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My favorite independent bookstore is the Tattered Cover in Denver.  I can remember when I was a kid and it was the biggest bookstore with the widest selection in town.  Now, a little more than 20 years later, its success is obvious: It now has three locations and a great local reputation.

Recently, the original store — the one my mom used to take us to when we were kids — was forced to move.  Bureaucratics and ridiculously high commercial real estate values made their landlord greedy, and he forced them to move.  It’s no big loss, though, in my opinion — the new location is by far more unique, befitting the indie bookstore atmosphere.

Basically, they took over an old theater.  It’s cool because it still looks like a theater, even though it’s filled with bookshelves now instead of rows of seats.  They even used some of the old, red velvet seats as comfy places to sit and look at books or work on your computer.  The bookstore is always quiet, like a library, instead of noisy like many other large bookstores, so it’s a great place to write, read, or work on homework.

Wifi window stickers as you walk in the door proclaim free Internet, which is another one of the reasons it’s my favorite bookstore.  The prices other bookstores, such as Barnes & Noble, charge for wifi are just ridiculous.  It just makes me more likely to stay home, where I already have an Internet connection — which just means that they lose out on the money I’d otherwise spend on coffee!

Anyway, Tattered Cover’s other locations also have free wifi stickers and a similar atmosphere.  These are great bookstores and I highly recommend them to other Denverites!

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