Wednesday, September 28, 2011

After Bouchercon II: The Delmar Loop plus more books

I'm on my way to pick up the box of books I shipped home from Bouchercon (titles by Mukoma Wa Ngugi, Derek Raymond, Christa Faust, Scott Phillips, Gianrico Carofiglio, Roslund & Hellström, and Jakob Arjouni, among others, plus goodies from the book bag that I haven't looked at yet). While I'm away, here's a bit more from St. Louis.
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Wikipedia tells me that the Delmar Loop in St. Louis is "One of the 10 Great Streets in America," according to the American Planning Association. But I already knew it was great; I was there last week after Bouchercon 2011.

I wrote briefly about Delmar Boulevard's America's-coolest Walk of Fame; here are some of the street's signs. Delmar Boulevard is also home of the Meshuggah Café, site of St. Louis' version of Noir at the Bar; and of Subterranean Books, one of three(!) independent bookstores I visited over the course of the week. (The others were Big Sleep Books and Left Bank Books. Read about them and others on this list of dealers who set up shop in Bouchercon's book room.)

Meshuggah Café is a fine place for a reading, to judge from the clientele the night I visited: beautiful evening around 10, crowds out and about, the sidewalk in front of the store lined with people reading. Not jabbering on their phones or sending apps flying around their iPad screens, but reading books. It was probably the most startling and definitely the most heartening sight of my Bouchercon week.

(Photos by your humble blogkeeper)
© Peter Rozovsky 2011

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4 Comments:

Anonymous May said...

Peter, have you ever considered doing write-ups about bookstores that specialize in selling mystery/crime fiction? Independent bookstores always need all the publicity they can get, especially these days, but their owners and the stores themselves are usually just so interesting.

September 29, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

May, I have made posts about independent crime-fiction bookstores here , here , here . here , here, and here . Perhaps I could collect them and repost them from time to time -- and make it a point to seek out more such stores.

September 29, 2011  
Anonymous May said...

Oh, I hadn't seen those particular posts. You could do a Google Map (or something similar), where the bookstores are pinpointed. You might even ask your readers to share the address of their favorite crime fiction bookstores.
I am thinking of a very helpful page on a Korean cooking blog I visit where the users have contributed to an international listing of places where you can purchase Korean ingredients (often a challenging endeavor, and therefore warranting such a directory).

October 04, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

That's not a baid idea. I'll think about ways of putting it into practice. Thanks.

October 04, 2011  

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