My Top Ten Favorite Bookshops

I was reminded of a certain place the other day, and it occurred to me that I hadn't done a top ten list of my favorite bookshops yet.

I quickly compiled a list, trimmed it down to ten, and put all the bookshops in chronological order of when I visited them. Well, that's the order they're in for the most part.

I grew up in Illinois, went to university in Utah, and then moved down here to Phoenix, Arizona, where I've been ever since. Of course, I've done a bit of traveling over the years which means that my favorite places to buy books are spread out a bit. But you might find it odd that none of my favorites are in my birth state of Illinois. There's a rather simple reason for that. Money. I'm an only child who was raised by a widowed mother who had a small pension (my father died while serving in the Navy) and worked a variety of part-time jobs. One of those jobs was as the village librarian. I socked away as much money as I could for college, and since I grew up in a library, I didn't spend a lot of money on books. Bookshops became my life's blood once I went to college, and this is where I'll stop with the background and begin with my list.

Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore, Salt Lake City, Utah

While going to university in Utah, I quickly formed a weekend routine. In good weather, I spent a lot of time tracking down old ghost towns. In cold weather, I'd make the trip to Salt Lake City to eat lunch at the Shakespeare Sandwiche Shoppe and then lose myself in Sam Weller's. Weller's was the first bookshop I went in that had more than one floor, and that place was Wonderland for me. I had college courses opening my mind to so many new things and ideas, and it seemed that Weller's had a shelf for every one of them. Weller's has gone through several incarnations since I lived in Utah, but I'm glad to see that it's still thriving in a different location.

Upstart Crow, San Diego, California

I found Upstart Crow in Seaport Village on a trip to San Diego. After a particularly tasty seafood lunch in a restaurant on the beach, I wandered into this quirky little store with its nooks and crannies and started pulling book after book off the shelves that I wanted to read. It also had an excellent selection of one-of-a-kind cards and small gifts that I couldn't resist. Like Weller's, Upstart Crow has had to change in order to survive, and the way this bookshop has changed is to keep the books and other goodies and add a coffeehouse. Since the smell of brewing coffee makes me ill, I'm glad that I made Upstart Crow's acquaintance in earlier days.

Powell's Books, Portland, Oregon

In 2003, Denis and I went to Seattle to meet two dozen people from all over the world who'd all met online in a news group. We arrived early because there were places I wanted Denis to see, non-news group people I wanted him to meet... and I also wanted to explore new places-- like Powell's.

We headed down to Portland with a friend who'd been to Powell's on many occasions. The trouble was, Powell's is right downtown, and she couldn't remember exactly how to get there. One of my memories of visiting that bookstore is of her wanting to stop the car and ask every good-looking man for directions. (It seemed to be Handsome Man Day in downtown Portland that day.)

When we turned a corner and I saw that Powell's was not only several stories tall but had its own parking garage, I knew I was heading into book lovers' heaven. Yes, indeed. Floor after floor of books, an elevator, and shopping carts. Be still my heart. The hours we spent there were too few!

Singing Wind Bookshop, Benson, Arizona

I can't remember when I first heard about the bookshop on a working cattle ranch outside Benson, Arizona. I undoubtedly read a newspaper article about it. What I didn't expect to find was a ranch house crammed with a curated selection of books that accurately portrayed the mind and the interests of its incredible owner, Winn Bundy. If you click on the name of the bookshop in the caption below the photo, you'll be able to read my post and see a lot more photos.

Murder and Mayhem, Hay-on-Wye, Wales

On my first trip to the UK, we headed straight to Hay-on-Wye from the airport in Manchester. Jet lag made me sleep like a rock that night, and in the morning I experienced my first (but not last) full English breakfast. Then the broken-down rental car was loaded on a lorry, and Denis went to Leominster to get a new car. That left me alone on my first day in a new country. Alone. In the Book Capital of the UK. None of the forty-plus bookshops were open, so I wandered the streets of Hay-on-Wye, looking at houses and lack of parking, the castle, and those rolling green hills covered with white dots of grazing sheep.

Once the bookshops opened, I think I went a bit mad. I mean... over forty bookshops all within walking distance of each other? Murder and Mayhem was my favorite with its higgledy-piggledy rooms, steep twisting staircase, and imaginatively decorated rooms. I lost track of the time while I was in there, and afterward, I carried my sacks of books, my cold drink and a sandwich to a bench outside the library where I sat and ate and read and was serenaded by blackbirds and robins.

Barter Books, Alnwick, Northumberland, England

When you're the Duke of Northumberland and live in Alnwick Castle, you can have your own railway line and train station. When that station becomes surplus to requirements, what happens? It's turned into the largest secondhand bookshop in the UK.

Alnwick is very special to me, and so is Barter Books. If you click on the shop's name in the caption to the left, you'll be able to read my post about it and see several photos.

Leakey's Bookshop, Inverness, Scotland

Leakey's Bookshop is the largest secondhand bookshop in Scotland, and it was the highlight of my day in Inverness. Sadly, the café that Denis and I enjoyed so much is no longer there, but oh, those books!

Click on the shop's name in the caption to the right and you'll be able to read my post about it and see several more photos.

Waterstones, Cambridge, England

In the 1980s, Waterstones would send me this glorious, huge catalog, and I would order books from them. I thought visiting their shop in Cambridge would cap a perfect day of exploring this ancient university town. I was right.

This is a four-story bookshop complete with a café, which was the perfect place to give myself a breather from overdosing on that new book smell.

Books, glorious books! It was difficult for me not to bounce up and down like an excited child-- and I was right. After soaking up so much history and so many unusual sights, spending two or three hours immersed in books at Waterstones was the perfect thing to do.

Harrods book department, London, England

Some of you may have visited swanky department stores in places like New York or Los Angeles, but if you haven't walked into a place like Harrods in Knightsbridge, then you don't really know how the other half lives. Or shops. Harrods is huge, oozing class and money in every lavish detail. The book department is larger than many bookshops I've been in. As I walked down each aisle looking at the titles, it was all I could do not to start taking armloads of them to the cash register and having them all shipped to Phoenix. (If I'd done that, I'd probably still be paying off the credit card bill.)

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, Scottsdale, Arizona

Long-time readers had to know that The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale would be on my list. It's by no means the last place I visited, but I had to save it for last.

I've spent hundreds of dollars in this bookshop. I've attended dozens of author events. I've made friends here among both staff and customers. It's the perfect blend of books and people, and I am blessed to be able to go there whenever I like.


Well, that's my list. Have any of you visited any of the bookshops I've listed? Which ones? More importantly, which bookshops do you long to visit that aren't on my list? Enquiring minds would love to know! (I might be compiling a list for future travels....)

My Top Ten Visited Places in the U.S.

Top Ten lists must be like potato chips-- you can't compile just one. In my case, I think it's getting easy for me because I've begun to think of it as making today's list which acknowledges that tomorrow's list may be completely different.

I know it would be for today's list. I've done quite a bit of traveling in the U.S., most of it by car. From Sunday drives all around the state of Illinois when I was growing up, to a cross-country trip to California when I was ten, to flying coast to coast for my job, and on to vacations with my husband, I've seen quite a bit and know that I have quite a bit more to see. Right now the spots I've missed are New England, Alaska, and Hawaii. With my reluctance to participate in the endurance trials that now comprise air travel, I'm wondering if I could board a ship to get to Hawaii?

But I'm veering off topic. Here's my list of the most memorable places I've visited here in the United States. Click on the place name in the caption beneath each photo to be taken to more information about that place. You can also click on any photo to have it automatically open in a new window so you can see it full size. I also have a feeling that I'll be sharing a memory or two along the way, so I'd better get started!

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia.

I have visited two homes of famous Americans in which I felt the presence of greatness. Monticello is one of them, but my feeling about this place is stronger than some sort of hero worship. I truly love the house and its placement on a little mountain outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. When the tour guide led us through Jefferson's suite of rooms on the first floor-- library, study, bedroom, dressing room (in that order)-- with the sunlight streaming through those marvelous windows, I got the shivers. That suite of rooms is almost exactly what I would want for myself. When I was walking out on the grounds and came across the garden pavilion with that endless view, I cried at the beauty and perfection of that small brick building. I don't think anyone saw me, but who cares if they did? Since Jefferson put his heart and soul into drawing the plans and building it, I truly believe that visiting Monticello is like looking inside a great man's mind.

Abraham Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois.

Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois is the second home of a famous American in which I've felt the presence of greatness. I grew up about forty-five miles southeast of Springfield, so I've visited this house several times. I may not have felt I was looking inside Lincoln's mind as I was wandering through the rooms of his house, but I've been covered in goosebumps each and every time. 

A hill outside Cody, Wyoming

When I was ten, my grandparents, my mother and I loaded up the Chevy and traveled cross-country to visit a relative in Grass Valley, California. Outside Cody, Wyoming, I was sitting in the backseat looking out the window when I saw a herd of buffalo come up over a rise at a dead run. My first look at buffalo and I was riveted. That hill, the green grass, that herd of huge beasts, the dust... it's still one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.

The Mittens, Monument Valley, Arizona.

The second time I visited Monument Valley, Denis and I drove the dirt road that hits a few of the highlights, and I wouldn't let him wash the orange mud off the car when we came home. The third time we stayed at Goulding's Lodge in a room with a private balcony where we could sit and watch those incredible rock formations change color in the sun. That night as we walked to the restaurant for dinner, the closest one was a blazing hot pink in the setting sun. The next day we took an all-day tour of Monument Valley and Mystery Canyon. It was just the Navajo guide and Denis and me because it was the end of January and rather... cold.

But I didn't care. The Navajo call Monument Valley the "land of room enough and time enough," and I wouldn't mind living up there for a few months. Mystery Canyon is filled with ancient dwelling places high up in the rocks. One such place was decorated by tiny paint-covered handprints on either side of the door so it's called Baby House. I was so overwhelmed by the sky, the space, the beauty all around me that I didn't talk much the entire time. And I don't think anyone saw me cry this time either.

Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse, Washington.

I took a long ferry ride to San Juan Island, drove to the opposite side of the island, and walked to Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse. The area is a state park, and I found an empty picnic table, sat down, and waited. My patience was rewarded, and I got to watch a pod of orcas swimming and feeding in the Haro Strait. As far as I know, this is still the only whale watching state park in the country. I'm going to have to go back so I can get better photos than this one that I had to scan.

Hastings Building, Port Townsend, Washington.

If I lived in Washington, I think I'd choose Port Townsend. It's a wonderful Victorian era seaport on the Olympic Peninsula with fantastic views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It's also filled to bursting with wonderful old architecture-- like the Hastings Building above. The shopping is excellent-- I hope the bookshop is still there-- and I had fun driving around just looking at the buildings, watching deer graze on the lawn in front of the courthouse, and going to a restaurant just off the waterfront to eat seafood. I was enjoying myself so much that I almost missed the ferry. Like Lincoln's home and Monument Valley, Port Townsend is a place I've visited more than once.

Aerial view of Cahokia, Illinois.

The most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico can be found a few miles west of Collinsville, Illinois, close to the banks of the Mississippi River. At one time, Cahokia was one of the greatest cities in the world-- in 1250 AD it was larger than London. It was so quiet when Denis and I visited. The traffic on the highway that cuts through this ancient city wasn't enough to disturb the tranquillity. Even though the mounds-- the remnants of monumental public buildings-- are covered with grass, they are still awe-inspiring. And if you visit at the right time of day-- as we did-- you'll see dozens of snowy white egrets.

Korean War-era troop carrier

 

Canyon de Chelly, Arizona

I thought you might like to see how we traveled on our all-day tour of Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "Shay"). The Korean War-era troop carrier was much more comfortable than it looks and handled areas with quicksand very well. There is a road up above that you can drive around the edges of Canyon de Chelly, but if you want to go inside the canyon (actually three canyons that converge), you must have a Navajo guide. Towering cliffs marked with bands of white, rust, black, and blue. Ancient ruins seemingly everywhere you look. And hogans because Canyon de Chelly is still lived in and farmed. We saw so much that day. Antelope House, White House, Mummy Cave, Spider Rock.... Canyon de Chelly feels like a protective mother who has been providing shelter and food for millennia. And-- dare I say it-- I much prefer it to the Grand Canyon. 

Sequoia National Park, California.

There's something deep inside me that prefers the natural world-- especially areas of wonder that put us scrawny humans in our place. Sequoia National Park was a place I remembered with awe from that cross-country trip when I was ten. At about this time last year, Denis and I drove the twisting road up the mountain and into the park through drifting wisps of cloud, and when I began seeing big trees with cinnamon-colored bark, I smiled. There's something about looking up and up and up at a magnificent tree like the General Sherman above and not being able to see the top. When I'm in the redwoods, I feel as though I am in a holy place.

Whitewater Draw, Cochise County, Arizona.

In winter, shallow lakes form in the Sulphur Spring Valley in places like Whitewater Draw. Thousands upon thousands of migrating birds-- like sandhill cranes-- winter here; it's one of the premier birding spots in the world (just ask crime fiction writer Ann Cleeves who's been known to visit). Denis and I love spending time down here because of the abundant wildlife, the history, and the wide open spaces. And... once you've heard the shiver-inducing cries of thousands of sandhill cranes, it's a sound you'll never ever forget.


Well, that's today's list of my ten favorite visited places in the U.S. Did I mention any of your favorites, or are some of these places on your travel wish list? Which ones? You know inquiring minds would love to know!

What top ten list is next? Who knows...but one did just occur to me-- the top ten places on my own travel wish list!

My Top Ten Portraits

I'd bet the farm that you don't know that art history was one of my favorite classes in college. See? I'm beginning to understand that one of the bonuses of compiling and posting these top ten lists is the fact that you're getting to know me a bit better.

Yes, I loved art history, but that didn't come as a complete shock. It was an elective class; therefore, studying it was my choice. My mother, who was raising me on a widow's pension and a variety of part-time jobs (including village librarian), spent some of her hard-earned cash to subscribe to five or six series published by Time-Life Books when I was a tween. Two of my favorite series were about museums of the world and about art. They were filled with full-page, luscious color photographs, and I would sit and slowly turn the pages, trying to soak up as much beauty as possible. So that art history class was a natural for me.

What wasn't natural was the sort of test the professor devised. Those exams were brutal. I would always finish among the very first in every other class I took, but in this class, we all stayed after the bell, scrambling to finish and still be able to make it to our next classes in time. A major part of her exams were slides of paintings we'd never seen before. We had to look closely at each one, state which artist we thought had painted it and give three reasons to support our decisions. Brutal! But the things I learned in that class are still with me.

Fortunately, this isn't one of those exams. All you have to do is take a look at some paintings that are among my favorite portraits. There's something about a well-done portrait, don't you think? It should always say more about the subject than the subject realizes. My choices are listed in alphabetical order by the artist's last name, and I've also provided links to each artist in the captions beneath each painting. I hope you enjoy!

"My Daughter Elizabeth" by Frank Benson

"Portrait of Madame Juillardin Red" by Giovanni Boldini

"Santa Fe Sun" by Steve Hanks

"Arthur Atherley, M.P." by Sir Thomas Lawrence

"Lady Helen Vincent" by John Singer Sargent

"A Talking Robe" by Howard Terpning

"Charles I in Three Positions" by Sir Anthony van Dyck

"Girl With a Pearl Earring" by Johannes Vermeer

 

"Self Portrait in a Straw Hat" by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

"Redhead" by William Whitaker

Now for a few words about some of my choices.

Steve Hanks works with watercolors, and I think his art is amazing. Until I saw his work, I never thought you could get so much detail using watercolors.

Lawrence's "Arthur Atherley, M.P." looks like a rich, spoiled hellraiser, doesn't he?

John Singer Sargent is my favorite portraitist, and I chose one of his charcoal sketches to show how fabulous he is, regardless of medium.

Vermeer's "Girl With a Pearl Earring" is probably my favorite portrait of all time. Those eyes!

I first saw a portrait painted by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun at the Phoenix Art Museum in the 1980s when a huge traveling exhibit of Impressionist paintings was touring the country. That exhibit blew me away and made me momentarily wonder if I could smuggle that water lily painting by Monet out of the building without being caught. I walked into another room in the museum to calm down a bit before going back for another walk-through when I saw this face smiling down at me from the opposite wall. It was one of Vigée Le Brun's portraits, and it outshone everything else in the room. It didn't take me long to find a biography written about her that included color plates of some of her work.

I know that Art isn't everyone's "thing," but I do hope you enjoyed wandering through my little exhibition!

My Top Ten(ish) Movies

One of the things that make compiling top ten lists so difficult for me is the fact that the finalists can change from day to day (or hour to hour) depending on my mood. Making choices like this tend to be extremely subjective because I'm not looking at each choice from an expert's point of view. I'm not looking at cinematography, screenplays, choice of actors, et al. with anything that even remotely smacks of expert knowledge. I'm looking at how all the parts of a movie affect my emotions and my mind. 

That said, here is my most recent list of top ten favorite movies according to their release dates. Hopefully, you'll find one or two of yours here as well. Click on the name of the movie in each caption, and you'll be taken to more information about that film.

1943--Shadow of a Doubt   1954--Rear Window

Okay...so I had a little trouble choosing one favorite Hitchcock movie!

1949--The Heiress

My interpretation of the ending of The Heiress has changed over time as my life experience has changed. I like that.

1957--The Incredible Shrinking Man

1962--The Manchurian Candidate

1963--The Haunting

1972--Jeremiah Johnson

1991--The Silence of the Lambs

2002--Rabbit-Proof Fence

2003--Finding Nemo

2009--Avatar

Do we agree on any of these films? Did I surprise you with any of my choices? Which ones? Inquiring minds would love to know!

My List of Favorite Bridges to Cross

You never can tell what will set off a round of Top Ten List making for me, especially since I decided that they didn't all have to be about books. 

This time someone on TV said, "I'll cross that bridge when I get to it," and off to the races I went. 

My mother hated bridges, and if she ever made up a list of them, it would be of the ones she most hated to cross. I think I didn't inherit that dislike. Well... if I were ever to get on a bridge that goes on world without end amen with no land in sight, I might start feeling a mite antsy, but I haven't. 

This week, I'm going to share my favorites of the bridges that I have crossed. I'm going to list them in order of when they were crossed, and the captions under most of them will lead you to more information about the bridge if you're interested. Naturally you can click on the photos to see them in more detail. The first bridge on my list has lingered in my mind for a long time. Let's start with it.

A wooden single-lane country bridge, Illinois.

If anyone in my family ever took a photo of the bridge southwest of the little farm town where I grew up, I couldn't find it. This photo comes remarkably close. The bridge back home was old, it was wooden, it was single lane. There were no guard rails. It was narrower than the bridge in the photo, and as Grampa drove his pickup across it, the boards would rumble and pop. The bridge went through some woods and crossed Flat Branch Creek. In summer, it was like going through a humid, green, mosquito-infested tunnel.  

One winter Grampa took me for a ride in his pickup to take a look at how bad the flooding was out in the country. It was bad. So bad that you couldn't see this bridge at all when Grampa drove us over it. I still remember the wrath visited upon his head when we got home and my grandmother found out what he'd done. (My grandmother was doing such a good job that Mom didn't have to contribute a word.) Hopefully that bridge has been replaced by now!

Thompson Mill Covered Bridge, Illinois.

The Thompson Mill Covered Bridge is a few miles from the farm town in which I grew up. It was built in 1868 and crosses the Kaskaskia River. The first time I visited this bridge, I was quite young, and even then it was blocked off so you couldn't drive across it. My grandparents and I walked across it, and it gave me the creeps. I've never really understood how covered bridges came to be thought of as romantic. I know Mom didn't think they were; she stayed by the car the whole time we were there!

Golden Gate Bridge, California.

The first time I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, I was two, so I don't remember it. The next time, I was ten and on our family's great cross-country adventure. I don't know which was cooler: going across the Golden Gate or traversing the roller coaster series of hills in San Francisco to get to the bridge!

Coronado Bridge, California.

The Coronado Bridge in San Diego, California is also one that I've crossed a few times. Crossing #1 was on my first visit, and it was my first experience of a bridge with a very steep approach. On my way back to the hotel, a rather large U.S. Navy ship was going underneath, and that steep approach suddenly made all the sense in the world.

Hampton Roads Bridge and Tunnel, Virginia.

As a "honeymoon trip," Denis and I flew back to Virginia to help one of his friends move to El Paso, Texas, but before Denis and I had to climb aboard the big yellow Penske truck to drive their furniture cross country, we had time to explore. When my father was in the Navy, he was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia, and we headed over there to discover that that was not the day for visitors to be shown around the base. On our way back, we crossed the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, and I felt as though I was on Mr. Toad's wild ride. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a combination bridge and tunnel, but when you've got ships like aircraft carriers going through, engineers knew that tunnel was the only way to go (even though I don't like being underground). This bridge still makes me feel a bit nervy....

Astoria-Megler Bridge, Oregon & Washington.

Denis and I crossed this bridge while exploring the Pacific Northwest. It's another bridge with a very steep approach. In fact, as we passed multi-story apartment buildings, I was trying not to look in people's bedroom windows. Then we crossed the Columbia, one of my three favorite American rivers. All the shipping went under the tall section of the bridge, which soon went back down to a normal type bridge-- only both guardrails were lined with cormorants. I suppose the fishing must have been really good from that section!

Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Washington.

On the same trip, Denis and I also crossed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge which goes through a particularly gorgeous (and windy) part of Washington State. In the photo, you can see Mt. Rainier in the background. Not only did I love the scenery, I was smiling because I knew that we were crossing a bridge known as Galloping Gertie. Ever heard of her? 

The Forth Bridges, Scotland.

In the photo above, you see the Forth Road Bridge to the left and the Forth Rail Bridge to the right. Both cross the Firth of Forth in Edinburgh, Scotland. The rail bridge is one of the engineering wonders of the world. The first time I crossed the Forth Road Bridge, my head was in a whirl because it was a huge bridge with all this traffic going in the wrong direction. I also remember being disappointed because I was hoping to soak up some of the incredible views, but once you start driving over bridges like this one, there is no view. (In other words, Pay Attention to Your Driving!)

Skye Bridge, Scotland.

The Skye Bridge connects the Isle of Skye to the mainland of Scotland at Kyle of Lochalsh. When the wind gets really bad, the bridge is closed to traffic. (Ask me how I know this.) But that first time across, looking down at that lighthouse and out across the incredible view, was sheer magic. I remember that day as being filled with waterfalls and rainbows. A day I shall never forget. 

Tyne Bridge, England.

The Tyne Bridge is one of seven crossing the River Tyne to connect Newcastle upon Tyne to Gateshead in northeast England. On our way back from the Highlands of Scotland northwest of Inverness and on down to visit a dear friend in Durham, our route took us across this bridge, right in the heart of a busy city. It was extremely difficult to gawk at the bridge and all the buildings at the same time, but I tried my best!

Tower Bridge, England.

So many things to see in London, so many crowds! But even though my head was buzzing with everything I'd seen in the one day of sight-seeing that we had, I couldn't help being impressed by Tower Bridge and the weight of history all around me.


Yes, I did leave some bridges out. I think that's the whole point of these Top Ten lists, don't you? 

What bridges have you crossed that would make your own personal Top Ten lists? Inquiring minds would love to know!