About Books (Now Closed)

NOW CLOSED

A few months ago I finally got around to visiting About Books in downtown Bloomington. For almost a year I thought the store was devoted entirely to antique books, which as I've said before, I don't know much about. Now that I know better, I believe that it's the antique furniture store located right next to About Books that gives the impression that the bookstore is focused on antiques. While the store does have an antique book collection, About Books is a classic used bookstore, the one and only in Bloomington, Illinois, and only one of two independent bookstores in the Bloomington-Normal area.

Back in the summer when I visited About Books, I must've looked around for about an hour at the first floor and basement collections. I remember it having quite a large fiction selection on the first floor and a smattering of non-fiction categories in the basement. In visiting the store for the first time, I was actually on a mission, finding Kant's Foundation of a Metaphysic of Morals. And although the philosophy selection was only a shelf wide (philosophy must not be the most popular topic here in Bloomington), I was actually able to find the book for a buck or two! Take that, Barnes and Borders! And in the process, I actually had a meaningful bookstore experience in beautiful downtown Bloomington, away from the numbing strip mall malaise of Veterans Parkway.

One more part of visiting the store, I remember, is that I got to meet the owner. I can't remember her name, but I learned afterward when visiting the bookstore site that the store is up for sale! If only I had the capital! And I suppose I'd need some experience running a bookstore, that would help!

About Books
221 E. Front St.
Bloomington, IL 61701
309-829-3999
www.aboutbooksbloomington.com

Arise

[Now out of business, to be replaced by a similar store with a different name]

Arise Bookstore is one of the two left political bookstores in the Twin Cities, the other being Mayday Books which I reviewed in an earlier post. In the years I worked at Mayday Books, I noticed that there was somewhat of a friendly rivalry between the two stores. It might be different now, since Arise seems to change a lot over the years with a high turnover in volunteers, but the common notion was that Arise was more of an anarchist and environmentalist hangout and the Mayday catered more to a wide left community. I would go to Arise once or twice a year to support the store, out of solidarity, but the store community and its political focus wasn't my scene.

One bit of history I always found interesting, told to me when I worked at Mayday, was that Arise Bookstore was a split from the Mayday back in late 80s or early 90s. Accounts differ, but I've heard that the people who eventually became the Arise wanted a political program and be more than a leftist bookstore and community space. I've also heard that the Arise group wanted more organization in the store. Whatever the details, I think most of the Arise volunteers today cannot remember the details of the split. Today the two stores work together in complementary way.

In the times that I have bought literature from Arise, I was impressed with their radical fiction section. In the past their non-fiction selection was a little outdated, but in recent years I think their book ordering has improved.

BookSmart

Just down the road from Magers and Quinn, and very close to the Uptown Theater in the Uptown district, Booksmart was a major destination for us when we lived in the Twin Cities. My wife and I would find ourselves in Booksmart on Weekend nights, Friday or Saturday night, usually when waiting for a movie to start at Uptown or the Lagoon Theater, after having eaten at the Indian restaurant off Calhoun Square.

Booksmart had a very big selection, like many indie bookstores in the Twin Cities, but its selection was better in academic titles than other stores except the Book House. It had a first floor and a basement. I remember always being drawn to the used liberal arts selections in the basement and buying at least one or books each time.

When visiting Minneapolis this past July, my friend and I didn't stop in. We were running short on time and so I only had time to snap a picture. It's a great store nonetheless and an especially great place to hang out on the weekends between food and a movie.

BookSmart
2914 Hennepin Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55408
(612) 823-5612

Magers and Quinn

I'm embarrassed to admit that I never visited Magers and Quinn when I lived in the Twin Cities. My only knowledge of the store was that it sponsored Robert Brenner's talk on the Iraq War at the University of Minnesota. (We at Mayday Books thought it surprising that a political bookstore wouldn't have been asked.) So, having heard about the store, I finally made it over for a visit on my recent trip to Minneapolis. My friend Kirk and I browsed the maze of bookshelves of this classic old store. Magers and Quinn is located in a prime spot in the heart of the Uptown area, right on Hennepin Avenue. I can't imagine why I hadn't been there before. My only guess is that it was closed late weekend nights when we happened to be in Uptown or we didn't venture south enough that late.

Magers and Quinn
3038 Hennepin Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
612-822-4611

Cummings Books

Cummings Books is an excellent bookstore, located in Dinkytown, Minneapolis, just a few stores down from the Book House (reviewed in the immediately prior blog post). When I lived in Minneapolis, and I would be searching for a particular book, it would be very convenient to look in both of these stores, being so close on the same street. I actually thought that the stores might be owned by the same person, but I now doubt it.

What I liked about Cummings is that it had a very different personality than that of Book House. The books were arranged in a more orderly fashion, with nice clean rows, and from what I remember, without double-shelving. There wasn't the gigantic selection of the Book House, I believe, but I could be wrong about this. They did have a good selection as well. The aesthetics of the store were pleasing, and there were always quite a few animals in the store, cats roaming around, and a few large birds in cages (I forgot what kind). It's definitely a shame that my experience of Cummings is wrapped up in that of the Book House, because from what I remember, the store had a charm and personality (and book selection) all its own.

Cummings Books
417 14th Ave. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
(612) 331-1424