bookish

I just read in TIME (by which I mean, I read a story online, via a tweet by Roger Ebert--following a pretty typical way I find out about such things) that Larry McMurtry was shuttering all but one of his bookstores in Archer City.

A little more interneting lead me to a New York Times piece on the same story, and also a newly favorite New York Times Correction:

The confusion is justified: the town is tiny. Archer City was a road trip destination in 2009. It's a super sleepy, in the middle of nowhere, dusty place. There wasn't really much to see except for the bookstores, which were in several different buldings, only one of which had a shop keeper in it (who ignored us).

It was strange to wonder up and down the stacks and stacks with no one around, no one browsing, no one manning the books, no music, poor lighting, terrible signage. Each store was stuffy and with that particular used book smell. The shops didn't really stike me as bookstores, or even really celebrating books, but rather as storage facilities.

I snapped a few pics:

McMurtry said he felt the books would be a burden to his heirs, who weren't "real bookmen."