More Bookshop Hunting in New Orleans

New Orleans is a city of bookstores. So after visiting Garden District Book Shop, you'd best believe I was far from done. I had an afternoon to myself and decided to wander the French Quarter and nearby environs to find bookshops. 

I visited two French Quarter booksellers: Dauphine Street Books and Faulkner House Books. I also tested the waters in a magic shop that promised books. I love pagan magic shops: this one did not have many books, but did have a python in a tank and a creepy proprietor. So I didn't stay for long or write down its name. But I tried. 

Dauphine Street Books

Very full from a po boy, and thus happy, I wandered into Dauphine Street Books. This store had more books than it knew what to do with. In fact, while I was in there, the owner was describing to a customer the overwhelming task that is cataloguing all of their available books onto their website, so  it would seem even the owners don't quite know what to do with all of their books. 

Dim and cluttered, the store looked as though it was once twice the size, then shrunk. The very stuffed shelves were crowded in very close together; some aisles were so narrow that I hardly fit. Some aisles then had small floor stacks lining either side. Browsing those aisles felt a bit like taking a sobriety test.* 

Though very small, this store was a rabbit hole I could have wandered down for hours.

*Not that I've had to take one, Mom. I just liked the simile.

Faulkner House Books

 I have read exactly one William Faulkner book (for a college course) and I hated it. I have no desire to try any of his other books; I have too many other books to read. However, he had a very lovely house in New Orleans that has been turned into a well-curated bookshop and a touching testament to the famous writer and his contemporaries. There are some Faulkner artifacts on the walls, along with portraits of and letters from his fellow writers. And of course, the shop is fully stocked with the works of William Faulkner.

But it is also stocked with an intriguing variety of fiction, nonfiction, and a surprisingly large selection of poetry for such a small shop. There were, of course, a large collection of classics, but not just the obvious ones, like your Brontes and Dickens; they were there of course, but there was also what looked to be the complete works of P. G. Wodehouse.

The shop is housed in what may have been an office or front parlor, lined with stained wooden shelves. A dining room table serves as the central display and the bookseller's desk. The store spills out into the main hallway of the house, though the rest of the building was blocked off by an iron gate. This is a quaint, very literary shop that is well worth the visit, even if you hate William Faulkner.