Bookshops II

Last week saw the launch of my blog series on favourite bookshops (interior photographs of the first to feature are forthcoming). For my second post in this series, I would like to share the independent bookshop I mentioned at the close of last month's Book-centric Memories post. Last year during a visit to Florida for three weeks, the middle week of which we spent in Sarasota on the Gulf Coast, I came across Sarasota News and Books on Main Street. Also a cafe with tables outside, this foliage-covered store was an instant hit and in one week I visited three times and would have more if it had been within walking distance from our apartment. I sampled (all in the nature of market research, of course) the bookstore, the newsstand, and the cafe stocking up on American editions of books (one that I was looking for, that was out of print in the UK), magazines that aren't available here or that are imported at an escalated price, and key lime pie at the cafe.

This is definitely a book lover's paradise and, open until late, it was a sociable hub; I imagine that the welcome air-conditioning helps in the intense humidity. My visit after dinner one evening was my favourite wander and the free bookmarks they give with their books contributed to my return. It had a reasonably good selection of books to choose from for a relatively small shop (it's on one floor) and browsing the books kept me as intently occupied as any of the bigger chains did during my visit (Borders was no different from here at home and Barnes & Noble had a fabulous range of notebooks and bookmarks but the books themselves left me a little cold as the overall layout reminded me of a warehouse). I only hope that next time I visit Sarasota that Sarasota News and Books is still thriving and that I can while away some hours in contented, air-conditioned bliss.