Hey all, Sam here.
Last year I wanted to participate in the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour, but we just ended up not really having the time to plan out visits to bookstores because of our schedules. But this year, I told David that I wanted to try and visit at least a handful of the stores. So we started to look at the list of bookshops participating, to see what would be manageable for us.
What we ended up deciding on is that if we have the time and financial ability, we would have one day where we would visit Davenport, IA, one day where we visit Iowa City, and David suggested that if we could manage a two-day trip we’d do Iowa City for one day and then get a hotel for the night and spend the second day visiting the stores around Cedar Rapids.
Now, we have a little more than a month left in the IIBT, so we might still be able to manage Iowa City and/or Cedar Rapids, but we also have to consider that we just got finished with Gen Con and we will be going to the Ohio Renaissance Festival at the end of September…so I don’t know how feasible it is for us to not only spend a lot of money on gas, but also buying a bunch of books. But, we’ll see what happens.
Anyway, I thought it might be fun to share how our bookish tour went a few days ago. It was overall a rather fun time.
Burlington By The Book (Burlington, IA)
Our first stop of the day was one of our more local bookstores, but every time I’ve gone, I’ve found that the fantasy and sci-fi section has very limited new release options. I’m a fantasy reader, primarily, so that’s the section I gravitate too. Thankfully, when we stopped in for the book tour, I saw a few different paperbacks that are by indie authors.
The book I picked up at Burlington by the Book was Depths of Vanalf by Brady Hunsaker. I already owned the e-book edition of this book, and it definitely sounds like something I want to read somewhat soon-ish, so picking up a paperback copy is totally fine with me, and was a great start to the day…even if the weather was a bit stormy.
Greenpoint Mercantile (Muscatine, IA)
I did not take a picture at this stop…but that was because the storefront is currently close due to structural issues in the building…so for the current time, they have a small bookcase currently set up in a hair salon across the street.
With it being just a small bookcase, one that stood barely up to my chest in height, I was a little worried I wouldn’t be able to find a book to purchase (and was totally prepared to just pick up another copy of Dungeon Crawler Carl to then gift to someone else. Thankfully, I saw that they had the paperback edition of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Source Bookstore (Davenport, IA)
Based on the photo from this stop, it is obvious that I picked up Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta. Source Bookstore in Davenport, IA is a rather large maze-like used book store, and David and I spent a good amount of time wandering through the skinny aisles and maze of shelves to try and find books to purchase for this Bookshop Tour.
I am rather picky about adding used books to my collection, and browsing through the fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and writing craft non-fiction sections, I just wasn’t finding something to add to my personal library. I was about to buy a three-book bundle, where I already owned (but hadn’t read the first book), and then I moved into the YA section near the front of the store–because there was two YA sections and two sci-fi/fantasy sections–and that section had some more recent older books.
I had heard of Finnikin of the Rock before, from the years of watching PeruseProject on YouTube, so I decided now was the time to add it to my collection.
The Brewed Book (Davenport, IA)
The Brewed Book in Davenport, IA seems like it would be a cool place to hang out for a little while. There is a selection of board games available for visitors to play, plus a decent number of used books, and of course a little drink and pastry counter. Again, I am not usually someone who picks up used books. If you’re someone who loves used books, then that’s awesome and I love that for you, but they’re just not my favorite thing. Thankfully there was also a section in the store where they had a good selection of books by local authors.
For my book pick at this stop, I picked up one of the signed copies from one of the local authors featured, so I added Viscount Overboard by Misty Urban.
The Book Rack (Davenport, IA)
While The Book Rack did mostly have used books, there was also a couple shelves of new releases, which made me happy, because honestly three used bookstores in a row was making my shopping fun a little more limited. Before we went on this travel I had made myself a list of some newer releases that I was hoping to be able to pick up over the course of the day, and it would make it easier for myself to shop.
The book I picked up from this stop on the Bookshop Tour was Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst.
Good Spot Bookshop (Davenport, IA)
Okay, since this was the last stop we had for the day of traveling the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour, I ended up picking up more than one book here. So, I added Hide the Witches by Miranda Lyn, Bonfire & Bliss Bookstore by Brittanee Nicole, and (Mostly) Human Resources by Grace Viall.
Honestly, this was also probably my favorite stop of the day. It is a romance focused store, but has a nice selection of a variety of genres as well as both indie and trad published books, which is just incredible.
Oh, and that room with the window in it…well, I didn’t take a photo of that room, but it has some toys and accessories that would assist someone with their own romance adventure.
My Haul
Overall, we went to six bookstores…five of them on the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour, and then I had a birthday gift card for Barnes & Noble, so I definitely went to spend that as well. That means at B&N, I ended up picking up The Witch Queen by Heather Walter, Time to Play by Erin Ampersand, The Wandering Inn Book 1 Part 1 by Pirateaba, World’s Okayest Oracle (Reluctantly) Seeks Demon by Olivia Dade, and Devour Me by Emily Rath. Between my birthday coupon from B&N and the gift card I was given, I definitely didn’t spend as much money there as I normally would.
But hey, thirteen books over the course of one day and six bookstores is a pretty darn good day to me.
Also, David said that I looked like a book gremlin in this haul photo…and you know what, I’m not upset about that. I am kind of a book gremlin most of the time.
All right, that’s all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
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