Book Store Spotlight: Talking Leaves in Buffalo, NY

On the return trip from Ad Astra, we drove through Buffalo. Partly this was because it's on the way, partly because I needed some post-rust-belt-reamericanization after the lovely but uncanny valley experience I get every time I visit Canada (where even the roads signs are polite and non-aggressive), and partly it was to hit up a bookstore.

Talking Leaves sits in a building on Elmwood and Bidwell Parkway, in one of the few still vibrant neighborhoods in Buffalo. It's a beautiful corner, busy with pedestrians and their dogs. The greenspace in the Parkway functions as a park. And Talking Leaves is connected to a cafe that serves tasty food (and alcohol, which seemed to be a popular menu item).

After we ate, we wandered into the bookstore proper. It's all one big space, with the shelves packed tight enough to make browsing with, say, a stroller rather difficult. As a strollerless adult, I had no problems.

The selection is pretty well balanced between crowd pleasers and new titles. The kids' section was surprisingly robust for the space allotted to it. The YA shelves were great. I picked up the omnibus edition of The Dark is Rising, a book I had thought I would have to special order from my usual hangout.

The feel of the place is a bit jumbled: nothing is out of place, but books get stacked on top of shelves, and a fair number of cardboard boxes were tucked under tables, like the booksellers were stocking directly from the cartons to the floor. But the wall 'o' arched windows keeps everything feeling open and really bright…the opposite of a warehouse. And having the connecting door to the cafe helps a lot too.

I was also delighted to see another iteration of the Chronicle book dump. Just goes to show, bookstores know a good thing when they see it, and they'll use the hell out a quality dump.

I don't doubt that having a bookstore like Talking Leaves is one major reason why that part of Elmwood Ave is still so lively, in comparison to some other parts of the city. While there weren't a ton of people in the store at the time (it was one of the first real spring days, I think, and everyone was outside), it's clear that the place is still a prime stop. If you're in the area, check it out. And also consider the next door cafe's tasty soup. And cookies. Not that I would know anything about that.