Out, About: Where to shop for the bookworm in your life

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I just traveled to Denver to visit my prima hermana (a cousin so close they’re more like a sibling) and her kids for Thanksgiving.

Somehow, between all the game nights and animated movies and playing catch and Target hauls, I managed to read all 400+ pages of my book that was supposed to sustain me on my flight home.

So, I stopped at the Tattered Cover bookstore in Union Station (Denver’s Union Station is also a hotel, like ours, but still has a running Amtrak line) and finally got myself a copy of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

I’ve never met an independent bookstore I didn’t like, but visiting ones in other cities makes me appreciate the magic we have here in Nashville.

So, whether you’re looking for your own vacation read this holiday season or for a gift for a loved one, it’s about time we mentioned our recs for local bookworms:

Novelette

This queer-owned bookstore popped up in East Nashville last year as the first business in the repurposed retail building, Eastwood Village. It has quickly become a favorite among the city’s most devoted readers.

With monthly bookclubs, “blind dates” with books, and a dedicated Discord server, the shop has created a real community. I’m much more of a lurker than a contributor in the virtual space, and still, Jordan knows to recommend the latest Greek Mythology retelling every time I walk in the door.

Our summer 2022 intern Jackie Llanos reported on Novelette’s opening.

Parnassus

Everyone knows and loves Ann Patchett’s local shop, Parnassus Books. But not everyone knows what made the acclaimed author open up her own store.

Patchett told me the idea came when she couldn’t find a local place to carry one of her own novels over a decade ago. They’d all closed down. Desperate, she ended up talking her tailor into selling it.

“You could have your pants shortened and buy a copy of ‘State of Wonder,'” she said.

Since then, Parnassus has become the place to find not only titles from local authors (often signed) but also to attend author events, book clubs, Saturday Storytime for kids, and more. I’ve found some of my best socks, cards and even a copy of Millennial Loteria (IYKYK) in the non-book sections. And if you were reading that conversation I had with Patchett back in 2019, don’t worry. Amazon Books has since (quietly) closed across the street.

The Bookshop

Another independent option in East can be found at The Bookshop. But can I be honest with you?

I’m less inclined to swing by the store as I am their many out-and-about events, like Books and Beer (aka adult book fair!) and the monthly Silent Book Club at the Graduate hotel. The latter is the ultimate version of parallel play, or body doubling for all my fellow ADHDers. Being around others reading in comfortable silence helps me do the same. And there’s a book swap too, if you need yet another thing on your overflowing bookshelf without the guilt of spending more money (or am I projecting?).

Alkebu-Lan Images

The first time I stepped foot in the bright yellow building on the corner of Jefferson Street, a bookseller who’d been working there for two decades told me about how it was more than a bookstore. It was a culture center and community hub.

She gestured to a regular nearby who came over to tell me how he asked his now-wife to meet him at the shop before their first date (“In public, you know, in case she was crazy!”). They got so into discussing the books they’d both read on the shelves that they missed their dinner plans, but things obviously worked out.

I told this to my godmother when she visited me recently. She has an entire room in her home dedicated to all her books on African and Caribbean culture, history and race theory, so I tried to be as casual as possible with my recommendation. She knew better than I, after all. She went one of the days I was at work, and came out with three new titles even she hadn’t heard of.

You can hear more about these shops and the city’s bookstore scene broadly in this episode of This Is Nashville.

May your reading lights stay bright and your lent books never return dogeared, friends!