I love old bookstores. I love losing myself in a building filled top to bottom with books, surrounding myself in so many words put on paper by people who have sat down to write. It's a beautiful thing.
When I heard about this store, I was so excited. A two story used bookstore with a café?! The very idea is as if someone took my own personal heaven and placed it Tempe. Yes, please.
Now fast forward to me walking in. All the air deflating from my body. There are a lot of books. There is also a café, I suppose. This place is dirty and not in the way that a used bookstore should be dirty, it's dirty in like a sifting through your grandparents garage kind of dirty. There are a lot of shelves covered in books that are old and forgotten, nothing up to date which isn't exactly their fault I suppose but a proper display or two would possibly make the place feel more like a book store and less like a storage unit. There are boxes of who knows what blocking walkways that makes it difficult to roam around. It's eerily quiet in there, nothing going on except the quiet murmur of the employee watching something on his computer, giving me an awkward feeling like I'm not supposed to be in there. Some music would really liven the place up.
I can only imagine what this place could be like with proper care, there is so much potential. The whole experience was lost for me, I really couldn't wait to leave.