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.