Bookstore Spotlight: Avid Books in Athens, GA

On a recent trip down south, I got to hang out in Athens for a day. Yes, I ate at the Grit. Yes, I perused the very fine vintage stores (like Agora). Yes, I saw all the Evil Packers logos (Really, guys? Really? You couldn't come up with something a leetle different?)

Hmpf.

However, I also knew to visit Avid Bookshop, after a pal gave me a heads-up that someone decided that the world still needed bricks and mortar bookstores, and thus started her own in Athens. Avid is such a wonderful space. Janet, the super-friendly owner, clearly understands that a successful bookstore has to be one where you want to spend time.

The store isn't large (it's two rooms in a wedge-shaped building). One room is devoted solely to children's books, and the other is stocked with older-person fare (YA gets housed in the main room, which I fully approve of, as a non-teenaged YA reader).

A nearby space can host author events too large for the store itself. The godlight in the pic below isn't actually heavenly, it's from the massive windows. And when night comes, there's those sweet hanging book lights!

I was impressed by the selection of titles, which was a nice mix of new and older books. The size of the store means that Avid has to be super-picky about what gets shelf space, but it looks like there's an excellent range of ringer titles as well as classics, and a few quirkier ones to snag you after you pick up your load-bearing midlist book (Devil in the White City, anyone?). And of course, anything can be ordered.

Sadly, my traveling status meant I could only buy one tiny book and one tiny toy. How I wanted to pick up a whole bag of books! But I wish Avid the best of luck. It bodes well for writerly and readerly types that people still want to open new bookshops (and that they can get the means to do so). If you're in Athens, check it out.