Why I Love Greenpoint, Brooklyn indie bookstore WORD
I love books, and I love talking about books, but I'm often hard pressed to find people outside the internet as eager to chat about the latest romance and young adult novels as they are about the new Gary Shteyngarten or Haruki Murakami (no offense). Where I know I can always go and discuss the nuances of historical romance novelists Sarah MacLean and Eloisa James, or debate the fact that so much YA is full of death, or simply compare tattoos or thoughts on what's new in book land, is WORD, at 126 Franklin Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where the staff genuinely love books. When they recommend something to me, I don't feel like I'm getting the hard sell so they can make a buck, but rather a genuine, customized recommendation. "Sometimes I buy books online," I whispered a little shamelessly while in the store last night. "When they're cheaper," I hastened to explain. Nobody gave me a hipster death stare.
book lover greeting cards
book cover t-shirts
Recently, I wanted a copy of the graphic memoir Underwire by online comix creator Jennifer Hayden, and being the somewhat lazy person I am, I posted to WORD's Twitter account (@wordbrooklyn) asking if they had it. They didn't, but they ordered a copy for me, emailed me when it was in the store, and I just picked it up and am loving this quirky, profanity-laced comic about motherhood and marriage. I do often shop for books online, because, again, I'm lazy, but what I get from WORD is the art of the random discovery, such as a book I carry in my purse in all its tattered beauty. One afternoon when I was looking for something to cure an increasingly broken heart, I found poet Nikki Giovanni's Bicycles. It's a deceptively slim volume, but it contains a poem, "I Would Not Be Different," that spoke to me in a way all the other women who've fallen for married men couldn't ("You sort of see someone/And you don't want to notice/That ring on his finger/Nor really that sort of happy/Look in his eyes"). That poem alone has gotten me through some tough times, and I have WORD to thank for it. Bonus: for every $100 you spend, you get $5 in store credit. Last night's purchases—Underwire, the latest issue of food magazine Lucky Peach, and a recommendation of a children's graphic novel from event organizer Jenn Northington, whose word I trust immensely, Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke--mean I have a credit to spend next time I'm in the store. Lucky me.
my most recent WORD purchases
romance novel swag from a signing I attended earlier this year 
pop culture pencils
this is not true of me, but aren't these fun cards?
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Comments
However, I live a long way from Brooklyn, and there are no bookstores where I live.
I downloaded "Ulysses" onto my reading contraption, and, to make things easier, I was able to download a chapter explanation of the book, also, I could follow (I love travel & maps.) the walks of the characters around Dublin, including looking at Davy Byrne's pub, where Leopold Bloom ate his gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy. BTW, I am told by those who should know, that burgundy, unlike Bordeaux wines, do not travel well. So, M. Joyce, I'm not sure about the burgundy.
In any event, touching little buttons on the reading device and quickly switching from the book to the map to the explanations, makes for an interesting experience, somewhat different from reading a real book.