What section of the bookstore are you stuck in?
Find me in the "non-human animals" aisle. Never make me leave!
One of the best parts of traveling full time is getting to visit so, so, so many lovely local bookshops. There are sprawling labyrinths we wander for hours—Powell’s in Portland, The Strand in NYC, Book Barn in Niantic—and there are small gems where we instantly feel at home—Longfellow in the other Portland, Cloud & Leaf in Manzanita, Point Reyes Books where I recently took these photos—and all are wonderful in their own way. I couldn’t even begin to list all my favorites. (Though maybe it’s worth trying, because that would be a fun roundup!)
Every time we walk into a new store, I disappear to the creature / nature / pets section. I smile when I see my “friends” on the shelves—books I’ve already read and enjoyed. (For example, I instantly loved Point Reyes when they had several copies of The Darkness Manifesto prominently displayed outside... and then The Arrogant Ape in the first big table.)
I read every word of every staff pick suggestion card.
I always, always, always leave with at least a few new titles added to my TBR.
And sometimes, when I’m feeling particularly confident, I imagine where my future book will live on a bookstore shelf. What related titles might sit next to it. Which talented authors might share the aisle with my own name. I look at all the books—all the beautiful, tangible, someone-spent-YEARS-on-this-and-now-it’s-in-your-hands?! books—and feel simultaneously insignificant (there are already so many great works out there) and empowered (but there’s still room for the story I think only I can tell).
Maybe bookstores are a little bit like church, for me. The same way a long hike or coastal breeze or wildlife sighting feels sacred. (It’s not lost on me that through books we can experience all those things, viscerally, without ever leaving the couch.)
But if one of the best parts of van life is getting to visit so many bookshops... one of the worst is not having the physical space to store all the books I’d love to keep. I try to support local spots by buying other things like notecards (I’m trying to make snail mail a thing again!) and to support authors by purchasing ebook versions (though physical sales matter more for some bestseller lists, which is an unsurprising shame in a rather convoluted industry).
And then I daydream, incessantly, about a huge shelf of my own someday. When the road’s done calling, I will have a corner or a wall or maybe, if we are very lucky, a whole room overflowing with biology and memoir and wonder and awe. (Plus plenty of spooky thrillers and sci-fi adventures and dragon tales, for good measure.)
What a delight to look forward to. What a delight to get my fix at little watering reading holes across the country until that someday comes.
Update: Shortly after I wrote and scheduled this post, I stumbled upon one of my favorite “pet” sections of all time at Green Apple Books in San Francisco.
The unassuming shelf featured Good Grief by the lovely E.B., Dog Smart by Jennifer Holland and Rethinking Rescue by Carol Mithers (both authors I was lucky enough to interview last year), The Happiest Dog on the Block by my longtime Dogstagram connection Taylor Finton, and Poets Square by Courtney Gustafson all in one place.
Talk about smiling when I see my friends—in this case, very literally my friends—on the shelves!
Related posts
Speaking of books…
Maya Williams, the wonderful host of the weekly writing workshop I attended during our time in Portland this summer, just published her latest poetry chapbook!
In case you missed it, Good Grief by E.B. Bartels is now out in paperback! The books are gorgeous and E.B. is lovely. (She also just published a piece about Dog Mountain.)
Isabel Klee’s memoir, Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About, is available for preorder. Isabel may be a social media powerhouse, but she is also generous and kind and so deserving of this milestone!
I am still obsessed with The Arrogant Ape by Christine Webb. At some point I will finally organize a massive mind-map post of reflections. (And if you didn’t catch it in my last post, I sent Webb the longest email ever and she replied so kindly and now I love her/this book even more.)
Also still cheering hard for Speaking for Spot’s Nancy Kay’s first work of fiction: A Dog Named 647.
And I keep thinking about (and noticing) feral cats more than ever after reading Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats by Courtney Gustafson. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend.
have you ever been to Pillow-Cat Books in NYC? it's an entire bookstore that is just animal books! https://www.pillowcatbooks.com/