoy the art of reading (though I seem to achieve less of it these days) and have linked to an article here about reading. I also noted this wonderful article about how an author opened with another book enthusiast a newly successful bookstore in Nashville when two prior bookstores had closed. She was told bookstores are dead and no longer will exist……..e-readers and Amazon is the future. She is showing the fallacy to that and how people are looking for the unique relationship books can have in our lives.

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Joy of Books

One article I cut out recently was titled, “ The joy of finding just the right book”. The article was written by a bookseller from up near Portland. He describes being able to feel the joy that a client shows when they find the right book in his store.He describes that finding that just-right book is much like a hungry person discovering a lavishly stocked banquet table. I just got in 3 new books yesterday from Book of the Month Club. All will be interesting. I find quiet joy in adding to my stack or stock of books. One can see the joy of books and reading from this photo of our library/office. It does not cover all the books and bookcases in the house.
thayer-library-4-9-13
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