June 26, 2013

World of Books: Ash + Phoenix, Arizona

Everyone has their neighborhood bookstore or their local library they call home. Maybe both even. I know I do - in TWO different cities. World of Books if a bi-weekly feature that allows me - and any of YOU - to share the bookstores and libraries you love so much. If you want to be featured on World of Books too, make sure to go HERE and fill out the contact form!

Today's WORLD OF BOOKS was written by ASH about Phoenix, Arizona.

Gaby and I have recently become friends. I say this because while I have read her blog for awhile, I’ve only recently started to talk to her via twitter. Our friendship is currently something that goes like this:

Gaby: “ASHLEY YOU SHOULD DO THIS”
Me: “OKAY GABY”

I think Gaby agrees with me when I say I hope this never changes. So when she was all “SIGN UP FOR WORLD OF BOOKS” I was all “WHY NOT.” Then she sent me confirmation and the date and the panic hit me. The panic hit me for many reasons, mostly because recently I was on vacation (see photo below) doing nothing with one of my friends, that and because I never really leave the house. I recently graduated from graduate school and my life consists of not moving from my bed ingesting a lot of movies/TV shows and blogging at my blog. But for Gaby I left my bed. I hope she’s happy.


Welcome to the Phoenix Metro area! Where you can read this from your house and not actual Phoenix, because actual Phoenix is currently 115 out.

I often complain about the Phoenix area but when it comes to book related things I luck out. This state has a library science school, which I went to. It has an awesome indie bookstore, which will be featured, an awesome used bookstore, and a really good public library system and that is really not even touching the surface of what Phoenix has to offer. Maybe I need to leave the house more often.

Sadly no photos taken of the inside of the places mostly because see the photo above. Plus, I’m lazy. Hello my name is Ashley and I’m lazy.

While Phoenix is huge, and it is, I luck out to live between two of the Phoenix Public Library branches. The Yucca (Yuck-a) branch is right down the street from me and it is open Tuesday-Saturday and the Cholla (Choy-a. Rhymes with Boy-a) branch, which is open Saturday-Thursday. The Phoenix library system is amazing. If a branch on the other side of town has a book, they will ship it to a closer branch for free. More importantly, to me, they have an awesome YA section. No really ALL THE YA BOOKS!


Although I frequent the libraries often, I also frequent two amazing bookstores. First there is Bookmans. Bookmans is this awesome place where all books are 50% off. Along with books they sell musical instruments, DVDs, CDs, Video Games, random knickknacks and they buy from people so their stock is always changing. I recently decided that I needed to go through all the books I own and before I donated them I went to Bookmans. I now have over $200 in Bookmans credit. I could have taken cash, and gotten less for the books, or I could take credit. I understandably took the credit. It is important to note that they don’t take everything and just because they don’t take something one day doesn’t mean they won’t take it another day.


Another hidden gem in the Phoenix area is Changing Hands in Tempe. Changing Hands is the local indie where I am known by name to most that work there. That is something I take pride in to be honest. Along with being an awesome indie they host a lot of author events and book signings. I own an embarrassing amount of autographed books because of this bookstore. I have seen a few authors so many times at Changing Hands that I’ve run out of things for them to sign and they think that I’m stalking them. The thing I love about Changing Hands is that it feels like home when I walk in there. I hang out with my best friends, have a mini-book group there, people watch, browse, eat, and of course buy books. It is this awesome little corner of the city.


I feel I need to point out these are my favorite places in Phoenix. If you ask one of my friends there is a whole other handful of places they’d pick which really continues to help make Phoenix awesome when it comes to book related places.

1 comment:

  1. What a great post! Thanks for sharing about the places for books in Phoenix, which is a town I've actually wanted to visit (just because it's named for such a cool thing).

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