Last Word is terrific. WOW books in Jenkintown is good. One of my favorites is on the same block as the site where Book Trader is going - Big Jar.

I've also found some of the best buys for "dreck" fiction - I always buy my dreck books in hardback, it's so stylish - are the various libraries in the burbs. Upper Moreland is good, Abington is terrific. Now that I'm working out in Bala, will visit Lower Merion. More Spencer books that you can ever read.

I've given up on Philly wrt to books. There are no good independent book stores here. It's sad IMO that a city this size can't support a large well stocked independent store with knowledgeable staff and an excellent selection but that's the way it is.

I'm sure this will irritate people but the only conclusion I can draw is that there are not enough readers here. What gives?

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Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. - H.L. Mencken

Well that's probably not too far off base. I don't doubt that metro Philadelphia has more readers than metro Portland but, on a per capita basis, Portland probably has more so it can sustain a large centralized independent bookseller whereas Philadelphia's readers are scattered throughout this 9 county area. You can't really compare Portland with Philadelphia anyway since Portland is very much a new economy town and has a high percentage of college-educated people. Philadelphia has more college educated people but they're a smalelr percentage of the overall demographic as a whole and are thus less influential. In any event, I'd wager that Philadelphia STILL has more independent bookstores than most U.S. cities, including on a per capita basis. I can't think of many independents in DC, for instance.

Seems like there are many good places but not one great place. There are many used bookstores I find sufficient but none here that I have to visit regularly. As much as I like Big Jar I don't think it'd make my list of places to hit if it were in Atlanta, Chicago. And aside from Powells in Portland and a couple of Bay area (City Lights), NYC (Strand), and Chicago (Seminary Co-Op) stores, I don't think there are that many independents left anywhere. Borders and B&N are predatory and have deep pockets (and get deep discounts) ---then you add Amazon and other Internet retailers and it makes for a very competitive environment

When I lived in Atlanta Oxford Books was one of the best independents in the country. There was 1 Borders and no B&N in Atlanta. Now, Oxford is long gone and the chains are everywhere.

I've been traveling a little lately and every city I went to I found well run decently stocked indy book stores, ok Harrisburg didn't have any. Portland btw has powells all over the city, it's not just the one mega store. I'd kill to have even the small powells store that was near my house here. Even pittsburgh has a few. What i've seen nearly across the board on the east side of Philly is the pack rat bookstore. Guys that just collect junk and books happen to be some of the junk they can sell. There are a few exceptions, the place up in old city is very small but clean and well run. The place across from more books on bainbridge is even smaller but also seems like a decent little store.

Everytime I raise the issue here I get the same answer. B&N and borders, amazon etc killed it all. My bone of contention is that it was never here to begin with. Coming from cities where i've seen indy bookstores do at least a business I find it discouraging because there really isn't a market here for something I grew so accustomed to. Yes, I can get my books on the web but I like supporting indy bookstores and I prefer to buy through them especially if they have a great used book section.

I think CC summed it up best really. What's really shocking is that there are no good indy stores over in UC. I mean even my small college town supported a few really cool little bookstores that are still there.

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Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. - H.L. Mencken

Ok I searched on www.booksense.com for # of indy bookstores in a few states.

Or 47
Cali 189
Wash 78

Pa 32
Oh 31
NC 46
WV 4
NY 66
WDC 12

Hmm there are a few conclusions I can draw here. One might be that east coast "intellectuals" long since left for the west coast. Hah ha eh just joking.

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Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. - H.L. Mencken

There really aren't many good, big independents anywhere. But, I'm not sure I blame B&N or Amazon.

When I first moved here fifteen years ago, there weren't any good big ones. There was one local cut-rate chain - Encore, if I remember right - and two small Robins.

Borders was an independent when it opened here with locations in a few college towns (Ann Arbor, Chapel Hill, etc.) I think this was the first city store.

There were a couple good stores over in UC but they were forced out by the big new UPenn Bookstore (B&N).

I would guess that the really good ones - Powells, Strand, and my favorite - Tattered Cover in Denver - were around long before the chains and before online shopping. And all of them adjusted quickly and have good online sites themselves.

The publishers made it really difficult, too. It used to be that bookstores could buy as many copies of a new book as they thought they could sell. If the book didn't sell, they could simply return it to the publisher for a full refund. Publishers then sold the rest off as "remainders."

Now the "remainder" market is a separate segment in itself and books are produced cheaply for that market. And book stores cannot return unsold copies to the publisher and must eat the loss themselves. The independents no longer could compete.

Still, while I hate the power that these new retail publishing giants hold over the entire industry. I must admit that Borders and B&N offer more titles than 98% of the old neighborhood bookstores and, in some cases, offer nearly as good service. Still, I long for the old stores - the old Doubleday on Fifth Avenue, Rizzoli, etc. I guess we will never see them again.

The used bookstores in UC are OK. They are populated by a few diehard Profs. Whenever I go to one it is always just me, the owner/clerk and a cat. But the UPenn bookstore it is always full of people.

You can probably find a lot at some of the used bookstores here---particularly if it is a title that has been reprinted in the last 10-15 years. But you probably won't find that gem you've been searching for and you definitely won't be surprised.

The Baldwin Book Barn in West Chester is really nice but if I have to go that far I may as well go to NYC and make a day of it.

I love the Tattered Cover, and I miss it so. Denver actually has two! One in Lower Downtown across from Union Station, in an old loft building with huge timber framing, and one in Cherry Creek, which is the tony shopping area about thee miles from downtowm. They blow the pants off B&N, and I happen to like the megastores. The indy megas not only have better service and selection, they are far more comfortable places to browse, with ample seating and creature comforts.

Tattered Cover doesn't sell used books because I think the owner wants to allow space for other small independents. And she is feisty! She took on the government when they tried to get her to surrender lists of book purchases made by a certain customer, and she won.

Anyway, there are not more readers in Portland or Denver than Philadelphia, I think. Those two stores, Powells and Tattered Cover, grew over time and had a single owner, I think. We need that visionary here in Philadelphia, and the store needs a good, fairly inexpensive location.

A whole other ball of wax is the state of the City's library system. It needs a real going over, in my opinion. I don't think a major capital project is needed as much as a strategic vision to evolve to meet modern needs and desires.

Walnut - no wonder I like the stuff you post. Anyone who spent time in Tattered Cover is a prince or princess (or both, if you want).

I had a friend who worked at Tattered Cover for years back in the 70's and early 80's. She introduced me. At that point, they only had the Cherry Hill location - which somehow rose above the chichi crap and felt like a warehouse - "Pearls among swine" if you will. Didn't know they had opened the LoDo location.

And I remember reading about the battle to keep the government from getting book buying records. Good for them.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs