a love note
May. 6th, 2004 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaidenin 1997, when i lived in the only town in Pennsylvania, a bookstore opened almost across the street from my boyfriend's workplace. sometimes the space between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh could be a vast wasteland of NASCAR and Wal-Marts, and then there was Cloak and Dragon. i was a serious genre reader since i started reading really, even more so once my brothers got tired of the frequent trips to the library and handed me my first super-fat fantasy novel in first grade. and then not much longer and it was the sci fi they had just finished reading. i liked the science fiction best.
so here was a bookstore that was only fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror, and the only real outlet for RPGs for about 60 miles ...owned and operated by women. the vast majority of the store was in mass market paperback, so it was both affordable for an entry-level employee of a nonprofit theatre and space efficient. they had every book in a series, not just ten copies of the most recent. they had, whenever they could, every book available by an author. the owner, Sharon, imported the then-unavailable Terry Pratchett backlist from England. i don't have enough bandwidth to list the authors i got turned on to by browsing the shelves there and being welcome to read for as long as i liked in the green wing chair.
a few things i have from Cloak & Dragon:
five volumes of the complete short works of Theodore Sturgeon
Bloodchild and Other Short Stories by Octavia Butler (Seven Stories Press)
a host of anthologies, including one of women as werewolves put out by a lesbian press
a ripping prose translation of Tain Bo Cualinge called The Raid
Pratchett imports that arrived a year before the US editions, including extras like Nanny Ogg's Cookbook (although only now do i have a place to buy treacle)
i could care less for mysteries and i have no idea if the selection was good, but i do like the occasional Brother Cadfael, and they kept all 20+ in stock.
they're still there, in a different storefront, which we helped them move into, and have added a romance section and a bit of general interest. there are very few things that i miss from Pennsylvania, but I haven't found a comparable genre selection in Seattle. the U Bookstore just reminds me of what isn't there, and Elliot Bay teases me with a few Gollancz reissues. they never charge for special orders, and they ship. i'm sorry to say that there is no catalog on the website, but there is just a staff of two to keep it all running. C used to work Sundays for store credit to give them a day off.
Sharon and Laura made us chocolate chip cookies to eat as we drove here.
cloakanddragon.com
books@sunlink.net
so here was a bookstore that was only fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror, and the only real outlet for RPGs for about 60 miles ...owned and operated by women. the vast majority of the store was in mass market paperback, so it was both affordable for an entry-level employee of a nonprofit theatre and space efficient. they had every book in a series, not just ten copies of the most recent. they had, whenever they could, every book available by an author. the owner, Sharon, imported the then-unavailable Terry Pratchett backlist from England. i don't have enough bandwidth to list the authors i got turned on to by browsing the shelves there and being welcome to read for as long as i liked in the green wing chair.
a few things i have from Cloak & Dragon:
five volumes of the complete short works of Theodore Sturgeon
Bloodchild and Other Short Stories by Octavia Butler (Seven Stories Press)
a host of anthologies, including one of women as werewolves put out by a lesbian press
a ripping prose translation of Tain Bo Cualinge called The Raid
Pratchett imports that arrived a year before the US editions, including extras like Nanny Ogg's Cookbook (although only now do i have a place to buy treacle)
i could care less for mysteries and i have no idea if the selection was good, but i do like the occasional Brother Cadfael, and they kept all 20+ in stock.
they're still there, in a different storefront, which we helped them move into, and have added a romance section and a bit of general interest. there are very few things that i miss from Pennsylvania, but I haven't found a comparable genre selection in Seattle. the U Bookstore just reminds me of what isn't there, and Elliot Bay teases me with a few Gollancz reissues. they never charge for special orders, and they ship. i'm sorry to say that there is no catalog on the website, but there is just a staff of two to keep it all running. C used to work Sundays for store credit to give them a day off.
Sharon and Laura made us chocolate chip cookies to eat as we drove here.
cloakanddragon.com
books@sunlink.net
