I love a good independent bookstore. One of my many teenage jobs was at the Book Corner in Gardner. The Book Corner was a small chain of bookstores. This was the late 1980s, so between having no internet and being a teenager, I don’t even know how many, or where the other stores were. I’m not sure I knew then. To me, the Book Corner was just me, a few other teenagers, and a small gaggle of very old women (in hindsight, probably not very old at all) in Timpany Plaza, Gardner.
This story contains a list of independent booksellers throughout Central Massachusetts and a little beyond, because we do like a Sunday drive with a destination bookstore. I also mixed in used bookstores. Now those are fun. *Photos here are of the Montague Bookmill, an excellent destination (with an indoor/outdoor restaurant next door), and the Sawmill River rushing in the background.
Almost 40 years later, my primary memories of the Book Corner are the line of people right around Valentine’s Day, because we also sold Hallmark cards and dust collector gifts. Also, this was before the internet, so people had to go into stores to buy their porn, and we did carry magazines.
A bonus of working there was that we could borrow any books or magazines we wanted, so it was like a library to me. I was probably only there about a year, but we are all the sum of our experiences, so here I am.
My first job out of college was at Little, Brown and Company in Waltham, so maybe the Book Corner gets some credit for that. When I worked there in the 1990s, there were so many independent booksellers. Amazon barely existed, let alone mattered to us. The big threats to independent booksellers were Barnes & Noble and Waldenbooks. Independent booksellers had author signings and so much charm and character, and their book buyers would read the books and bring in titles they knew their customers would eat up.
There were very few cafés in bookstores. The first bookstore with a café I ever went into was Tatnuck Bookseller. The Worcester store is long gone, but Tatnuck is still going in Westborough. It had things for kids to do, you could eat, you could read — basically, you could hang out for the afternoon. It was wonderful. Another independent bookstore I like is the Toadstool Bookshop in Keene and Peterborough, NH. When we visited our middle daughter at Keene State, we always stopped at Toadstool. Still in business.
As you do your holiday shopping this year, please support independent booksellers. Bonus: whoever you’re buying for will know you put thought into their gift. We all like something — cooking, trivia, history — and there’s a book for everyone.
Auburn
A Great Notion
New and Used Books
65 Southbridge Street, Auburn
Fitchburg
Goldfinch Mercantile
Bonfire Bookshop, 1st Floor, Used Books
Jade Vine Rare Books, 2nd Floor, Vintage and Antique Books
Goldfinch Mercantile, 3rd Floor, New Books
1 Wood Place, Fitchburg
Leominster
Morning Star Book Store
New Books, Specialty
375 Harvard Street, Leominster
Princeton
James Gray Bookseller
Antique Books Prior to 1700
46 Hobbs Road, Princeton
Webster
Book Lovers’ Gourmet
New and Used Books
72 East Main Street, Webster
West Brookfield
Quaboag Book Shop
New Books
80 W Main Street, West Brookfield
Worcester
Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester
New and Used Books
65 James Street, Worcester
Bedlam Book Cafe
New and Mostly Used Books
138 Green Street, Suite 1, Worcester
Root and Press
New Books
156 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester
Tatnuck Bookseller
New Books
18 Lyman Street, Worcester
TidePool BookShop
New Books
372 Chandler Street, Worcester
