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