My wife and I had some just-us time recently, and after a lunch date downtown we realized we were not far from The King’s English Bookshop. I’d never been there, but my wife was there for a book-signing last year and has been suggesting we should go back. So thanks to a helpful cafe employee with a smartphone we got directions and set out to find it.
Tucked into a Salt Lake City neighborhood near Sugarhouse, the store is a meandering adventure in squeezing more bookshelves into what was probably a house at one time. It doesn’t have sections so much as rooms, and each is a mish-mash of familiar names and titles, local authors, and completely unknown or obscure writers and books.
What sets the bookstore apart from most all others, however, is the staff recommendations. The people who work there are readers–avid readers, from the look of things–and each has tagged books throughout the store with recommendations. I would imagine that if you are a regular customer you would soon learn which staff member has tastes most similar to your own, and in time you’d likely follow their recommendations religiously.
They’re also connected. While we were there I noticed a placard on a shelf beneath some books that my boys both love. The placard was a little cryptic, but it sounded like there was some sort of event coming up. Fortunately one of the staff saw my interest and confusion and explained. The author of the books was coming from Australia for a book tour, and The King’s English had secured him for an event. We are seriously considering going. How often would we get a chance like that?
The book signing my wife attended last year was for the president of the Humane Society of the United States. To my knowledge he didn’t speak or sign anywhere else in the Salt Lake area, and we have a lot of Barnes & Nobles in the area. It appears that The King’s English is a big red dot on the literary map.
I’m also interested in their commitment to promoting local writers, considering I plan to be one.
Salt Lake has several independent bookstores but, truth be told, they tend to echo the B&N mentality–books as commodities, get lots, sell lots. The atmosphere is different at The King’s English. These are people who know and love books. They are truly “The Shop Around the Corner” to many others’ “Fox Books”. I only wish they were closer and easier to get to. Coming from Sandy, it’s hard to justify the extra trip. But we intend to justify it more often.
We like The King’s English Bookstore, too. It is indeed a large red dot. It is the only place Stephen Pastis stopped on his tour… and…. well… There you go. 🙂
Do they still have a store cat?
I always liked that place.
I didn’t see one, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. It may have been sleeping or in hiding (someone else had their two dogs there).