Seattle Independent Bookstore "Day" in too many words and pictures

 

Forty-one books and a handful of cards, bookmarks, and tshatshkes

I figure I should post about this year's edition of independent bookstore day, Puget Sound style, before I've forgotten it entirely--besides, I need to clear the little red table so we can use it for tea again. Above is the final haul; the couple of postcards were, if one is to believe the signage, hand-painted by one of the founders of Arundel Books and very nice they are too. Full disclosure compels me to admit that the birthday card in the back actually comes from the Bainbridge Island kitchen shop which has a really nice selection of stuff at reasonable prices. The bookstore on Bainbridge is also pretty decent--and surprisingly large. 

 

Speaking of Bainbridge, it's lucky the Seattle ferry dock has obvious signage and it's even luckier, for me, that I was traveling with Scott who asked, "Do you see the sign? The sign?" as I was distractedly cycling past it, looking for, well, a sign, as to where bikes were supposed to go. (Do note the blue skies above; the weather was a lot better than forecast for much of bookstore day. And, speaking of bookstore day, the event was stretched to ten days again this year. We hit bookstores on three separate days and still managed only ten. The Sunday we visited Bainbridge was a one-bookstore day. Late start, delayed ferries, and the surprise that Open Books isn't open at all on Sundays. Live and learn.)

 But let's back up a bit . . . We were oddly hesitant to explore the wilds of Burien where a new-to-us shop, Page 2 Books (pictured above), is located; I went so far as to email to ask about biking routes. I was told that there weren't any. There was an undertone of "you're crazy to even consider it" to the reply which may be why we had to make the attempt--and it wasn't all that bad. Oh, a bike lane on Ambaum Blvd wouldn't come amiss--and it would have been nice if the right lane wasn't repeatedly closed off for repair--but certainly we've ridden worse stretches of road, and downtown Burien turns out to be quite charming. The Australian Pie Company was like a trip to Brokenwood. Both Scott and I found a few books to buy at Page 2, though the mystery section was really the most impressive aspect of the store.

We took Fourth Ave SW back to White Center and Seattle and what an excellent thing that turned out to be. Scott thought it was more pleasant cycling while I'm not sure if less traffic but also narrower road is necessarily safer. We came across a Buddhist Temple under construction with a bunch of statuary waiting in the wings, however, and that was simply magical. Photos don't do it justice, but here are a few anyway:

The second (and final) store of the day was Paper Boat Booksellers and the selection there never disappoints--plus, they had madeleines which took me back to the first time I'd ever been to a bookstore. It was beneath some lime trees and my grandmother was there . . . 

Scott thought Bessie was precarious enough on her own so his bike isn't pictured here.

And that was the end of day one of Bookstore Day for us; two bookstores for 25 miles--but it was April 30 so the distance didn't count for Bike Everywhere Month. Rats.

The next day, as above, we were slow to get moving and visited only Bainbridge which got us 12 miles (this time in Bike Everywhere Month--whee!). Blackbird Bakery is essentially across the street from Eagle Harbor, meaning less than half a mile from the ferry terminal, and had some mighty fine-looking cake. I was devastated when they closed before we could get back there. Next time. 

Bikes outside Eagle Harbor

It wasn't until the following Saturday that we set out again, this time in a somewhat more serious frame of mind though, again, we got a late start. Open Books didn't open until noon so we had some excuse. The first stop was Arundel, where I was once more struck by what a nice selection of new and used they have, though I bought but one book and the two hand-painted postcards. Scott did his bit to keep them in business too, though he opted to leave behind the set of Ruskin. Which decision I am sure he will regret. 

Again, note the shadows and sunshine!

Open Books took a tiny bit of routefinding, mostly because I had it in my head it was now occupying the old Seattle Mystery Bookshop (sadly closed now), but it was really across the street and down from there. The new location has a lot more room which is nice. I spotted a book I wanted in their window and then found a few more items while browsing and Scott never has trouble finding stuff there, so we were fairly quick. This was the one stop where a number of people were just dashing in to get a stamp and leave again which always strikes me as rude and tacky.

It's like we're doing a bank heist, the way these bikes are parked here.

Where the hell did we go from here, I ask myself, and then realize it was up to Capital Hill by way of Sugar Bakery, photos of which are on Scott's phone--as are the photos outside Elliott Bay Book Company. I confess I didn't get beyond the staff recommendations shelf at Elliott Bay; that store has made me a little twitchy since the onset of COVID. Let me just interject here that This Is How You Lose the Time War was, perhaps, the most recommended book of this year's tour. I read it last year and it was  a fun read, but I was still a little surprised to see it quite so often. It was, I think, starting to rain a bit by the time we hit Elliott Bay and we had a brief, "Continue or call it?" conversation. Naturally, we continued; after all, Ada's Technical Books and Cafe, was just up the hill. 

 

The road I chose was, possibly, the most broken-up to be found in Seattle and it was a bumpy half dozen blocks; it's never good when you can see the evolution of paving technology while riding. Ada's is one of those odd shops for which I have a very soft spot despite its pretty limited selection. I think it's that I love the concept and the staff is very personable. To those two reasons I now add a third: the excellent gyros. Maybe we were just starving, but this was the best falafel I've had in years.

Lunch at Ada's -- gyros plus a decent cup of tea with covered outdoor seating  = bliss

 

Plus a floor show!

Ada's is just a few doors down from what must be the last surviving balloon store in Seattle and this man had overestimted the capacity of his hatchback. A few popped while he was trying to get them all in but I'm sure someone was still thrilled with the extravaganza. 

There was another "continue or call it" discussion and another decision to continue northward which we did, reaching University Bookstore in short order. (Interjection #2: I do love that the University of Washington Bookstore was such an early adopter of the internet that its web address is just "ubookstore.com.") Once more, books were purchased and the obligatory photo taken, this time from the middle of the street; traffic is pretty slow on the Ave these days.

We pushed further northward to Third Place Ravenna, another shop I visit only on bookstore day though each year I wonder why I don't go there more often; they have such a fine selection and it's a pretty nice ride. They're also ever so convenient to Sod House Bakery and Seattle Bagel Oasis (neither of which, oddly, we visited, perhaps because Scott had but one pannier on this outing).

An upstart bicycle was already at the rack at Third Place--the nerve!

 From Third Place it is truly a pleasant and mostly flat ride to Phinney Ridge Books--there's just a few blocks of uphill to get to the "ridge"--and it's mostly bicycle lane around Greenlake so it's a lovely bit of riding, I must say. Phinney Ridge is a pretty small shop but, like Paper Boat, it must have excellent buyers because it's always got a ton of good books. And it was nice to see Molly Hashimoto's Mount Rainier National Park: An Artist's Tour by the register:

And the obligatory bikes outside shot (hard to see in this shot is Northwest Trees in the window):

The ride down from Phinney to Secret Garden was interrupted briefly by a stop to pose Bessie among a mass of fallen cherry petals, but even without that delay we would have found Secret Garden closed. I'm not telling bookstores how to run their business, but I do think they might want to think about being open later than 5:00 p.m. on a bookstore day Saturday. Still, I'm sure they're doing well enough without our custom and we would have missed the cherry petals if we hadn't been heading down into Ballard.

I was, in fact, getting a bit dopey by the time we reached Ballard and, frankly, it's a bit of a surprise I managed the homeward ride. We cut it a few miles short by catching a bus on Harbor Island, but the outing was still good for 28 miles, for a total of 65 independent bookstore "day" miles this year. This year the organizers behind Seattle Independent Bookstore Day determined that the goal should be to get to all twenty-four participating stores, ranging from Edmonds to Burien, from Bremerton to Kirkland, and that's just too much for even my competitive nature. We like doing bookstore day by bike and we like browsing and buying at each store we manage to visit. I regret that we didn't get to Magnolia's Bookstore this time around, but that's my only regret. Okay, not getting a slice of the lavender raspberry cake at Blackbird still eats at me too.