the bookstores of my youth

bitch magazine (after the site opens click on the link and you'll be there) has an article on the history of the feminist bookstore, which is kind of the history of the second wave of feminism, in a way.  in my lost youth the women's bookstore was the heart of the community, the place you went when you hit town to scope out the scene, meet people, make connections.  every good town had one of these, and i visited many of them.  i came to know the women who owned or ran them, so that when i got to Albuquerque my first stop would be Full Circle Books;  when i was in Austin it was Book Woman first, then Whole Foods, and then it felt like home.  when we lived outside of Boston we spent our mad money at New Words, in P'town it was Now Voyager.  i even worked at Now Voyager for a summer....talk about having your finger on the pulse!  of these stores only Book Woman is still alive and functioning as a place you can find books you won't find anywhere else.  when i was in Austin in august i dropped over $80 (on mostly paperbacks, so it was some books!) at Book Woman on things i knew i wouldn't see in Barnes and Noble.  visit this store's website, and when you're looking for that elusive book:  women's history, poetry, fiction, photography, philosophy, mystery by and about women, consider ordering from them instead of Amazon.com.