Sorry--this post is a little bit different from the usual. As an exercise in wishful thinking, I have created (with a few suggestions from others) what I believe to be the perfect specialty bookstore environment--this one specializing in mystery & detective fiction.
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Here's the elements that would make up this particular bookstore:
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1. Book are divided by sub-genre (hard-boiled, police procedural, media tie-ins, etc) and then divided by author within those catagories. The selection is comprehensive, with both new and classic books.
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2. A small section of used books that customers can buy/trade for is also available.
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3. DVD section with mystery movies/TV shows
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4. Section for selling CDs of mystery/detective old-time radio shows.
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5. A small cafe.
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6. "The Diogenes Club": An area with comfy chairs/sofas. Also, a copy of the game "Clue" is there free for people to play anytime. There would be selection of classic mystery fiction for people to read for free and a Sherlock Holmes chess set.
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7. Large-screen TV in the Diogenes Club.
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8. For an hour or so each day, at a scheduled time, old-time radio mystery shows will be played over the store speakers.
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9. Three nights a week: Mystery movie night on the large-screen TV. (It's turned off the rest of the time--to allow customers and browsers a properly quiet atmosphere.)
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10. Once a week talk by an author and/or mystery historian.
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11. Once a week book discussion group.
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12. A small magazine section with stuff like Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Armchair Detective, etc.
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13. A small games section for genre-specific board games and computer games.
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14. A small graphic novel section for genre-appropriate materials.
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15. Once a month catered mystery dinner whodunit night.
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Of course, to be really, really perfect, someone would have to actually get murdered from time to time. The police would be baffled and I would have to step in and use brilliant deductive reasoning to identify the killer. I've always wanted to do that, but the opportunity never seems to arise. But, to save my customers a knife in the back or poison in their coffee, I suppose I'll have to leave that part out anyways.
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If I ever become a multi-millionaire, I'm gonna open this place. Don't anyone hold their breaths waiting, though. The multi-millionaire part seems a tad unlikely.
Actually, one of the main streets in my city has most of these within a few minutes' drive of each other. There's a well-organized second-hand bookstore that specializes in cheap paperbacks with a huge section just for mysteries. It even carries some audiobooks. (I got The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on cassette there). Across the street is a cafe whose owner hosts the "geek movie" group on Meetup.com. A block away is a large comics shop full of graphic novels and board games. The nearby branch of the public library hosts book discussion clubs. They even devoted one session to adventure fiction, and it was very well-attended, although regrettably the organizers appear not to have learned from the experience and held more.
ReplyDeleteNot much for the fan of old radio, although I suppose one could drive down this street while listening to Sirius XM's channel devoted to classic radio shows!