A Zion Bookstore, Done Right
Last Friday, due to poor planning on my part, I found myself in a truly unfortunate situation: I was alone in the middle of downtown Salt Lake City, a long-ish journey on TRAX ahead of me, and I had forgotten to put a book in my backpack. As I contemplated the endless, dreary minutes of public transportation that stretched before me, without hope even of a magazine to keep me company, I looked up and saw my salvation: Sam Weller’s Zion Bookstore.
I hadn’t been in a real, live bookstore in quite some time, partly because I work in a library and get to read for free, and partly because I’m lazy and Amazon.com is just a click away. But I’ve always wanted to visit the celebrated Zion Bookstore, and that seemed like the perfect opportunity. Despite the name, this is no Deseret Book; Sam Weller’s does have a large selection of LDS titles, but it rises above that to be a full-service bookstore in the old tradition.
As soon as I stepped in, I knew I was in the right place. The walls are lined floor to ceiling with books—new titles, first editions and rarities—with those cool rolling ladders to provide access to the higher shelves. The air is redolent of paper and coffee. The staff is helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. After the bookless wasteland of the train platform, it was like coming home.
An hour later, I left the store with two books I didn’t know I wanted but had to have as soon as I saw them. Today I went back and got a third. This “paying for books” habit might get expensive fast, especially with the way I read.
[This post is dedicated to a certain private bookseller, whose head will explode when she reads my confession about Amazon.com, and whose Breaking Dawn release party is coming up on August 1, if y'all are anywhere near Easley, SC.]
