By the Book

Independent bookstores are wonderful little places filled not only with books but conversation and tradition.

Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh is a writer’s bookstore, hosting hundreds of readings and signings annually. The shop specializes in fine literature and nonfiction, with a special focus on the South. Charles Frazier, who lived in the area while working on Cold Mountain, recalls the store and its proprietors: “It was not an anonymous shopping experience. I was not used to being asked what I was interested in and what I was reading.”

Can’t find that offbeat novel in the chain store? Durham’s counterculture-inspired Regulator Bookshop just might have it. The Ninth Street landmark’s great strength is its hardback literature section. The shop hosts a stream of author parties and poetry readings, giving visitors frequent opportunities to meet “living, breathing authors—from around the world and from around the corner.”

In Chapel Hill, Market Street Books is a community center as well as a business, creating an atmosphere where grownups, children, and their pets are all welcome to come and hang out. The shop carries a wide selection of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books.