TOD - My first real bookstore memory is a place in downtown Dearborn, Michigan. My mother and I would go to Jacobson's, our favorite department store, and then across Michigan Ave. to an old-fashioned soda shop with an adjacent paperback store. I loved browsing there and remember buying the ninety-five-cent copy of Gone with the Wind that eventually got me in trouble with the proctors of my SAT exam. I raced through each section of the test so I could read and she told me I should be spending that time reviewing my answers.
Now, I like the big chain stores and an "independent" in Dayton called Books & Co. Also, Half-Price Books and the site of our annual AAUW used book sale, where I can go any Tuesday morning under the pretense of helping.