It's Lit!
On the Prowl for Books in The Magic City (Non-fiction)
Wandering through bookstores and libraries takes a degree of patience.
There are so many choices.
Where do you begin?
Usually, you scout for favorite authors or subject matter or genres, but you can get a little dizzy if you’re just roaming the aisles looking for something to catch your attention.
Take fiction for instance.
If you are not sure what you are looking for, the hunt can be tricky.
So many rows of so many shelves stacked tightly with so many books.
A cover, of course, can beg for your attention.
You can also scan the inside cover, the acknowledgments on the back cover, or flip through the pages, but what you are getting is still a mystery.
It’s sort of like a literary scavenger hunt.
If you are like me, you better block off some time, you may be there for a while.
I posted a story titled Wandering and Wondering last year, on my very first day of writing on Substack. A short story about rambling around in bookstores. Here’s the link if you want to check it out.
Birmingham, Alabama, earned the moniker The Magic City early on, thanks to it’s rapid growth as an industrial center.
The Magic City is known for lots of different things.
-A brutal history of race relations.
-A once-roaring steel industry deemed The Pittsburgh of the South.
-An early jazz scene that played an integral part in America’s finest musical genre.
-The Heaviest Corner on Earth.
The intersection of 20th Street and 1st Avenue North downtown was given the moniker in the early 1900’s, as four of the South’s tallest buildings were erected over a ten year period.
-U.A.B., The University of Alabama-Birmingham. Alabama’s largest employer has been moving up the ranks of the nation’s elite colleges
The campus also anchors what has become a world-class medical destination that covers a substantial portion of the downtown area.
U.A.B. Hospital is the fifth largest hospital in the United States and is listed on Newsweek’s prestigious ranking of America’s Best Hospitals.
-Children’s of Alabama Hospital has been ranked for 16 consecutive years in U.S. News and World Report’s annual survey.
-A wildly underrated restaurant scene loaded with James Beard Award winners like Frank Stitt, Chris Hastings, Adam Evans and Dolester Miles.
-The nearby, world-class, Barber Motorsports Park.
-A massive Vulcan Statue that stands watch over a city full of great neighborhoods, restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, bookstores, theaters, museums and parks.
The Vulcan is the largest cast iron statue in the world, reflecting the city’s roots in the iron and steel industry.
There’s a lot of um, scuttlebutt… if you will, regarding the back view of the Vulcan’s bum, but it does give visitors a cheeky fun topic for dinner conversations.
Birmingham is also a fun place to whet your literary appetite.
A few years back, while perusing the long aisles filled with thousands of books at 2nd and Charles, a large discount bookstore located in Hoover, a spine happened to catch my eye.
For some odd reason, I was drawn to Grow Old Along with Me, The Best is Yet to Be, a book edited by Sandra Martz, and published by Papier Mache Press in 1996.
I grabbed it and a few others and looked around for a comfy chair.
When I opened the book, I found a sweet little note written on the inside cover.
To Delora, who will always be forever young and beautiful. Love, Ebbie Thomas.
Just reading that inscription gave me goose bumps.
Apparently, Ebbie had decided to give the book to Delora, but not before tacking on a heartfelt note of affection.
Can we say serendipity?
I think we can.
Even though, the book is only thirty years old, the cover, and especially Ebbie’s hand-written note to Delora, make it seem much older.
Grow Old Along with Me focuses on issues for the elderly, like falling in love after being widowed, retirement, and late-life opportunities for growth.
I put the book back on the shelf, but not before taking a few pictures.
You never know what you’ll find while scavenging for books in the literary wild.
Finding a special book is like finding a pearl in an oyster.
I ran across a copy of The Pathos of Distance, a 1913 collection of essays by James Huneker recently at Stash, a spacious antique emporium in the downtown area.
Huneker was one of the influential American critics of his time. The essays in this book cover his thoughts on an array of topics including art, literature, music and philosophy featuring iconic works from Matisse, Dostoevsky, Wagner, Nietzsche and others.
This highly significant book was selected by scholars for being culturally important and is a part of the public domain.
I found the book on an old unassuming bookshelf tucked up against a back wall.
My wife found a copy of Captain from Castile by Samuel Shellabarger on a nearby shelf.
This historical adventure novel published in 1945, follows Pedro de Vargas on his journey fleeing the Spanish Inquisition all the way to joining Herman Cortes’ conquest of Mexico and then his return home to Spain.
We were both pretty happy with our haul.
Two legendary books on one visit to an antique store.
A lovely library in the woods is located just off of a major thoroughfare that cuts directly through the center of the ’Ham.
In fact, the official name is Library in the Forest, located in the Vestavia Hills community.
A library doesn’t have to be stunning.
It just has to have books.
This library has books, and is also stunning.
The 35,000 ft. library situated on 9 acres has comfy couches, a fireplace, floor to ceiling glass walls allowing for super views of the forest, a large outdoor deck, shaded benches, a 1.3 mile walking trail and yes, books.
An oasis of literature, located on the edge of the woods, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the nearby streets.
If you wander into Jim Reed Books/The Museum of Fond Memories on 3rd Avenue North in downtown Birmingham, you may want to make sure you have some time available.
“To call Reed Books an ‘old bookstore’ is a bit like saying the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has a good paint job.” - Allen Johnson Jr., author
From the store’s website, jimreedbooks.com.
Book lovers from throughout the world enjoy visiting author Jim Reed at his rare-book loft, Reed Books. Jim, a popular inspirational columnist and gentle gothic humorist, has authored several books, including Dad’s Tweed Coat: Small Wisdoms, Hidden Comforts, Unexpected Joys.
This is an absolutely incredible bookstore filled with books, posters, records, tapes, and a proprietor that knows the book business inside and out.
In addition to being a book dealer, Jim Reed’s varied career has also included acting, narrating, broadcasting, lecturing, writing and creating.
He also has a podcast called Jim Reed’s Red Clay Diary.
Specializing in rare and vintage books, a visit to Jim Reed’s will slow down your mood and your day, and set you off on a winding excursion through an amazing maze of books and oddities.
I picked up a copy of Jack Kerouac’s, On The Road, on my last visit.
You can be sure to always find something interesting lurking on the over-packed shelves at Reed’s.
A visit sure to leave you with fond memories and an urge to return.
Other bookstores in the Birmingham area worth checking out are The Little Professor and The Alabama Booksmith, both located in Homewood; Thank You Books in the Crestwood community; and Enjoyer Books, a company currently building a mobile bookstore in a bus.
At The Alabama Booksmith, every book in the store is signed, and you don’t have to deal with spines as every book is displayed face out.
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of another bookstore where every single copy is signed.
Here’s a testimonial from their website:
Signed books make the best gifts!!! Alabama Booksmith has the best curated collection handpicked by book lovers you can trust! Signed books, by artists you love, just makes the communication and connection that much more personal and special! – Christopher from Alabama.
Reading the comics in the local newspaper while my father sat nearby reading the important stuff is one of my favorite early memories.
I quickly moved on to the sports pages and box scores, and then, to actual books.
The very first book I remember reading as a kid, was Joe Namath, by Joe Devaney, published in 1972. It was, I believe, the first book written about Joe Willie Namath, the football quarterback, playboy, and actor.
This book may have been the second.
Pistol Pete Maravich by Bill Gutman, The Making of a Basketball Superstar, also published in 1972.
It is strange, but I guess I owe both comic strips and sports a debt of gratitude for introducing the art of reading into my young life.
It would be a lot cooler and definitely more romantic to say it was a classic like Moby Dick, or The Count of Monte Cristo, or The Odyssey.
But, it wasn’t Melville or Dumas or Homer. It was Broadway Joe, Pistol Pete, and the Sunday funnies.
Sports, and the absurd humor of the shortest little stories available to me at the time, were all it took to get my literary engine up and running.
They gave my imagination wings, and my love for reading took off like a jet plane.
And, hasn’t landed yet.
Thanks for Reading!
The Cotton's visited Grace at an event at the Hoover Library in Birmingham last week, and there could be a story in the works... 😉🤫
What a place to nerd out! 🤓 A vintage Library 📚 I loved the article.