Places For Atlanta Readers

Posted by Cyn

I find it very dif­fi­cult to just “run in” to any book­store or library with one par­tic­u­lar book in mind. The rows and shelves of books beckon to me so pow­er­fully, and I can get utterly lost for a good long time sim­ply brows­ing. I sel­dom leave the library with­out an enor­mous stack of books, tapes and CDs, and it’s tempt­ing to do the same in bookstores!

Atlanta Area Libraries

I love libraries. Mom gen­er­ally took us to the library at least once a week (and some­times more often, espe­cially dur­ing the sum­mer) when I was a child. It seems far fewer peo­ple even have library cards now. While the inter­ent is incred­i­bly use­ful for some research, noth­ing else can replace phys­i­cally hold­ing a book in your hands, brows­ing through the stacks, or get­ting help from a good librar­ian. (Never cross a librar­ian — they secretly con­trol much of the uni­verse. They may not know every­thing, but they always know how to find it!) Some Atlanta-​​area libraries don’t have a web pres­ence yet, but most do. If I’ve missed a metro area pub­lic library, please let me know and I’ll add it.

If you’re look­ing for infor­ma­tion about other pub­lic libraries in Geor­gia, there’s a list of regional pub­lic library sys­tems main­tained by Geor­gia Pub­lic Library Ser­vices. And I’ve been told that within a few years, every pub­lic library in Geor­gia will be part of the PINES sys­tem, and library card hold­ers would be able to use their cards at any pub­lic library in the state. I don’t know how true that is or how soon it might hap­pen, but it cer­tainly sounds like a great thing to me!

Atlanta Area Bookstores

Book­stores are absolutely mag­i­cal places. More and more are get­ting web pages, but I can’t find cur­rent web pages for a cou­ple of these places, so I’ll give you the phone num­ber as well. If you have a URL I’ve missed, please send it to me!

  • Charis Books is “the southeast’s only fem­i­nist book­store” accord­ing to their infor­ma­tion. Their appeal is not, how­ever, lim­ited to fem­i­nists or even to women. They have an excel­lent selec­tion of beau­ti­ful children’s books, carry many books in just about any fic­tion or non-​​fiction genre you can name, and have excel­lent taste in music. They do focus on issues of sex­u­al­ity, gen­der iden­tity, and women’s rights in some ways. Their phone num­ber is 404−524−0304. They’re on Euclid Avenue in Lit­tle Five Points — the area is an adven­ture in itself (great peo­ple watching).
  • The Engineer’s Book­store is the place to go if you’re tech­ni­cally inclined in any way.
  • Phoenix & Dragon is a new agey sort of book­store on Roswell Road — phone num­ber is 404−255−5207.
  • The Book Nook is the biggest source I know of for used books in Atlanta. I know of two loca­tions, one on Clair­mont Road (404−633−1328) and Book Nook II in Lil­burn (770−564−9462).
  • Tall Tales in Toco Hills is another good spot, although I haven’t been there lately. Their num­ber is 404−636−2498, and appar­ently they have a cof­fee shop now.
  • The folks who run A Book Deal in Roswell make it worth the trip out to see them — num­ber is 770−587−5377.
  • Okay, if you absolutely have to, if you can­not find what you want at any of the above, there’s the big guys — Barnes & Noble and Books a Mil­lion. But check the local stores first, unless you want to see more stores go under!

Permalink | June 20th, 2012

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