A Book Snob No More

On Saturday while I was waiting to have my car inspected, I headed over to Willow Lawn and passed by Book Market, the shop in the former home of Tower Records. I have to admit, I generally turn my nose up at discount bookstores: They are often full of books with damaged covers and leftover titles crammed on shelves. I don’t care to dig through a disorganized mess to find one good deal.

As I passed by Book Market, though, a book on making jewelry with items from a hardware store in the window caught my eye. It was priced at only $4.99 so I decided to head inside and flip through it. As I stepped inside, I was amazed by the selection and organization of the store. My hardware jewelry book was located in the "craft and hobby" section. I stayed there for a while perusing titles on remaking T-shirts and transforming old baskets into gifts and creative storage pieces.

Once I pulled myself out of that section, I took a look around the store. All of the books were neatly stacked on spacious tables with clear category labels. Each book was easy to see, and I didn’t feel overwhelmed by shelves and shelves filled with titles.

The “home” section housed books on throwing home parties and on decorating. I decided to leave one book completely devoted to color schemes with historical data on how they were used in the past behind. Over in “coffee table books” I spent a while reading up on makeup throughout history. In cookbooks, I excitedly picked up two South Beach Diet books ($6.99 and $7.99) that I’d been meaning to head to a full-price bookstore and purchase. I also gave into my love of reading diet books in the “self improvement” section, where there were current titles galore. A “humor” table was full of cute books that would make great gifts and notecards, which I especially don’t expect to find at book discounters. I almost bought one set of “Are You My Boyfriend?” cards ($3.99) with pictures of different dating stereotypes and amusing descriptions.

When I checked out, I told the manager how much I liked the store and he said they were getting in another shipment this Wednesday (today). Needless to say, I will definitely be adding Book Market to my normal rotation.

--Megan Marconyak