Escape to the Nook
I had a nice time recently browsing at two very different woman-owned bookstores on South 1st, Escapist Bookstore and Nancy's Nook.
Escapist Bookstore is a gallery/boutique/bookstore with a relatively small but careful selection of books focusing on underground titles, some familiar, some not. When I went in several friendly people were chatting away while hanging an art show, making it seem more like someone's living room than a business.
I picked up a copy of Angry Young Spaceman by Jim Munroe, which looked like it might be a worthy successor to the work of Kilgore Trout. It was that or Tokyo: A Certain Style, a tiny book with photo after photo showing just how much junk can be crammed into a Japanese slacker's broom-closet apartment. Perhaps it's a punk answer to The Not So Big House, or as one reviewer called it, "a coffee-table book for a Tokyo-sized coffee table." T:ACS is initially engrossing but ultimately claustrophobia-inducing; I've got enough clutter of my own, thanks.
After some restorative fresh air and sunshine I went next door where Nancy of Nancy's Nook specializes in used children's books and toys, with a generous helping of grown-up books thrown in for good measure. She has the best selection of kids' books I've seen since Toad Hall closed down (RIP) and sells them for the most part at garage sale prices. Nancy's Nook is a certain kind of book-browser's idea of heaven, with meticulously arranged shelves vying for space with piles of cardboard boxes of unshelved and possibly unsorted inventory. I'm sure there are other book shoppers for whom it would constitute hell; if you are subject to disequilibrium while contorting through confined spaces or have problems with cats or the smell of cigarette smoke, you might wish to shop elsewhere. But if a challenge whets your appetite for book-hunting, then Nancy's is for you.
Both are located at 2209 South First between Live Oak and Oltorf.