Rhode Frog: Favorite Places: The Shire Book Shop

The Shire Book Shop is, hands down, my favorite used book store.
First of all, the place is huge. Housed in a historic former mill on Union St. in Franklin, The Shire is more like a book warehouse.
The square footage (probably the largest used book store I've ever visited), the scruffy yet organized atmosphere, the prices, the sweet proprietor (Jean Wallick, who offers you tea and hot chocolate) the vast collection of: ordinary paperbacks and hardcovers in every imaginable genre, first editions, out of print, and rare volumes, the fantastic children's section - all of it make the shop a book lover's heaven.

The atmosphere and decor fascinate me. Despite my feelings about converting mills into condos and penthouses (stupid!), I can't get enough of retail shops in that setting. I feel more comfort-able sinking into one of the Shire's arm chairs or couches than any stiff new leather chair at a big box store.
The Shire has so much character, so many odds, ends, curiosities, and antiques lining the outer shelves near the windows.
I like the old wood stove, the tiny child's school desks, the piano, and the ladders in every aisle.
All of that is fun, but, of course, it's all about the books. You won't find a bigger selection of quality used (current and rare) books anywhere. You won't find such a diverse selection, or better prices. The cookbooks greet you at the door, the fiction paperbacks line the outer wall, history and biographies take center stage, and the rare collectibles are the corner sirens near the register.
Don't let the not-for-sale sections sadden you - yes, their spines are broken, their pages dirty and decaying, but they're in a good home. They're going to be alright. The children's section reminds me of my own book-filled childhood - it reminds me of my mother balancing on a little stool in front of the low stacks, going through every single volume looking for a new story to share with me.
It doesn't matter where you live - Boston, Warwick, wherever - you must go to the Shire Book Shop!

Bits & Pieces

Senator Al Franken has proposed a "Pay for War" resolution that would require Congress to raise taxes and/or cut spending before authorizing new acts of war, so that American foreign adventures can't contribute to the national debt.

In "The Long Road Home," historian Ben Shephard tells the neglected story of the refugee crisis the Allies faced when, at war's end, millions of displaced persons -- among them prisoners of war, slave laborers and survivors of concentration camps -- had to be repatriated to their homelands or resettled somewhere else.

For most of the last century, talk of secession, nullification and the rest of the extreme states-rights lexicon were relegated to the fringiest parts of the political fringe. But since Barack Obama entered the White House in January 2009, mainstream Republican rhetoric and proposed legislation at the state level have both warmed to the hoary idea that state governments can take their relationship with the federal government on what amounts to an a la carte basis or perhaps abandon it altogether.

Is the tantalizing dream of a universal library dead? Some scholars and librarians across the country fear it may be, now that a federal judge in New York has derailed Google’s bold plan to build the world’s largest digital library and bookstore.

...the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office... finds that a large part of the supposed savings from spending cuts would go, not to reduce the deficit, but to pay for tax cuts. In fact, the budget office finds that over the next decade the plan would lead to bigger deficits and more debt than current law.

...Republicans in Mississippi are divided over a wholly different wedlock issue: interracial marriage.

Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz writes in this month's Vanity Fair about the corrosive, self-reinforcing wealth concentration that has hijacked American politics, in which the America's future is sacrificed to give ever more money to an ever-smaller group of oligarchs.

Favorite Places: The Shire Book Shop

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