Bookish Tourist: The Book House

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On a quick weekend jaunt to St. Louis, we saw all kinds of historic sites and of course we hit a bookstore.

On a Saturday evening, after a fine, full day of visiting the Cahokia Mounds and the charming town of St. Charles, we swung by The Book House in Maplewood — which happily is open until 10 pm Saturdays.

From the outside, it looks just like an ordinary storefront, but inside… so many books!

It’s an indie bookstore, and they sell mostly used and rare books, but they also stock a small selection of new titles.

And their shop has library ladders!

There are books all over the place, and thankfully there’s a nice bookstore guide stationed at a desk inside the front door to provide guidance to the history and politics sections or whatever a person might be wanting.

Here’s a view of part of the fiction section…

I found two books on my Wish List and bought them, and now they’re still in that new book glory area of our home library where I place new acquisitions before I break down and shelve them.

Other highlights of the trip:

The Dear Man bought a book about Cahokia at the gift shop.

We did some Lewis & Clark tourism.

We ate some amazing cookies in St. Charles.

We said hey to our old acquaintance Daniel Boone.

We went to Pappy’s Smokehouse for life-changing BBQ. (Ribs for him, baked potato for her)

We ate our 2nd St. Louis style pizza — this time at Billy G’s — and analyzed it thoroughly. We’re Chicago people, and while we don’t despise provel, we just can’t make ourselves crave it. Still: it’s not bad pizza, and it easily passes the “Would we eat this again?” test.

So, once again, St. Louis is a hit.

Anyone else visited a great bookstore lately?

2 thoughts on “Bookish Tourist: The Book House”

  1. Stephanie

    Swooooooooooooon! I love a good bookstore (and I’m heading to Branson with my mother and kids this summer and I totally Google-mapped this bookstore to see how far away it was. ~4 hours, but we may have to pass that way to get there, so I might be able to convince my mother, who also loves to read, to stop… #noshame). The best secondhand bookstore I’ve ever been to was The Book Barn in Niantic, CT (when I used to live in CT). It’s literally a bookstore in this semi-farmish property. The main part of the store is the house, but every single outbuilding is crammed full of books, and signs tell you what’s housed where. The bookstore is home to a bunch of cats (and they always had a dog when I was there as well, multiple- though not at one time- because the first one died of old age) who just hang out basically everywhere and are completely nonplussed by the customers browsing through their quarters. I have fond memories of sitting down to page through a book and a cat just hopped up into my lap and settled down. 🙂 (https://www.bookbarnniantic.com/ if you want to check it out. COOLEST place. And the outbuildings do get a little chilly in the winter, but it all adds to the charm!)

    What a fun trip you had! I’ve never been to Missouri before, so I’m looking forward to visiting this summer. 🙂

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  2. Unruly Reader

    The Book Barn sounds amazing! When we’re out east someday, it’ll definitely make the list.

    Missouri is a beautiful place — I’m excited for your upcoming trip there. And traveling with a book-loving mom — perfection. 😊

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