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July 25, 2008

The Tattered Cover, a big indie

tattered%20cover%20edited.jpg While in Denver this week, I visited The Tattered Cover, one of America's most prominent independent bookstores and one of those recommended by readers for places to visit on vacation (see our U.S. map). Though the name conjures up images of a dark, dusty shop loaded with used books, The Tattered Cover deals in new books from some outstanding locations.

Pictured here is the E. Colfax Avenue store, in the former Lowenstein Theater; what was once the orchestra pit now is one of many reading areas. In historic LoDo, the Tattered Cover has another large, airy store in a 19th-century building. I picked up a copy of Pete Dexter's Deadwood to get a taste of the Old West and John McPhee's Rising from the Plains for the really old west. I'm drawn to interesting locations, whether they're indies or a chain location such as Barnes & Noble's store at the Inner Harbor.

What makes a good bookstore to you? Is it the selection, the workers, reading areas or something else entirely?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Bookstores

Comments

I would say the most important thing about a bookstore is the selection. Even if a store has the coziest reading area in the world, with "private" chairs set off down obscure aisles (my favorite kinds of chairs and aisles), I will not go there if the selection is poor. I would feel guilty taking advantage of their excellent reading space without making a purchase.

Posted by: Thomas Bechtold | July 25, 2008 10:25 AM

Soft chairs.

Posted by: Patrick Lackey | July 26, 2008 2:21 PM

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About the bloggers

While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, Nancy Knight grew up reading nearly everything she could get her hands on, including a probably unhealthy amount of R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike, with the obligatory Jane Austen thrown in. She'll still read just about anything you put in front of her, especially the funny or weird. She lives in the city with her books, cat and drum set.

Dave Rosenthal came to The Baltimore Sun as a business reporter in 1987 and now is an assistant managing editor and Sunday editor. He reads a wide range of books (but never as many as he'd like), usually alternating between non-fiction and fiction. Some all-time favorites: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole; Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery; and anything by Calvin Trillin or John McPhee. He belongs to a book club with a Jewish theme.