Category Archives: Bookstores

10-cent books!

Greencup Books has a ton of books upstairs all priced at a dime. It’s not a stellar crop to choose from. But if you’re into the serialized mass market paperbacks, this is the Holy Grail. Also, fans of Harlan Coben and Patricia Cornwell should take note, there are hundreds of Hardbacks up there. (I did nab a Simon Winchester paperback and a board-book for our Little Speed Reader, for a total of 20 cents).

It’s one of those masses of books where there are 75 hardback copies of the same book. But, c’mon they’re a dime!! So it’s worth scavenging. Maybe this is my chance to build some sort of furniture made of books. You know, the coffee table/lamp/shelf that requires you to drill through books to put it together, but you never have the cash or heart to destroy that many books. But if you were using 30 copies of a jacketless Danielle Steele novel…. would you be so heartbroken?

I also know that Greencup Books neighbor Barehands Gallery is having a show tonight, so the bookstore is planning to stay open late too. May be worth a stop tonight.

Amazon.com: the big bully

Amazon.com has announced that they will no longer allow Print On Demand books to be sold on their site… unless they are printed by Amazon’s own POD service BookSurge. It’s no secret that the big A has been struggling to gain a foothold in the booming POD world. But they haven’t been able to. Many of the other services out there just do it better (something about focusing on your core business…)  and they offer a better community.

So, for once, Amazon can’t walk in the room and sweep away business from its competitor fast enough. What’s the answer? Take away your competitor’s avenues of distribution! Just don’t allow other businesses to play in the same room as you. Way to go Amazon, ya big bully!

All I can hope for is that this sets the stage for some really smart enterprising person to step in and make a strong business out of opening the doors Amazon just shut and locked. Hmmmmmm….

{via Publisher’s Weekly}

Jonathon Benton Bookseller

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sadly, this shop closed in April 2009. This post is being left up as an archive.

jb021.jpgJonathon Benton Bookseller
2705 Culver Rd
Birmingham, AL 35223
(205) 870-8840
jbbookseller@gmail.com

This small independent shopis located in Mountain Brook, just off Highway 280. Their store web presence seems to always be in flux but they do seem to do a better job of keeping their MySpace presence more up-to-date. They have a full coffee bar and the bookstore staff always seems very knowledgeable and helpful. It’s popular with a handful of book clubs and local folks.

It’s a nice small bookstore to peruse. They do a good job of keeping the most recent titles in stock, but nothing too far back.You’ll have to call about the hours, as they don’t keep them posted.

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Doggone Books

***Sadly this bookstore closed up in 2016. I’m leaving this post up as an archive ***

I stumbled across a used bookstore over in the Irondale area of town, so I thought I’d share. It’s called Doggone Books and enjoys the fortuitous traffic-inducing location of being two doors down from the Whistlestop Cafe (yes, THAT Whistlestop Cafe).

Continue reading Doggone Books