The Book House

The Book House, in Minneapolis' historic Dinkytown near the University of Minnesota, has got to be the most impressive indie bookstore in the Midwest. That definitely sounds hyperbolic, I know, but its selection is just that amazing. If you're visiting Minneapolis and need a place to go, check out the ginormous Book House and then tour the Dinkytown business district. With its cafes and college life, the Dinkytown is a little respite from the all-too-typical Minneapolis scene. (Back in the day, Dinkytown was Bob Dylan's hangout. According to the Book House website, Dylan lived in Dinkytown for a year, calling it the University of Dinkytown.)

I just visited Minneapolis this past summer, after having moved from there last year, and I must admit that I didn't have time to visit the Book House this time around. (I did visit Dinkytown and get its picture, though.) Nonetheless, in the seven years I lived in Minneapolis, my favorite place to shop for books was the Book House. In every genre, their selection was gigantic, especially in the academic categories in the basement. It seems like they outgrew the store space many years ago, now that books are actually double-shelved. Double-shelved? Behind each row of books is another row, sometimes with more rows on the floor, which I have to say, was equally frustrating and impressive. My memory was that almost any important academic work could be found in the store, and my principle when I lived there was to always check the Book House, and the Cummings next to it, before resorting to the anti-union Barnes and Borders. One time, I remember, I needed a book for one of my teacher preparation courses, a popular title called The First Day of School (or something similar), and I thought I'd give Book House a try before resorting to one of the corporate outfits, Sure enough, it was there, used and less expensive, and I didn't have to inadvertently support a union-busting company!

In thinking about the Bookhouse, and the many first-rate indie bookstores in Minneapolis, I'm reminded that many people in the town, when answering one of those Best of the Best surveys in the local papers, hardly ever vote for these stores. Sometimes a Book House, or a Magers and Quinn, gets to the top of the list or an honorable mention, but so many people vote year after year for one-size-fits-all stores like Barnes and Borders. In my view, stores like Book House should be heading those lists every year.

The Book House
429 14th Avenue SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
(612) 331-1430
www.bookhouseindinkytown.com

The Bookends

I found Bookends during a stopover in Menomonie, Wisconsin, visiting my friend and his family, during their family reunion, as I made my way north to Minneapolis. I was doubtful that there would be an independent bookstore in town, given Menomonie's size. The store is nicely located in the heart of the small downtown, right across the street from the incredibly beautiful, ornate Mabel Tainter Theater.

My friend and I browsed for quite a long time in Bookends and spoke to the new owner of the store. She was an ESL teacher, which is my own occupational calling, and so was quite knowledgeable about a new book written by a Hmong immigrant on her experiences moving to the United States. (I forgot the name of the book, but it especially interested me that the author was raised in St. Paul and went through that city's ESL program as a child.) The store owner was also very knowledgeable about literature in general and the business of selling books. She showed my friend some peace posters, which he bought for his classroom, and provided some insight on being a new bookstore owner in a small town.

In its small-town charm, Bookends reminded me somewhat of the one I had just visited in Viroqua. Very cute, laid out for comfort. The store had a broad array of genre categories, being strong in a few of them. It seemed to me that the owner had very good taste in buying some strong current titles. I also noticed that the store advertised a series of book discussion groups, a nice community service. I ended up buying Jeremy Rifkin's The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World. If I'm ever in Menomonie I'll definitely stop back. I have no idea if the town has a Barnes and Border, but if so, I'd recommend skipping the corporate monoexperience by visiting Bookends and then taking a tour of the amazing Mabel Tainter Theater across the street.

The Bookends
214 East Main Street
Menomonie, Wisconsin 54751
(715) 233-6252
http://www.thebookends.com/

Bramble Books

In my recent trip to Minneapolis, I did a little traveling through Wisconsin on the way north, stopping off in Madison for a day, and then I drove through the beautiful driftless region and spent some time in the wonderful town of Viroqua. Viroqua blew me away. I spent my high school years in Tomah, Wisconsin, a small and very conservative town only about an hour from Viroqua. In the 1980s and 90s, Tomah lost its main street community to Wal-mart (and the north side of town generally), and in true Republican spirit, prided itself as being the home stomping grounds of Tommy Thompson. So, the progressive town of Viroqua - filled to the brim with liberal environmentalists, progressive naturalists, libertarian Do-it-yourself survivalists, practitioners of eastern philosophical schools, organic and family farmers, independent business owners, co-ops of every imaginable stripe - is indeed an oddity in rural conservative Wisconsin. As my friend put it, there must be an enviro/organic/co-op/libertarian revolution going on there in Viroqua!

What got me visiting the town, besides my memory of its scenic beauty when I visited the place in December 1989 as part of a tour in the La Crosse Youth Symphony, was the independent bookstore in town, Driftless Bookstore. I first heard of Driftless on Facebook, mentioned by an old high school acquaintance who now lives in the town. By its website, Driftless appears to be quite large, both its store and its online business. However, its public presence leaves a little to be desired. For days prior to my arrival in Viroqua, the website was down and it was difficult to find an address for the store. I knew that it would be closed on Sunday and Monday, and so I wouldn't be able to visit, but I thought that I would at least be able to see the store from the outside. But, no luck, the store is very hidden inside a public market and not visible from the outside. It was actually very difficult to locate and I only surmised its location by using my GPS and inferring that the sign that said "books" on the outside meant a bookstore was in the vicinity. I'm sure I'll visit Viroqua again someday, perhaps as a vacation spot, and Driftless Books will be on my sightseeing list.

This time around, however, I did visit a bookstore in town in the time I was exploring Viroqua, Just down the street from Driftless, well situated on Main Street, is the Bramble bookstore. Bramble is very typical of small-town bookstores, having a small but respectable collection of new books on popular topics and a friendly, small town atmosphere. I noticed that it had big Do-It-Yourself sections that focused on gardening, farming, woodworking, etc., as well as good self-improvement selections such as parenting, nutrition, etc. The collection was broad, having the categories of sports, outdoor activities (especially those popular in the region), and local and regional history. Other sections, such as the fiction and political sections, were much smaller, containing a limited selection of popular titles. And the person working the store, perhaps the owner, was very friendly. Overall, it was nice to see a bookstore of such small-town charm. Only in Viroqua, with a population little over 4,000, would it be possible to have two independent bookstores!

Bramble Booksellers
117 South Main Street
Viroqua, Wisconsin 54665
(608) 637-8717
www.bramblebookstore.com

Driftless Bookstore
215 South Main Street
Viroqua, Wisconsin 54665
(608) 627-1132
www.driftlessbooks.com

A Room of One's Own

My last stop on my tour of Madison's downtown indie bookstores was a Room of One's Own, a well-known Feminist bookstore just off State Street on Johnson Street. Back in the early 90s, A Room of One's Own - named after Virginia's Woolf's 1929 essay of that name - was my first experience visiting a bookstore specializing in women's and GLBT literature, and so is high on my personal list of special bookstores in the United States.

I noticed immediately upon entering the store that it had changed a great deal since the early 90s when I had last visited. In the entrance, the store provided information on events, store events and community happenings, in addition to the regular newspaper offerings found in Madison. The store itself was very well-organized, naturally containing a very well-stocked GLBT fiction and non-fiction section, a progressive magazine section, and very informational categories on progressive parenting, health, and other interesting topics. What also impressed me about the store was its very comfortable layout, mostly its wide aisles and areas with comfortable furniture where you could read the books and magazines. I looked for awhile for two authors that I might be able to find there, and even though I didn't find them, I'm sure the bookstore would've ordered them for me. In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and left with an opinion of the store even more favorable than I had previously.

A Room of One's Own Feminist Bookstore
307 W. Johnson Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
(608) 257-7888
www.roomofonesown.com

Avol's Books

Avol's Books, off State Street in Madison, Wisconsin, is a very large used bookstore with a decent collection of books, especially academic titles. The first thing I wondered in visiting the store was why I had never visited this store when I lived in Madison in the 90s. And strangely, I couldn't even remember if the store was there in the 90s! This time around, now in 2009, I was actually trying to locate A Room of One's Own and happened to come across Avol's first. Well, what the hell, I thought, I might as well enter and check the place out. I can't believe I would say this, but State Street seems to have almost too many independent bookstores! How can they all survive?!

In entering Avol's, the person working the front desk asked for me to take off my backpack and place it behind the counter. I don't have a knee-jerk reaction against this requirement, understanding that there might be problems with shoplifting. And it was nice not having to cart that huge backpack around as I browsed! I asked the front counter person if this was a new store, out of my ignorance, and she said it had been there as Avol's for five years and before that it was Canterbury's. Yeah, that's right, Canterbury's! (I asked an old Wisconsin friend why we had never visited Canterbury's, and he thought that in our youth the store might have given off a bourgie feel that would have turned off our radical sensibilities. Probably so.)

In browsing the titles, I wished I would've visited in my youth. The store was big, like all Madison indies. Indeed, living in downtown Madison, there would be no need for visiting the Barnes and Borders. State Street alone has, at the least, 5 quality indie bookstores! And that doesn't include other niche stores, such as Shakti, a store specializing in spirituality. Besides the very big collection at Avol's, including a rows and rows of academic titles, I noticed that it has a community life with talks and discussions. All in all, it seemed like a nice store.

Avol's
315 W. Gorham Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
(608) 255-2730
http://avolsbookstore.com

Browzers Bookshop

When visiting Paul's bookstore on my recent trip to Madison, I couldn't believe that there was another bookstore next to it! How could there be two bookstores in such close vicinity? As it turns out, once you enter the next door building, there is the Underground Textbook Exchange in the basement and Browzers on the third floor. I'm not sure how the Underground Textbook Exchange is related to Browzers above it. I assumed, probably incorrectly, that it was the same business; otherwise there are three independent bookstores in the same vicinity!

I easily found my way up to the third floor to visit Browzers; the textbook exchange in the basement was closed, I think. At the very least, it didn't seem like the elevator went to the basement. I browzed Browzers for about a half hour. The store was fairly large, well-organized, selling mostly used books. Like many newer bookstores, it had a very cool and clean feel to it. I imagine that the air-conditioner had something to do with that feel. At the counter as I checked out, I happened to see an old Shakepeare's Books sign and I asked the cashier if the store was related to the old Shakespeare's that used to be on the capitol square in the 90s. Sure enough, they had just moved, explaining the close proximity to Paul's. Turns out that the owner (the son of the original owner?, I can't remember) decided to change the name back to what it used to be called way back when. So, in case you are wondering whatever happened to Shakepeare's on the square, it is now Browsers on State.

Browzers Bookshop
668 State Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
(608) 255-5521
www.browzersbookshop.com

Rainbow Bookstore

Rainbow Bookstore is my favorite bookstore in Madison, so of course I had to stop in and check it out again. From what I remember, Rainbow broke away from Peoples' Bookstore back in the early 90s, right before Peoples' closed shop. My connection to Rainbow was mostly that I was an occasional customer, but I also volunteered for a little while for the store for a very short while in the mid-90s. I remember, as well, of a meeting we had in the basement of the store, a small and dank space that wasn't the most conducive for a meeting. But I imagine, with their expansion a few years back, that meetings are now held in the main store, perhaps in the extra space where they sell UW textbooks.

From these memories of Rainbow, I was later motivated to volunteer at Mayday Books in Minneapolis. Rainbow is the sort of community space, centered around books, that sold me on the importance of independent businesses in the community, especially collectives and cooperatives. Through the years I've been impressed by the level of organization and sophistication of Rainbow. They must do a lot of online business, having their inventory on the website and being members of indiebound.com. Moving in on the textbook sales, competing with the monopolistic and cold-hearted University Bookstore, was also a smart move.

In visiting the store today, I was most heartened to see a number of young people in the store browsing through the collection, especially given the very high number of independent bookstores in the State Street area, all carrying used leftist literature. I was happy to see one sign that the left community in Madison is alive and well and supporting their leftist bookseller.

Paul's Bookstore

Paul's was my first indie bookstore, back when I was a freshman in college at UW-Madison. The maze-like aisles, the strong scent of thousands of used academic books, the personalized postcards and newspaper clippings on the ends of the wooden shelving, the feeling of semi-ordered chaos. I loved hanging out in Paul's, as well as Peoples' bookstore, a more left-wing variety a few blocks away.

I've been at Paul's from time to time through the years, but visiting now reminded me of my last trip there in the 90s, which was a little peculiar. I can't remember what I bought, but the cashier couldn't get my credit card to work for the longest time and said that striking it on her leg might help. Somehow it worked, and then I used that same card on gas and food on a trip to Texas. Later, in Texas, my card was canceled. I called Chase Bank, and the their representative, thought I was a thief in possession of the card. The bank was suspicious by the card moving south toward Mexico. The accusatory question I remember in the interrogation was "What happened at Paul's bookstore? Something happened at Paul's bookstore."

Paul's has the same feel, the same aesthetic. I'm sure the layout has changed, perhaps where the front counter is located, but it's incredible how a place like Paul's can keep its character through the years, as everyone who has passed through has either changed radically or simply moved away.

Wonderland

On the way up to Madison and then Minneapolis, as part of my summer vacation visiting friends, I stopped off in Rockford to check out the Wonderland bookstore - an indie specializing in children's books I found on the the indiebound website (www.indiebound.org). It's been a long time since I've been in Rockford, the last time being in 1989 when I came down in high school for a second shot at the S.A.T. For some unfathomable reason, I thought I could find the high school by aimlessly driving around sections of the city. Finally I had to get a map at a gas station, but in driving around for 3 or 4 hours, I got to see quite a lot of Rockford.

Ever since I was very young, in the late 70s to early 80s, Rockford was viewed by many as one of the most unpleasant American cities in which to live. This was largely due to the rust belt deindustrialization that inflicted cities such as Rockford, resulting in large unemployment rates and a gutted economy. (As noted in Michael Moore's Roger and Me, Rockford vied with Flint as the worst place to live in Money magazine.) But in driving around Rockford today, I believe that much of the derision directed to the town had to do with its working-class roots and the corporate attack against workers in this country originating in the early 70s. Sure, I'm sure that Rockford suffered due to the economic policies of the 70s and 80s; the suffering in Flint was more than apparent in Moore's movie. But, just as my impression in '89, Rockford seems like a great town! Straddling the Rock River, it's downtown is very pleasant and the whole metro region is quite large and bustling. And from what I can tell, the people are very friendly. Before finding Wonderland, I stopped in a Subway for lunch, and to my surprise the workers there were extremely interested in what I was reading (Aristotle, no less) and when talking about my union-made shirt (No Sweat, not made in a sweatshop), both were very pro-union. I have to say, just this little conversation alone put Rockford high on my list of places to visit!

As it turned out, though, bookstores in Rockford happened to be closed on Sunday, July 5th. Before even finding Wonderland, I ran into two other indie bookstores nearby, one called Canterbury (of which I couldn't see anything much inside) and the other a religious bookstore, ostensibly Catholic, if the large life-size cutout of the Pope was any guide at all. Both were closed, though. I finally found Wonderland across the street, in another bourgie strip mall across the street. From the outside looking in, the store itself looked like it had a very large collection of children's books, a teacher's gem. It looked very impressive from the outside. As I returned to my car, I thought that I'd love a store such as this when I was in elementary school.

Well, no luck visiting the stores. But, with my very positive experience visiting Rockford, I'll be back someday.

Wonderland
1625 North Alpine Road
Rockford, Illinois

The Sly Fox

Recently we visited St. Louis for the 4th of July, traveling with friends and seeing the local punk/bluegrass band The Monads at a bar called Off Broadway, eating at some fine establishments, and visiting Left Bank Books. On the way back, traveling back to Bloomington-Normal on Highway 55, we veered into the corn fields to visit the Sly Fox, a small bookstore in Virden, Illinois.

It was a dreary day, which lent a depressing mood to the cornfield countryside. The land around Virden was very flat, all very agricultural except for an upraised open pit strip-mining coal operation somewhere near Girard. We traveled through both Girard and Virden and noticed striking similarities between both towns. Each had a very large square plaza in the center of towns with downtown buildings facing the center of the plaza, an unusual outlay for a Midwestern town. The streets around the plaza were huge, having gigantic parking lots that were actually part of the street. Given the small size of the towns, the downtown areas were somewhat vibrant with many businesses. We did notice, as well, that we were in bible country. There seemed to be a good number of churches, signs decrying abortion, and signs - both suble and overt - of fierce nationalistic tendencies.

We drove non-stop through Girard, but we stopped in Virden to visit the Sly Fox. The bookstore was on the plaza square, and surprisingly, it wasn't the only bookstore in town. Another store, Books on the Square, was very close, but it was closed and we could only look inside through the front door, seeing that it was largely a small bookstore selling used books. My wife and I browsed the Sly Fox for about 30 minutes or so. It has a lot of children's lit, and for adults, specializes mostly in the mystery genre, that sort of book you can easily find in the supermarket and is easily found in abundance in used bookstores. My wife called them "beach books," ostensibly meaning what one would read when vacationing on the beach. I have to say that the genre isn't my thing, but the presentation of the books at the Sly Fox, all very colorfully bright and arranged so impeccably on the shelves, made me want to read a few for the sake of curiosity. (In fact, one book I'm reading now, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, probably qualifies as a book of this genre.) There were also some history books, specializing in Lincoln and Illinois figures and topics, as well as some travel-related books on Illinois hiking, attractions, haunted houses, etc. It was a very cute store, located in an Old Highway 66 town that definitely could not fail to arouse one's curiosity.

Left Bank Books

Last New Years, my wife and I visited St. Louis for the first time and fell in love with the city. St. Louis is a major Midwestern town, with a rich culture and history. We love the friendly atmosphere of the town, its many city attractions, beautiful red brick buildings, and excellent food and beer. Supporting St. Louis is also supporting the underdog. The city has suffered in recent decades along with other rust belt cities from the continuing process of corporate-led deindustrialization. The gutting out of the city, despite recent attempts at gentrifying and "revitalizing" certain areas, is evident throughout many sections with their abandoned brick houses and townhouses. In some areas, so many houses have been torn down, they look like rural country towns. Its metropolitan population is in the millions, and given the much decreased population of St. Louis proper, it's not hard to infer that there has been a massive demographic shift to the suburban nowhere ringing the city.

One St. Louis attraction we visited last January, and just recently visited on July 4th, is Left Bank Books. This bookstore is absolutely gorgeous, located in a cute leafy neighborhood of St. Louis, surrounded by specialty shops. (Both times we visited we had breakfast at Kopperman's across the street and then ventured into the store.) Left Bank Books is a perfect example of how a good indie beats a Double B bookstore - Barnes and Borders. They carry mostly new books, with some very well chosen used texts. Its book selection, especially its new fiction, is outstanding. If I lived in St. Louis, this is where I would shop every week for the latest titles and trends. It has a great magazine selection, a gigantic women's and GLBT section, and many left-to-liberal political titles. I've heard it said on some blog that the Double Bs have declined into a larger version of the Old Waldenbooks, containing nothing but lots and lots of crap. A simple comparison between the popular Double Bs with Left Bank Books reveals the truth of that statement; quality, not quantity, is key.

St. Louis has won my heart, and so has its Left Bank Books.

Left Bank Books
Central West End
399 N. Euclid Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri 63108
(314) 367-6731
www.left-bank.com

Downtown Branch
321 N. 10th Street
St. Louis, MO 63101