Knights & Knaves Alehouse

I love the smell of book stores. I do get better deals shopping on line, but I just like going to the bookstore. Old man is old. Huh .. maybe I'll change my username after all. Been hankering to do so for a little while.

As I posted on Google+, since B&N and Borders shoved out most the major competition around here, Borders pull out has left B&N as the only big dog remaining on the block.

TheRedPriest wrote:I love the smell of book stores. I do get better deals shopping on line, but I just like going to the bookstore. Old man is old. Huh .. maybe I'll change my username after all. Been hankering to do so for a little while.

As I posted on Google+, since B&N and Borders shoved out most the major competition around here, Borders pull out has left B&N as the only big dog remaining on the block.

Head this way and you'll have Half Price Books.

One of my aunts wanted to open a HPB in the space at Homestead & Veterans Blvd (opposite C's Pharmacy) that opened up when my grandfather closed down his hardware store. Her sisters told her she was nuts. They wanted to sell the property.

It was a good spot and had been in the family since my grandfather built the store there in the 1950s.

Alas...still no HPB in Metairie, as far as I know. And, as best as I can tell, my mother and my aunts liquidated the property for next to nothing just to be rid of it.

I bought my first D&D stuff (the awful intro to 2E box) at the very Waldens you speak of. I apparently missed the cool stuff, as I was born in the mid eighties.

Yeah, Books For Less, sorry to hear that's gone; it had been around since I was a kid as well, although it had relocated a while back (perhaps it did again? The lady who ran it must be getting old by now). I admit I have not checked on it the last few times I've been in town. It was a crapshoot as to whether you'd find a gem or nothing at all.

I do, however, generally make a point to stop at Record Rack (which is yet another store that seems to enjoy bouncing around town). I highly recommend it, if you're into records.

Random wrote:I bought my first D&D stuff (the awful intro to 2E box) at the very Waldens you speak of. I apparently missed the cool stuff, as I was born in the mid eighties.

Well, when I say cool stuff, I meant that I got into MERP and RM from that tiny sliver of RPG stuff stuck in the back corner of that store.

If you were born mid 80s then you came along after Pickwicks stopped carrying D&D stuff because all the old bats that haunted the place raised hell about it. THAT was the place to go for gaming stuff up to about 1986.

Yeah, Books For Less, sorry to hear that's gone; it had been around since I was a kid as well, although it had relocated a while back (perhaps it did again? The lady who ran it must be getting old by now). I admit I have not checked on it the last few times I've been in town. It was a crapshoot as to whether you'd find a gem or nothing at all.

I think someone told me it was gone. Shit, I don't go to Pine Bluff. BFL, IIRC used to be located back in Watson Chapel proper... I hit it a few times and got some good obscure books there like Mick Fleetwood's autobiography and stuff like that.

I do, however, generally make a point to stop at Record Rack (which is yet another store that seems to enjoy bouncing around town). I highly recommend it, if you're into records.

Last time I went there, it was in that open air mall I mentioned above. I remember when it was down south of Jefferson Square... back when it had the cool head shop vibe not unlike Armadillo's Hands in Little Rock. The sterile atmosphere of the second location didn't do much for me.

I used to enjoy going to the Borders Book Shop in Indianapolis when my sister was in college back c. 1990 -- it was the first really big bookstore I'd ever been in and it pretty much blew my mind -- so I've always had sort of a sentimental soft-spot for Borders, even though once they went into heavy expansion-mode in the mid-90s the stores were all very corporate and faceless with nothing of the charm of that old Indianapolis store, and then later on (maybe 4-5 years ago) they seemingly decided to cut way back on their stock which totally undercut their original appeal (that you could go there and be pretty much guaranteed of finding a copy of any in-print book). There's a Borders right by my work that was about the only local one to survive the last round of purges and I'd still go there occasionally when they had a good coupon (30-40% off) but even I, probably about as loyal a customer as you'll find, must confess I haven't actually bought much there in the last few years.

In general I'm unhappy with the trend of retail stores disappearing and being replaced by online merchants, because I've always liked browsing more than searching -- I like going up and down the aisles looking at the displays and seeing what catches my eye, being able to pick things up and examine them, and also the instant-gratification of being able to take my purchase home with me and enjoy it right away rather than waiting for it to arrive in the mail. Not just bookstores but also record stores, clothing and shoe stores, grocery stores, liquor stores, even video rental stores. The act of browsing a website is in no way comparable. Plus I like the social face-to-face aspect of going to a store where other people are shopping and interacting with them -- I've never yet met a cool person or a cute girl at amazon because we happened to be interested in the same thing and started talking about it.

Luckily I live in a major metropolitan area so we still have stores, including several good independent bookstores that are way better than Borders ever was (my favorite is Vroman's in Pasadena, but I also like Skylight Books which has the advantage of being within walking distance from home) but even they are fewer and further between -- almost all of my old favorite record stores are out of business, for instance

Semaj Khan wrote:Last time I went there, it was in that open air mall I mentioned above. I remember when it was down south of Jefferson Square... back when it had the cool head shop vibe not unlike Armadillo's Hands in Little Rock. The sterile atmosphere of the second location didn't do much for me.

It's moved again since then; now it's actually in Jefferson Square. The atmosphere isn't so wild, but I do think it's funny that you have to walk through the porn shop to get to the vinyl.

@Foster: Sorry to hear about your record stores.

I asked this over at DF as well.

Did Borders do an e-book reader like Amazon's kindle? If so I wonder what happens when the company folds?

JasonZavoda wrote:I asked this over at DF as well.

Did Borders do an e-book reader like Amazon's kindle? If so I wonder what happens when the company folds?

No - this was listed in one of the articles I read as one of their failings. They neither anticipated the new technology, nor attempted to get on the train (a la B&N) as it was pulling away from the station.

Eye of the Beholder wrote:

JasonZavoda wrote:I asked this over at DF as well.

Did Borders do an e-book reader like Amazon's kindle? If so I wonder what happens when the company folds?

No - this was listed in one of the articles I read as one of their failings. They neither anticipated the new technology, nor attempted to get on the train (a la B&N) as it was pulling away from the station.

Boy, corporate espionage just isn't what it used to be, is it?

Eye of the Beholder wrote:

JasonZavoda wrote:I asked this over at DF as well.

Did Borders do an e-book reader like Amazon's kindle? If so I wonder what happens when the company folds?

No - this was listed in one of the articles I read as one of their failings. They neither anticipated the new technology, nor attempted to get on the train (a la B&N) as it was pulling away from the station.

Looking at my latest coupon email from Borders it mentions the Kodo reader. Is that some 3rd party e-reader?

Thats one good thing about St. Augustine; we have at least 5 or 6 dedicated second hand bookstores. One of them is dedicated to used comics as well. There is also a slew of antique stores around and many of them deal in books and records. We have 1 dedicated Music store (it is privately owned) and deals in both new and used and have been open since the 80's. We also have a rare book finder store called Wolfhead books and they have some amazing stuff but you pay for what it is worth. So St. Augustine is pretty lucky in that sense, but funny enough none of these stores carry RPG stuff.

Books-a-Million has started a chain of used bookstores, 2nd & Charles. So far they only have two open, one in Augusta, GA and the other in my neck of the woods, in the Birmingham, AL. area. I pray to god it succeeds and spreads across the country.

The one where I live is actually bigger than most BaM stores I've been in and is set up like, and even looks, somewhat like a BaM. Except everything's orange. For the most part, they're very reasonably priced. If successful, the chain could spread and keep bibliophiles very happy for a long time to come.

So far, the store in my area looks to be doing well. A big part of that is their humongous buy-back area and store credit policies. There's no real limit on the amount someone can bring in to sell or trade and so long as it's in ok shape and they're not overstocked on a specific book, they take everything! So, they're always getting in new stuff! I've gotten six AD&D 1e HC's from the store, in the past few months. All at $3 to $7 dollars a piece! Not to mention all the fiction I've found.

They've also started selling New Releases. I think BaM is setting themselves up for the day when only New Releases are being printed at all! They also have a large section for used cd's, dvd's and vinyl. Not to mention the kind of weird knik-knacks you find in other chain bookstores.

Of course, mom and pop used bookstores are going to have an almost impossible task, competing.

Stonegiant wrote:Thats one good thing about St. Augustine; we have at least 5 or 6 dedicated second hand bookstores. One of them is dedicated to used comics as well. There is also a slew of antique stores around and many of them deal in books and records. We have 1 dedicated Music store (it is privately owned) and deals in both new and used and have been open since the 80's. We also have a rare book finder store called Wolfhead books and they have some amazing stuff but you pay for what it is worth. So St. Augustine is pretty lucky in that sense, but funny enough none of these stores carry RPG stuff.

Yeah; all the AD&D stuff is here in the Orlando area...

...and I've already bought it all! HAHAHAHA

thedungeondelver wrote:

Stonegiant wrote:Thats one good thing about St. Augustine; we have at least 5 or 6 dedicated second hand bookstores. One of them is dedicated to used comics as well. There is also a slew of antique stores around and many of them deal in books and records. We have 1 dedicated Music store (it is privately owned) and deals in both new and used and have been open since the 80's. We also have a rare book finder store called Wolfhead books and they have some amazing stuff but you pay for what it is worth. So St. Augustine is pretty lucky in that sense, but funny enough none of these stores carry RPG stuff.

Yeah; all the AD&D stuff is here in the Orlando area...

...and I've already bought it all! HAHAHAHA

Yeah rub it in, one of these days axe, ska, and myself are going to make it down there and your going to have to put your money where your dungeon

Stonegiant wrote:

thedungeondelver wrote:

Stonegiant wrote:Thats one good thing about St. Augustine; we have at least 5 or 6 dedicated second hand bookstores. One of them is dedicated to used comics as well. There is also a slew of antique stores around and many of them deal in books and records. We have 1 dedicated Music store (it is privately owned) and deals in both new and used and have been open since the 80's. We also have a rare book finder store called Wolfhead books and they have some amazing stuff but you pay for what it is worth. So St. Augustine is pretty lucky in that sense, but funny enough none of these stores carry RPG stuff.

Yeah; all the AD&D stuff is here in the Orlando area...

...and I've already bought it all! HAHAHAHA

Yeah rub it in, one of these days axe, ska, and myself are going to make it down there and your going to have to put your money where your dungeon

One of these days...I swear, I've been hearing that and "Ooh we should have a florida-con!" for years now.