Another bookstore bites the dust

I was planning to blog more about editing today, but saw this article in the San Francisco Chronicle about Stacey's Bookstore planning to close in March. Stacey's has been around for 85 years. I thought back to the closing of Cody's Books, in Berkeley, and have the same feelings of shock and sorrow now as I did then.

Bookstores are like libraries to me: I couldn't do without them. I suppose they should have been on yesterday's list of addictions. But, in a way, they are there on an unspoken level. When I think of reading, I think of those libraries and bookstores that have been like a second home to me throughout my life, been like a breath to my soul and spirit.

Here's a few bookstores and libraries that are/have been like that for me. This is completely off the top of my head (and in completely random order).

Brick-and-mortar bookstores

• Cody's Books (Berkeley)
• Moe's Used Books (Berkeley)
• The Book Mine (Leadville)
• The Poisoned Pen (Scottsdale)
  
• M is for Mystery (San Mateo)
• San Francisco Mystery Bookstore (S.F.)
• The Tattered Cover (Denver)
• Murder by the Book (Denver)
• High Crimes (Boulder)
• Boulder Bookstore (Boulder)
• Goodenough Books (Livermore)
• Towne Center Books (Pleasanton)
• The Book Haven (Salida)
• Chinook Bookstore —— ?I think it was called this... I'm reaching a long way back in my memories to the 1970s for the name (Colorado Springs)

Okay, not to slight the other wonderful bookstores that weren't right "off the top of my head," but I've got to stop. Looking over the list, I realize that several of these no longer exist (or won't soon). How sad.

Now, libraries

• The San Leandro Library (California)
  
• The Castro Valley Library (California)
  
• UC Berkeley's libraries—primarily Moffitt and Doe (California)
  
• Denver Public Library (Colorado)
  
• Boulder City Library (Colorado)
  
• Pleasanton Library (California)
  
• Livermore Public Library (California)
  
• Lake County Library (Leadville, Colorado)

Anyone else want to mention bookstores and/or libraries that are or have been near and dear to them? If so, be my guest.