Independent vs. Chain.

My new favorite spot in Appomattox is Baine’s Bookstore, a glorious little independent store. Baine’s is filled with books about the Civil War, a testament to the history of region and Appomattox’s main draw for tourism. The artsy-home appearance – wood walls, a fireplace in one corner, a piano in another – made me want to curl up on the couch and read a book immediately. Baine’s is a place where a reader feels like they are among friends – the intimate atmosphere and bare-wood shelves, the unmatched furniture. While the selection was a little lacking, just the feel of Baine’s made me want to come back again and again. While they carried no magazines beyond special interest, the large children’s section and the multitude of old books made the place priceless. And the gems that we did find – a guide to Southern women’s ways of getting what they want, a collection of church signs, a collection called Stories for Men (which I snatched up for a cool three dollars, along with a nice little book called Cult Fiction) – were awesome, true finds. The used book racks were filled, and we took plenty of time to look at the spinners and dumps, the different styles and colors used in the adult section as opposed to the kid’s section. The windows have small posters in them and lack huge window displays, making the atmosphere very relaxed. Baine’s also has specific areas for the required reading for the local middle and high schools, and the small café was the perfect place to grab a book and something to drink. After Baine’s we headed to the Barnes & Noble in Farmville, and I have to say it was kind of sad to leave the intimate setting that Baine’s provided for the bright fluorescent lights and white walls of a chain bookstore. The selection of books was better, but there were matching sets of Barnes & Noble published classics available everywhere – nice on a bookshelf, yes, but they lacked the character of the selection at Baine’s. There were far more marketing schemes seen in Barnes & Noble – multiple movie tie-ins, a section of journals and bookmarks, reading glasses for sale. The magazine section was large diverse and pretty extensive, and multiple advertising ploys could be seen in the section dedicated to school memorabilia – going green, the latest cuts of shirts emblazoned with “Longwood University,” even a suede jacket with the school name embroidered on the chest. The Barnes & Noble felt very commercial (and logically so), very slick and clean and capitalistic. Outside the large café, the Barnes & Noble was filled with various gums and candy, magnets and water bottles, items one might expect in a convenient store, but not in a bookstore. The window displays were large and a little awkward, and the matching furniture in the reading area seemed a little sterile to me. The extensive selection was nice and the large rack of bargain books was fun to look through, but there was nothing in the store that made me feel lucky to find, nothing that I couldn’t have gotten at any other chain bookstore in Virginia, and the feel of intimacy was something to be missed – an employee apparently likes listening to music more than reading, and after a rather loud comment on my part, the stereo was turned down. The café was filled with Tazo teas and Batman candy bars and vitamin waters of every flavor – again, something one might expect in a grocery or convenient store, but not what I think of when considering bookstores. The only items of true interest to me were the Moleskine notebooks, which are awesome, but are also a staple of chain bookstores. At the end of the day, I ended up wishing that we could’ve stayed at Baine’s, relaxing on the mismatched antique chairs and browsing through the unexpected books we found there – in my book, a victory for the independent bookstores.