Customer Reviews

The Last Bookstore In America

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I welcomed the discomfort of the cognitive dissonance of reading "The Last Bookstore in America" on my Kindle. It made the novel even more delightful! Although the Gizmo seems a real possibility in the near future, I had never intellectually pursued its logical end result. I feel strangely compelled to defend my e-book ownership: Since June, the 60 Kindle books I've read are not swaying in dangerous 4-to-5-foot towers in front of the eight floor-to-ceiling bookcases in our house.

Also because our daughter graduated three years ago from Humboldt State University in contiguous Arcata, I am familiar with Eureka, its Old Town, and the waterfront. I love the North Coast culture.

Amazingly, as a writing professor and lover of books and bookstores, I found no plot line, character development, or local description that I would recommend Amy Stewart to change before final publication.

I'm putting this on all amazonian.com's required reading list. Read it now!

I have just about finished reading this very funny "book" on my Kindle -- how ironic. I must say that the premise and the story itself was thought provoking. I thought the character development was charming and I grew to like being in the company of most of these people right away.
I was disappointed however with the editing. It was quite jarring in places how many spelling and grammatical errors were in this manuscript. Do e-books not get edited for this kind of thing?
I would recommend this as a fun romp of a read. I will NEVER give up books and I think most readers -- however much they love there e-readers -- feel the same way. No Gizmos for us.

Length:: 5:54 Mins

This was a cracking good read. As a Kindle owner, I was fascinated by the premise - a world with a Kindle-like device which is so great it obliterates the printed book, and nobody's disappointed about it, either.

Against this backdrop, Lewis and Emily inherit one of the last five bookstores in America from Lewis' eccentric Uncle Sy, and they travel to sleepy Humboldt County, CA to check out this romantic relic of a bookstore.

Unfortunately, the bookstore isn't actually selling books anymore, at least not in the way we're used to. People come into the bookstore and request a book in a certain price range, rather than browsing the stacks for something interesting, and the real product being sold is the fine Humboldt strain of marijuana that's slipped into the bag with the book.

In real life, Humboldt County is the country's biggest producer of marijuana, so as a resident of the county, it wasn't any surprise to me to learn how the bookstore was really staying alive! We have so many stores that are obviously a front for another type of business, so this wasn't a stretch for my imagination.

The book itself was beautifully crafted - I loved the characters, the setting and details were so easy to imagine, and the writing was witty and full of personality. On the Kindle, you can highlight your favorite parts, and I found myself highlighting every other page through the entire book - there were so many gorgeous snippets of perfect writing throughout.

While you may find the premise of a world without books and with marijuana hard to believe, it wasn't a stretch for me. I read this book on my Kindle in the county the book is set in, so the concept of nearly-legal pot and digital books replacing the dead-tree versions wasn't hard to imagine.

In fact, as an environmentalist, I think the idea of paper books are kind of outdated, much as I personally love them. It seems like we're moving forward into a world with clean and cheap energy, and in the future, it's going to seem irresponsible to cut down trees to read when we could use a few cents' worth of clean energy instead.

Anyway, if you're a fan of Amy's non-fiction about gardening and the outdoor world, you are going to love this book. There's some of the best garden writing and imagery in this book that I have read anywhere, and the rest of the book was so full of liveliness and personality that you're sure to love it as much as I did.

And once you finish, join the discussion at Amy's site by doing an internet search for Last Bookstore in America. Give feedback on the book and become part of the community by sharing what you think about digital media, legalization, and the demise of the paper book.

For those of us who love to read and love our eReaders (I have two, one of them being a Kindle the other being another brand), the title of this book is totally captivating. When I read the product description, I had to purchase it and the price was definitely right to take a chance on an author I was unfamiliar with.

The premise of the story is that a new technological device has come along - the Gizmo - that does everything. It's a phone, an MP3-type device and an eReader all combined into one handy gadget. The comparisons to Amazon's own Kindle are obvious but with even more capability than just reading books. Everyone in America has one of these handy dandy devices and just what does that mean for the bookstores selling traditional, paper books? In our narrative, that means the demise of the bookshop and they are slowing closing with only a handful remaining. Throughout the novel, they close one by one until only "The Firebreathing Dragon" remains. How has it managed to not only stay open but make a tidy profit along the way, providing the financial support for the owner and two employees? We find out when the owner dies and passes along not the bookstore and his home to his long-lost nephew. The nephew and his wife come to Eureka, California to see what's what and discover a town filled with interesting characters and a culture vastly different than the one they left behind in the big city. Should they give up the fast-paced lifestyle which has left them in debt up to their ears to continue running the quirky bookstore or should they sell and take the money? Just how much is the bookstore making and how are they making anything in this out-of-the-way hamlet? All these questions and more get answered. In addition, the exploration of how this situation has evolved and the implication to the reading public will get the reader thinking about this very possibility.

For originality and writing style, I definitely give this novel kudos. A novel that I finished many days ago but still haunts me with the idea of an alternative world I am not too crazy about. The setting of Eureka is described very well and the town itself becomes an intricate part of the work. The number of characters is just about perfect - enough to give the story life but not enough to overwhelm the reader. The characters themselves are quirky and interesting and I wanted to know more about them. This is where the novel lost one star for me: the characters weren't developed as much as I would have hoped. I really liked them and found them fascinating, just not enough about them so felt I was left hanging just a bit. Other than that, a wonderful novel that I enjoyed from beginning to end.

This book is a great read especially for a Kindle owner. Kudos to author Amy Stewart for an original page turner of a novel. An extra bonus is that this book is really well formatted.

I love it when a book comes along that's different and well written. This was not just another typical story that you could lump with any ol' genre. I was worried it would be sad and hard to swallow a storyline in which America had come to a point where bookstores became extinct. Stewart manages to make it ok and fun, with a twist or two that made me whoop and hoot for quirky characters in illegal activities...you'll see. Just read it. I will again.

This is a great read. The characters are relatable and although the story isn't quite real, it's incredibly believable. The irony? This book is not available in print! I can't send it to a friend as a gift.

I loved this book and laughed all the way through. The topic of a bookstore after everyone has stopped reading paper books and switched to electronic copies is a relatively new topic. Even so, Ms Stewart has a really original take. It is fast paced and captures the quirkiness of a Northern CA coastal town. (Warning - may be offensive for those that can't see humor in marijuana use.) Ms Stewart: more, please.

I loved this book! In fact I loved it so much that this is my 1st review. There is enough in previous reviews that I don't need to tell you what it is about - just read it. My only frustration is telling my friends about it who don't have Kindles. So It would be nice if it was printed. After all there still bookstores!
The story was fun with fun twists and I found myself thinking this could really happen - all of it! Trust me you will enjoy it.
Cheryl

This writing is wonderful. But don't take my word for it, it's a steal. Try a sample and see for yourself. Happy reading,