Robin, if I look in the yellow pages for "Reston's Used Bookstore", will I find it? I'll totally take a trip if it's open on Sunday...
'Our Mrs. Reynolds'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
This is pathetic, because it's been years, but I'm still kind of traumatised by my one trip into a used book store in DC (on R, maybe? Upstairs) that was a lovely looking place, but then I realized that anything I would be even vaguely interested in reading was all in one crappy bookshelf labeled "MASS MARKET." I'm way too mass market for that place.
Oh, I've been there, Robin! I went with a friend of mine who works out near there--I took her to mine (which is the Book Alcove, someone else mentioned it) and she took me to hers, and then we went for bubble tea. It was an awesome day.
Cool, Meara!
We neither buy nor trade textbooks, encyclopedias, Harlequin Romances, very specialized books, computer books, books in poor condition, and most book club novels
Robin, Just out of curiosity, what does the store have against Harlequin romance? Dreck, surely, but who are we to judge? :)
My guess -- totally out of the blue -- is that Harlequins, along with all the rest of that list of categories, fall out of date or out of print quickly and have no collector value. (Encyclopedias are only valuable if they're really really old, book club books aren't as valuable as non-book-club editions, and "very specialized books" sounds like a catchall category for "won't fetch a nice price considering the amount of space it will take up".)
my one trip into a used book store in DC
FWIW, I used to visit this one place outside Dupont Circle that had all manner of books, including the dusty tiny-print elderly stuff, but also sold vintage movie posters in frames. They had a French 3-sheet poster for Mad Max premiering at Cannes, and a 1-sheet size of The Empire Strikes Back, with a little banner in the corner with "Coming soon! Revenge of the Jedi!" (It was like $300, or I might have bought it.)
For the life of me I can't remember whether I ever bought any books there, but I sure remember the posters.
Deena was the Stephanie Laurens book that disappointed the one about the brother of the wife of the eldest Cynster (Devil?) -- because I had already taken it out of the library before reading your comment -- and now I've started it. It doesn't seem so bad.
Yes, sumi. It doesn't start out too bad. But it gets much worse. I think what bothered me the most is that she doesn't let a chapter go by without reminding you that he's a brilliant young politician. The story itself isn't bad, I don't think. It's the execution that leaves a lot to be desired.
Maybe she needs to take a break from writing for a bit!