I know, what a freak.
But for my active readers you understand the feeling and the thrill. It is an experience. There are different types of entertainment out there and I am fully aware that being a book lover means that I am an experience seeker.
So welcome to my first official "book crawl"- I decided to dedicate an entire afternoon to exploring an area with a number of different book stores and let you know a little more about them. :)
Welcome to Pasadena, CA
For my birthday this year one of my best friends Tristan took me to this awesome independent bookstore in this area called Vromans. I started looking up places around and decided they were all worth a look :)
The start: Vroman's Bookstore (695 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena)- 12:30pm
Some of the reasons I love this store: First it is not the typical chain. I do shop at Barnes and Noble a good deal but this store has something really special about it. Not only is it huge, with a wide variety of all kinds of different book genres including even specialized like eastern philosophy, language, and the largest area of classics i've ever seen, but it is so obvious how much thought is put into the store by all employees. All over the place there are tabs by employees advocating the different titles. They give reasons that are well thought out and also extremely helpful. They also carry a range of prices for the same select novel (different cover art, mass paperback, hardcover, etc). And their bargain books section has some great selections including Austen, Bronte, Shelley, etc. HIGHLY RECOMMEND this store.
Next stop: Cliff's Book Store (630 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena)- 1:30pm
Stop number 3: Alexandria II (170 S Lake Ave, Pasadena)- 2:00pm
So just a few streets over is this bookstore. It is NOT the kind of bookstore I was looking for but still worth a mention. This store is a specialty bookstore catering to those who practice wicca, buddhism, or a number of special spiritual practices or religions. Not my thing but it might be someone elses.
Stop number 4: Century Books (1039 E Green St, Pasadena)- 2:30pm
I was pretty bummed because this place was closed when I got there. The reason I was bummed is that it looked so awesome. Call me a nerd, but the outside reminded me of a little store you could see on Diagon Alley (HP reference). And from what I could see through the window and all it seemed intimate and full of some great books. It also has some of the highest ratings in the Pasadena area. Can't wait to try and get there again but weekend hours are just too weird.
Last stop: Book Alley (1252 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena)- 2:35pm
My favorite find of the day. This store is a mixture of used and new (though mainly used) books and it was AMAZING. The organization was slightly lacking but still was easily able to find some great books (this is also where I made the most purchases) and for amazing prices. They even had comics! I by some miracle stumbled upon the book my boyfriend was looking for which is normally about $20, but here was $2.50. It was a copy from 1974, which we knew since the person who originally purchased it left their receipt from a Walden's bookstore inside (along with a boarding pass from TWA. So cool!) But there was a huge variety of classic, new, contemporary, scifi (that section was ridiculously huge) and so much more!
So after 3 hours, 5 stores, 3 actually open, and 7 purchased books for $30, I'd say it was a pretty successful day :D
This was fun. We reported in our newspaper (www.pasadenastarnews.com) that Cliff's was closing. Sad. But you found others. Hint: Let's vary the lengths of future posts. Some short, some longer.
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