Local Bookstores December 5, 2008
Posted by The Typist in Toulouse Street.Tags: books, deVille Bookstore, independent bookstores, New Orleans, NOLA, NOLA Rising, Rex
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Two quick notes on local bookstores. With the opening of the new Borders on St. Charles Avenue, its more important than ever to remember the local stores that have continued to serve the city when all chain bookstores chose to locate exclusively in the suburbs.
First, there is this note from Stay Local, calling out this Saturday, Dec. 6 as a day to celebrate our local bookstores. It you haven’t finished holiday shopping yet, there is no better present than a book. (My Xmas list for this year was short, and my book is The Maximus Poems
On a related note, one of my favorite local bookstores (because it’s just around the corner from work) is hosting some of my favorite local artists/activists. This just in from the deVille Bookstore mailing list:
We are pleased to invite you to the opening reception for Galerie deVille, located in the deVille Books store at 134 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, LA 70130, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., on Saturday, December 6, 2008.
The exhibit is entitled Inside Out/Outside In: A Celebration of New Orleans Street Art, featuring the work of Rex, Paint, Scott M., Ellipses, and Bullet-Tooth Maggie, among others.
In conjunction with this event, all “Art” books will be available at a 30% discount during the reception.
For additional information, you can go to http://devillebooks.blogspot.com.
Rex and company. Art books, 30% off. Sounds good. Did I mention that books make great gifts? (Did I mention “Carry Me Home“? Oh, my. I meant to).
Yeah, jewelry and power tools are nice (perhaps not in the same way to the same people, but still nice), but it’s just not a holiday break without a big new gifted book to dig into.
So what are you waiting for?
or at these independent New Orleans bookstores:
Odd Bits of Life in New Orleans 
Our mutual friend Schroeder read Borders the riot act over at People Get Ready. You know what happens when I try to post links here, so just go.
Aside: Mad props to Wet Jr.’s alma mater Ben Franklin HS, up to 16th in the entire country from 34th last year in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings! Hopefully those who have been nagging Mrs. Wet about the quality of public education in NOLA will see this and STFU…
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For the record, I am De La Salle ’75, but my daughter (and many of my friends) are Franklinites. There was a time Franklin was in a select group not included in the numeric ranking because they were so far off the charts, a super group of schools. I think the brand is running down, and I just hope I can get my two spawn through BFHS and into college before the admissions officers of the world catch on.
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Oh, and here is Schroeder’s post:
http://peoplegetready.jockamofeenanay.com/?p=2619
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You’re Wet Sr., not Wet Jr. Or is there a Wet Sr. who I did not get to meet that night?
As it happens, education in the city is the focus of my latest “Foolish”, quixotic crusade to get out of Paradise by any means necessary. An intriguing opportunity presented itself on craigslist this week. There even appears to be a KdV connection. Stay tuned…
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Don’t forget about Beth’s Books behind Sound Café in the Marigny – it’s the kind of bookstore you can really settle into, GREAT selection, new/used/local/international, cutting edge graphic novels, plus delicious Sound Café coffee. Doesn’t get much better than this –
and by the by: thank you, MF, for the continued support.
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The only thing Borders is really good for is hard-to-find DVDs and DVD box sets. I suggest the bookstores here keep doing what they do best – cater to their clienteles and offer the books and events that locals want.
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I’ve put together a growing listing of Louisiana’s great independent bookstores. Please take a look at
http://www.squidoo.com/Louisiana-Bookstores
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