Places For Atlanta Readers

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 Inter­net 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.

• Atlanta/Fulton Pub­lic Library
• Clay­ton Coun­ty Pub­lic Library System
• Cobb Coun­ty seems to be catch­ing up after sev­er­al years of being way behind in terms of com­put­er­i­za­tion. I have very fond mem­o­ries of going to the Grit­ters branch as a child—there was a park with a neat play­ground right out front, so we always got to play and get books. Heaven!
• The Cony­ers-Rock­dale Library System
• Dekalb Coun­ty Pub­lic Libraries
• Gwin­nett Coun­ty Pub­lic Library Sys­tem offers a nice selec­tion of audio­books and ebooks that can be checked out online.
• Smyr­na Pub­lic Library has an impres­sive geneal­o­gy col­lec­tion, so they are worth vis­it­ing if you’re doing that sort of research. Their phone num­ber is 770–431-2860.

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 card­hold­ers 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 won­der­ful 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.
• Lit­tle Shop of Sto­ries is a mag­i­cal place for chil­dren of all ages. Esther enjoys their storytimes.
• Phoenix & Drag­on is a new age‑y sort of book­store on Roswell Road. Their phone num­ber is 404–255-5207. I real­ly love their chil­dren’s book section.
• 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.