Seattle Bookstores | Through a Seattle Looking Glass

This week has been an amazing week for books! To start off, two titles chosen for this year’s World Book Night (Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go Bernadette and Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet) in the US is based (or have reference to) Seattle! The amazing authors gathered at the beautiful Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle’s Capital Hill for the giver event on Tuesday. Of course I showed up!

The organizer of the event invited new as well as past givers to come up and tell their stories about this amazing book event. (Here’s all the info). As others spoke about how and where they gave out last year’s titles, I learned Elliot Bay had some extras to give out!

Then Maria and Jamie were invited to speak.

But not before Jamie insisted on a selfie with Maria.

Adorable!

Jamie Ford spoke about his book and the hilarious tweets that teens have been saying due it being on school reading lists. I wanted to tell him that even if the impact is negative right now, later on in life it might change and that’s one of the beautiful things about books.

Then Maria spoke about her book, and she is just charming, hilarious and funny as her writing! I want to be her friend!

Then came the book signing! Authors are so cute with their books!

Afterwards, I made sure to speak to the organizer as a last minute giver. Lo and behold, I was able to snag 20 copies of Maria’s Where’d You Go Bernadette! *happy dance*

My Pretties

I couldn’t wait to be a part of World Book Night for the first time in the US (I’d been able to help with UK’s in year’s past). As I had a YA title, I wanted the books to go somewhere that helped teens in need. After a quick search I was able to find Friends of Youth, that had a housing program for homeless teens in Redmond, Washington (where I live).

I called the morning of World Book Night and Friends of Youth were thrilled for the donation of these amazing books! I dropped them off soon after and hope that teens that don’t have the access to books, or aren’t interested in them will give Maria’s book a chance! It was a great experience to be a part of World Book Night and I hope to be a giver next year!

Were you apart of World Book Night? If so, which title did you get and where did you hand them out?

One of the major disappointments upon moving home is that my treasured Borders Bookstore in Downtown Redmond has gone out of business. It shouldn’t come as a surprise as it’s Borders, but the branch that ranged across two levels in a huge space that was heaven for book lovers always seemed to have staying power.

Now there is no actual bookstore in all of Redmond. None. Zip. Zero. In a town full of fast food chains and Starbucks, I am horrified that there is no bookstore to chase away a few hours.

A friend of mine in London is documenting London Bookstores, and as I’m now back in Seattle I thought it would be fun to do the same for my area.

Although Redmond doesn’t have any new bookstores, what is still available are multiple locations of a great used bookstore called Half Price Books.

One of my favourite locations is in Crossroads Mall as it’s next to my two favourite craft stores Jo-ann’s and Michael’s. Blissful locations that even has a library branch tucked inside.

Half Price Books is great because the books are gently used at great prices. They also sell second movies, magazine, comics, manga and classic vinyl.

Some bits are new, but as they also give cash for used items, the majority of their stock is second hand. I love how their children’s section is called ‘Half pint’:

I had a good nose and was impressed by how much variety there was for this location. It’s also been a relief that Half Price Books is still around, a girl has got to find her book fix somewhere!

Half Price Books has locations around the US. The charm of a second hand bookstore means each location is going to vary in what’s available. Like buried treasure, each Half Price Books is unique to its own as well as selling online. You’ll never know what you’ll find!

I hope to discover more books, new as well as used around the Seattle area. I hope you enjoy the new segment I’m adding to my blog and let me know what you think or what you want more of!

Many thanks to Half Price Books of Crossroads, Redmond.

Ashleyisee