A candid teacher’s review of Atlanta’s indie bookstores: the trendy Posman Books at Ponce City Market versus the kid-friendly Little Shop of Stories in Decatur. Find out which is worth the trip.
Since I am constantly on the go, I only had time to check on two independent book shops in the city this week. My toddler and our travels kept me busy. One store was an incredible find worthy of driving hours to go to, and the other was a complete waste of time.
Posman – Just Not My Style
Posman Books is located in Atlanta in the Ponce City Market area (address: 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE C-197, Atlanta, GA 30308) I decided to go to it because their website sounded interesting. It is supposedly a family owned book store with a curated selection of books. I am always interested in book stores that try to focus on what they want to do. I often find those book stores do better because they have more unique finds. I had high hopes for Posman, but was unfortunately let down.
Posman Books is located in a luxury high rise area, with shopping in the center. It looks like a yuppie village, feels like a yuppie village, and apparently reads like a yuppie village (meaning they would rather talk about books than read them). It is fairly easy to find and has some parking areas that you have to pay for which is a nice feature for a bookstore in a city. However, I am afraid that is one of the only good things about it.
When you walk into the store, what you notice is all the gifts about books. The fact is, Posman books has more book paraphernalia than actual books. It was frustrating to see an already small space taken over by puzzles, toys, cards, bookmarks, and signage. The store ran shelving along the wall and had several raised platforms with books spread on top. However, half the wall space, under the platforms, and on most of the platforms were gifts for people who like books. This is where you go shopping for your friend who likes to read when it’s not your particular hobby. This isn’t where a serious bibliophile goes to find a new novel.
Each section in the store was very small, but I will say they tried to have every section (which may have been to their detriment). You might only have a shelf for manga or a half shelf for middle school novels. Meanwhile, the cards took over every space possible. The books on the shelf were ones that I had seen in bigger box stores, and none of the books were surprising. If this book shop “curated” novels, my guess is that their only curation was the New York Times Bestseller list. Very disappointing for someone who was looking for a gem.
The clerks for the bookstore were friendly, but more focused on unpacking new toys than talking to customers. As for their small wall of staff picks, just about everything on there was a novel from the early 2000s. I love The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, but it was written in 2003. Has anyone on the staff bothered to look at some of the newer books? Does this staff even read? I think they might just spend their time playing with puzzles about books.
On top of having to suffer through a yuppie version of a bookstore, I also had to pay yuppie prices. I managed to find two picture books that I could have bought in any mainstream store, a board book about Georgia that I am sure I could have found at any tourist shop in the state, and one novel that looked slightly interesting and that I hadn’t seen in any bookshop yet. However, I had to dig for it and I think I got the only copy. It was the only new thing in a sea of Bestseller lists. I think this might have been on a Japanese Bestseller list, and with the recent translation the shop owner decided to give it a go. These four books would cost me $67. Plus my parking which cost another 4 bucks – so $71 total.
Posman needs to decide what they want to be. Do you want to be an independent bookstore? Then have staff who have actual recommendations that are current, books that are not on every bestseller list, and figure out what genres you actually care to focus on. If you want to continue being the book friend gifting place, then frankly, I am never going back. If I want a gift for a book friend, I can get that at a box store. Posman has nothing to offer that I can’t find elsewhere and cheaper.
The Little Shop of Stories – The Perfect Children’s Independent Shop
In a little city to the east of Atlanta (Decatur) lies an actual bookshop worth visiting when you come to Atlanta. The Little Shop of Stories is located at 33 E Court Square # A, Decatur, GA 30030, and well worth the trouble of parking. There is a little parking in front of the store, but you would be hard pressed to actually get a spot. I wasn’t lucky enough to get a parking spot next to the store, and had to park near a few restaurants who jacked up their price for parking to 20 bucks for three hours. Seriously though, the only bad part about this bookstore is the parking. Once you get past that, it is an amazing find and should be on everyone’s shopping list.
The Little Shop of Stories has a wonderful atmosphere from the front, and felt really homey and kid friendly. My daughter was so excited to see Grover’s Yoga book in the front window. When you walk in, there is a statue of a frog at the front corner and a wall of incredible picture books. There is a little couch for a kid to sit on and read. Then, if that wasn’t incredible enough, the store has a hidden passageway to a play room. There are pennies (like actual 1 cent pennies) placed across the floors in fun patterns. It was an eclectic mix of a child’s imagination driven from books. My daughter had a blast playing and looking at books. I personally could have spent three hours just in the picture book section, but I made sure to take time and played with my daughter in the store. I think this is one of the few times where I felt my rambunctious daughter was actually welcomed in a bookstore. She didn’t have to pretend to be quiet and demure. She could be loud and hoppy and no one got mad at her for it.
The store wasn’t large. But it didn’t need to be because it was very focused on children, and how they would interact with the books. Don’t dismiss this bookstore as only for children though. I managed to pick up a few books for myself that I have never even seen in another store.I loved the Jane Austen insult book for well bred ladies at the register, and a reimagination of the Tudor world of the six wives where Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour are actually friends. I didn’t get to fully check out the adult section, but what I saw impressed me. The teen section also impressed me, but I didn’t pick up any books in that genre today.
The curation for the books was incredible. I caught the tail end of a conversation between a clerk and a customer on a new picture book by a local author (which I grabbed right away after the conversation). It turns out they had tons of local authors in their collection. I think I also overheard a young author coming to talk about a future book signing (however, I was only half listening because I was pursuing the collection). The picture book section was really incredible and I found so many gems. There really is an art to writing a picture book and each one I picked up was well written. Sometimes in large sections of picture books, I find a lot of fluffy and poorly written books. Not today! I would have bought out the whole section if I could have. Sadly, I don’t have that kind of money.
The clerks were incredible. One of them entertained my toddler by twirling a book while I finished reading something. He was hilarious. Both clerks on duty had great current recommendations for multiple levels of readers. I asked about middle school books and got some great ideas for next year’s reading list. The clerk clearly had in-depth knowledge about each book, and was able to answer a variety of questions about the novels. I honestly needed more than the 45 minutes I had at the bookstore (my toddler needed a nap).
If I had one issue past the parking it would be that the middle school section is smaller than I would want. However, I am not sure that I can blame that on the store. I have noticed a disconcerting trend of authors avoiding the middle school years. I even noticed that a solid middle school writer was now delving into picture books. I am glad that they want to expand their work, but middle school is getting left behind in every bookstore that I have been to this year. That genre keeps getting smaller, and that worries me as an educator. For this section of the store, there seemed to be no new writers on the scene, and more recommendations that felt classic or a decade old. However, those recommendations were great, and very helpful to me as a teacher.
I thought with all the titles that I picked up today that I would have about two hundred dollars spent on books. Instead I bought four picture books, two small chapter books, three middle school books, one adult novel, and one cooking/fables book (It is so cool, it has recipes and then a chinese fable that goes along with it – can’t wait to read it), while spending less than $100 dollars. I spend $97 dollars (although with parking, it did cost me $20 dollars more). That is what we call a book haul. They also have really cute reusable bags for a dollar, which I also purchased.
The Little Shop of Stories is a gem of a bookstore. It is exactly what you want it to be. You know that no matter how many times you go, you are going to find something incredible to take home with you. When I am back in Atlanta, I am spending my money here, and I am planning to someday earn enough to buy out that incredible picture book section.
