#TopTenTuesday: Favorite Bookstores or Bookstores I’d like to visit #IndieBookstores

Posted on by BonnieReadsAndWrites

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

For today’s Top Ten Tuesday, we were asked to name our favorite bookstores or bookstores we’d like to visit. The first shop is one I’ve visited often, and the rest are shops I’d like to visit. Most of them are on my list for a future road trip to visit bookstores in the South, except for one, which is in France.

  1. Friends of the Marianna Black Library Used Bookstore

The Friends of the Marianna Black Library group provides financial support to buy books and other materials for the library’s collection, purchase needed items of equipment or furniture, and help sponsor library programs. The Used Book Store, located at 32 Everett Street right down the street from the Library, is the Friends’ primary fundraiser and is staffed 100% by volunteers. Bookstore shelves are stocked with used books on a wide range of topics, best sellers, books by North Carolina authors, oldies and autographed books, children’s books, puzzles, videos, DVDs and magazines. All items have been donated. Donated materials and volunteers are always needed.

I love this bookstore because it’s staffed by volunteers whose main focus is to support the library in Bryson City, NC. I visit whenever I can and always find a great book. I currently have a bunch of ARCs to donate to them soon.

2. Shakespeare and Company

This is a famous bookstore I would love to visit! Shakespeare and Company is an English-language bookshop in the heart of Paris, on the banks of the Seine, opposite Notre-Dame. Since opening in 1951, it’s been a meeting place for ex-pat writers and readers, becoming a Left Bank literary institution. I learned about it in Darlene Foster’s book, Amanda in France.

3. Union Avenue Books

I am planning a road trip to independent bookstores in the South over the next couple of years. Union Avenue Books will be on the list. They are downtown Knoxville’s locally-owned independent bookstore with a great selection of newly published titles. They host a variety of local, regional, and nationally known authors for readings and book signings.

4. City Lights Bookstore, Sylva NC

As I was looking for local Independent bookstores in the South, I found one in Sylva! This mountain town is not far from my retirement home in Bryson City, NC. I will be going there soon.

City Lights Bookstore is in Sylva, North Carolina, a small Main Street town tucked in the heart of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Their goal is to share the literature of the region with the world, and the world of books with their community.  Selling new and used books, cards, gifts, journals, maps, and more since 1985. They also have a lot of great events and signings.

5. Faulkner House Books

Faulkner House Books is located in the heart of New Orleans’ beautiful and historic French Quarter, just off Jackson Square, behind the Cabildo and opposite St. Louis Cathedral’s rear garden. Founded in 1988 by attorney Joseph J. DeSalvo Jr. and his wife Rosemary James, Faulkner House Books is a sanctuary for fine literature and rare editions, including, of course, books by and about Mr. Faulkner. Frequently featured in the national news media, Faulkner House Books has been described by both collectors and writers as America’s most charming book store.

6. Chop Suey Books, Richmond Virginia

Chop Suey Books has been serving the Richmond community for two decades. Currently located in the heart of Richmond’s Carytown district and owned by Chris and Berkley McDaniel, the store is staffed by long-time patrons and is a hub for local authors and book lovers alike. The original Chop Suey Books opened in 2002 on West Cary Street near the Virginia Commonwealth University campus, in a building that used to house George’s Chop Suey restaurant, which inspired the name.

They’ve got new books on their lower level and five rooms of used books upstairs, with Wonny (their 16-year-old tuxedo cat) wandering in, out, and around his kingdom.

7. Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN

Parnassus Books is the independent bookstore for independent people located in Nashville, Tennessee. The shop has been co-owned by novelist Ann Patchett and her business partner, Karen Hayes, since it opened in 2011. (Read all about the start of the store in Ann’s own words here!) Parnassus stocks an extensive and exciting selection of books including fiction, non-fiction, children’s, local interests, and the arts. The store also boasts an extensive local author section.

8. Blue Bicycle Books, Charleston SC

Blue Bicycle Books is the hub of YALLFest, Charleston’s Young Adult Book Festival, which takes over Upper King Street on the second weekend of November every year.  They offer lots of other events and signings as well.

9. Alabama Booksmith, Birmingham, AL

This store has a unique stock–every book in the store is signed! Anyone who collects signed books needs to put this store on their “must visit” list. It’s on mine.

10. Sundog Books, Seaside, Florida

The best place to get a beach read or browse their large collection of Southern Fiction. It’s located on State Road 30A, a beach lover’s dream.

What about you? Do you have a favorite bookstore or one you’d like to visit?

Published by BonnieReadsAndWrites

I love to read and write book reviews in my free time. I review advance review copies of books on Netgalley for various publishers. I am also a reviewer for Historical Novels Review Magazine, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society. I review books from publishers of all size, large to small. I have a special place in my heart for indie authors. I will sometimes post a little writing that I might dabble in occasionally. I also am lucky enough to live in the Smoky Mountains, so I'll be sharing photos of the beauty around me from time to time.

41 thoughts on “#TopTenTuesday: Favorite Bookstores or Bookstores I’d like to visit #IndieBookstores”

  1. Thanks, and good to know about great bookshops and places like these. I miss the bookshop in Oxford, UK, I used to go to called St. Andrews bookstore. There was a tiny room at the back with very cheap, old Christian books.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I haven’t visited a bricks-and-mortar bookstore in ages, Bonnie. Mostly because I live over an hour away from the nearest one. I’ll need to scope one out soon after seeing your post. I love the Shakespeare and Company storefront (and that little cabinet on the side!). What a cozy spot. Thanks for the fun tour through some lovely bookstores. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  15. I wish I has known about that bookstore in Paris for when I was there a few years ago. I was right in the area (fortunately got to visit Notre Dame before the fire) and I would have LOVED to stop there. Excellent list of bookstores ❤️

    Liked by 1 person

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