At least some are!
Amid the dire economic forecast, the ebook and ereader movement, and the almost irresistably deep discounts offered by online purveyers such as Amazon, in some places at least the traditional brick-and-mortar bookshops are thriving.
And I’m happy to report that the shops in Provincetown are among those doing well. Which is great, since there’s nothing like a new book to take to the beach for beach reading.
The oldest and most venerable of the shops is the Provincetown Bookshop, located on busy Commercial Street, which has been there since the 1930s and is still going strong, with an eclectic and marvelous selection of books. The Voyager, also on Commercial Street, specializes in gay and lesbian literature, and I’m seeing a steady stream of visitors there. Still further down Commercial Street is WomenCrafts, which doesn’t have the bookshelves that it used to but which is dear to my heart since they carried my first published novel back in the 1980s.
Recovering Hearts manages to be Buddhist- and Taoist-oriented gift shop and 12-step bookshop all in one, and while the tourists are heavily into the gifts, the locals frequent the bookstore portion. Small surprise: the Sunday morning AA meeting regularly attracts dozens of people in the summer.
And then of course there’s Tim’s Used Books, down an unassuming alleyway and located in an old house that has more twists and turns than some roads I’ve been on. I can spend hours, happily, in Tim’s, looking through out-of-print treasures. What am I saying: I can spend hours in any and all of the bookshops, each with its own distinctive feeling and flavor.
What about you? What local brick-and-mortar bookshops hold precious memories … or current interest? Let me know, and I’ll publish the results here!
Jeannette Cézanne
Open Your Heart with Reading
Posted by: Tao Te Ching, reading, reading books, Spiritual issues, Opening the heart — jcezanne
|
