In Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs, Wallace Stegner lists the great “independent bookstores of the West.” He includes
The Chinook Bookshop in Colorado Springs (closed in 2004)
Powell’s in Portland
Eliott Bay in Seattle
Country Book Shelf in Bozeman
Zion’s Bookstore in Salt Lake City (now Weller Book Works)
Tattered Cover in Denver
The Black Oak Bookstore in Berkeley (closed in 2016)
Kepler’s in Menlo Park
The Printers Inc in Palo Alto (closed in 2001)
Our family knows Powell’s well. It’s a pilgrimage during our annual visits to the Rose City. I know Weller Books, but prefer King’s English. The rest were unknown to me. When I asked my sister who lives in Seattle if she knew Eliott Bay, she said, “Of course!” And last week, I was able to visit for the first time.
Eliott Bay Book Company is exactly what you want from an indie bookstore: wood shelves and tables lined with employee recommendations, a coffee shop, a children’s section with a ship kids can play on, and employees who read a lot and are generous with stamps on the frequent buyer cards.
Here’s the mark of a fantastic bookstore: As I was checking out, I asked the woman helping me, “What’s the best book you’ve read recently.” She started to answer, then said, “Can I take you on a tour?” For the next 15 minutes, she walked me through book after book on the employee recommend shelf. We’d already made our purchase, but we could have easily earned a few more stamps on our frequent buyer card. Here are the first first three she led me to:
She described The Ministry of Time as a kind of time-travel spy novel that was very funny. She said The Mountain in the Sea was about sentient octopuses and global competition. And The Deluge is about a collapsing future. I’m not selling these as well as she did. I took pictures, not good notes. Here are several of the other books she recommended:
Eliott Bay Book Company reminded me of a t-shirt my high school humanities teacher used to wear that read “So many books, so little time.” True. But I’m determined to make as big a dent into my ever increasing library as I can.
Here’s what I bought (I’m a sucker for book store stickers):
Love this post! What a great question for bookstore employees!