2nd & Charles

Anyone who knows me or has been reading my blogs knows how unhappy I am at the loss of the two local Borders bookstores and the Borders Express I frequented. Then last month I discovered that the used bookstore I enjoyed was closing as well. It’s not been a good year for the brick and mortar bookstores.

The back wall art is made entirely of books.
Like the honey badger, it's pretty badass!

But there is a tiny bright spot in the vast wasteland of bookstore-less-ness in my area. Where my favorite Borders store had once been, a used bookstore opened, and I was able to spend a couple blissful hours there earlier this week.

It’s called 2^nd & Charles, part of a chain I hadn’t encountered before now. It sells – of course — used books, but also movies, video games (from the 360 all the way back to the old Nintendo cartridges!), and music. Pretty cool.

There’s no longer a café in the corner of the store, but they didn’t mind me bringing in my Starbucks. Book browsing is always better with a cup of chai in my hand! In fact, with the loss of the café comes plenty of extra room for all of those books. There are more and higher bookshelves than before, resulting in an overall increase in literary biomass (so to speak… though books do have a life of their own!).

No, it doesn’t completely make up for the loss of the Borders, but any day I come home with a bag full of books is a good one!