Websites of bookstores I like
Lately, I have been reading Marc Auge’s book on non-places, and I thought it might be interesting to look up the websites of some of my favorite bookstores. I was also looking for inspiration for my design for Fujitakaya’s website. Here are some of my favorites.
Boone, NC: http://www.blackbearbooks.com/blog/ quaint shop, quaint page.
Asheville, NC: http://www.malaprops.com/
Johnson City, TN: http://www.mrksonline.com/ One of my favorites, lots of great used books. I like the way that they have incorporated Facebook “likes” into the page, but it is buried at the bottom of the page.
Washington, DC: http://www.kramers.com/books.html The shop is much better than the website.
Washignton, DC: http://www.politics-prose.com/ I love their events page.
If Olson’s was still in business, I would link to them as well.
All of these places are interesting to think of in terms of Auge’s ideas of non-places and anthropological spaces. They all have some of the facets of anthropological spaces, and I could think of their names immediately. At the same time, their “non-place” websites vary markedly. Some of them sell books online, while others do not. They are also (obviously) located in places near where I have lived. There is a Barnes and Nobel nearly everywhere in the US, but these bookshops are unique to their places.
