Book Stores Now Enjoy Worldwide AccessIndependent bookstores of every variety among book online store worldwide general interest, children's, mystery and science fiction, religious and motivational are finding people who'd rather read than watch or listen. In the early 2000 independent booksellers among book online store worldwide were worried about being run out of business by the chains with their bright lights and big discounts. But in the past few years there's been a subtle shift. Nobody is predicting the demise of the chains, but the independents are thriving. "Certainly the independents have experienced what I would call a renaissance of spirit," said Joyce Meskis, president of the American Bookseller's Association and owner of the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver. "Many positioned themselves as speciality stores, many moved on opportunities for growth and developed larger magnet stores and generally experienced a lot of support from their communities of readers," she said. That renaissance is evident locally with big changes at several bookstores. Book Carnival, the mystery and sci-fi store in Orange, ran out of shelf space at its old Tustin Avenue location and moved to more spacious quarters in November. Fahrenheit 451 Books in Laguna Beach opened a new 2,100-square-foot store in May in a minimall across Pacific Coast Highway from the old store. And at Courtyard Books in Tustin, new owners Alejandro and Rohde Morales have infused the general-interest bookstore with new ideas and new inventory including a selection of small press titles and foreign language books since they took over in August. And bookstore owners say there's a lot more to running an independent bookstore than knowing where to find the classical music station on the radio dial. For starters, there's staffing, stocking - and figuring out how to stay in business. Except for the cash register and the tiger-striped cat, Aladdin Books in Fullerton resembles nothing so much as the stacks of a college library. Among the store's 20,000 volumes are 14 titles on Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein, the complete works of John Fante, a dozen shelves on magic and a 400-plus-page tome on the history of the pencil. But don't ask for "Scarlett," the nation's No. 1 best seller. "We have no books on business, no how-to, self-help books. Definitely no 'Scarlett,' " owner John Cannon says emphatically. Unlike the chain stores, each independent has a signature, an esprit de store, whether it be the grad-student austerity of Aladdin Books, the clutter and warmth of the Dana Point Bookstore or the relaxed, coffeehouse atmosphere of Fahrenheit 451. |