Books, Nashville

Sometimes its a great favourite past time for me, but only on the things I like or need, not just for the hell of it. Books are a passion, very great, and always a wonderful gift for my man who is a writer and poet. So naturally I went to bookshops.

Borders is very popular, lots of students around, families with children, singles, oh everyone, and they had a very wide selection of books like most bookstores of course, but it was rather boring to me. It is generic basically. You can get the latest fiction books, comics, children´s stories, CD´s and DVD´s, stop and have a cup of coffee and a sticky bun, and which the other browsers. I bought nice kitten and bunny books for Nika, her favorites.

The one we visited is at 2501 West End Avenue/615-327-9656, in a shopping complex with shoes places, and PF Chang´s Chinese Bistro, just across the street from Centennial Park. Traffic can be heavy, both with walkers and drivers, parking spaces can be hard to find. If you get a good space, its best idea to leave your car there and walk up and down the avenue visiting what you wish.

What to pay: Average price for books I suppose, whatever is on the bar code, plus some discount areas as well.

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THE Bookshop of a book collector´s dreams is Elder´s Bookshop on Elliston Avenue, off a right angle of West End Avenue. When I first walked in, I looked up and said, "I´m in heaven!" Lovely place, walk to walk books, floor to ceiling, antiques, rare, hard to find, obscure, dusty, cracking, yellowing, wonderful, beautiful books. Some are antique and coming apart, but also they have very well cared for books for sell. When the books come apart, well, they just sell the pages sheet by sheet: art and painting books, flower books, history with map books. I love the signs up all around the shop: "Please be quiet!", "Do not leave children unattended, the books are very delicate!" "Do not read long passages out loud as respect to others"! "Ask before handling these books!"

The caretakers were very knowledgeable and must have been working there a long time. You could ask for some rare book and back they go into the "Keep Out!" section and come back with a box of musty tomes. My special selections I found? A number of books printed in Berlin from 1823-1844, Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales, children´s books so wonderfully hand painted or drawn pictures, and one very old Russian books of poetry that I brought for my partner. The prices? Those ranged from 6,00 to 10,00 each, quite a bargain I thought. Though there were some old medical journals and children´s books like original Winnie the Pooh books that were 50,00 and more per book. I was happy with what I bought, plus a few bargains from the 1,00 baskets, Star Trek and historical romance.

This was my most favorite shop I have found in any travels. I stayed there for almost three hours not even realizing so much time had past, looking through old prints and rare books. Even I was still looking for certain books, the owner said he would ship if he found old German and Russian books I was interested in. Extremely nice place and fellow.

What to pay: Prices vary depending on age of book, condition, etc.

The largest bookstore in the USA is situated off of highway TH I-40 in Nashville. On an exterior wall of the store there is a large, neon arrow pointing towards the store itself, visible from the highway. I'm not sure if the store is ranked largest in terms of floorspace or inventory, probably the latter. I came across a video entitled "Every girl wants two dicks." What can I say? It's true.