Well, sort of sleepless, because Seattle is a good place to be a lover of mysteries - for once including the classics I enjoy talking about.
First of all, there's the marvelous Seattle Mystery Bookshop, located all of 1/2 block from my hotel, which turns out to be dangerously close. If it's a mystery and it's in print, the chances are excellent that you'll find it in stock at their store (or, of course, they can get it for you). You may find signed copies as well.
But for me, perhaps not surprisingly, the real pleasure is in working through their collection of classics, both newly-republished and out-of-print. In fact, I picked up - for $10 - a copy of Rex Stout's "Hand in Glove," a non-Nero Wolfe book that will be discussed at a Wolfe Pack dinner in New York in a couple of weeks. They also had a copy of one of the funniest Nero Wolfe covers I've ever seen - a paperback of "Too Many Cooks," with a lurid cover of what looks like someone firing a gun at Nero Wolfe. The fact that there are no guns AT ALL in the story apparently didn't slow the artist down at all.
As an equally pleasant surprise, I found two good used book stalls in the Pike Place Market's collection of small stores and dealers. At one, all mass market paperbacks - of any vintage - were on sale for $1.75 each, and that included some Ellery Queens, a Michael Innes and even a Mary Roberts Rinehart. At another stall, called the BLMF Bookshop, I walked out with a couple of Georges Simenons and an Erle Stanley Gardner that I hadn't read, all at ridiculously low prices.
So I'm sleepless in Seattle. Too much reading to do. If you're out there for work or pleasure or because you live there, these bookshops are well worth your time.
Oh, Les, I am so envious. I've always wanted to visit Seattle. I even have a good friend who lives in Kent just outside the city. I LOVE mysteries set in Seattle as well. I'm green with envy.
I've bought books from SEATTLE MYSTERY BOOKSHOP. My friend works there on Saturday. So if you go there tomorrow, ask for Janine. Tell her Yvette said hello! My last signed Robert Crais book came from that venerable institution. Ha!
It's hot as heck here on the east coast, so you picked a good time to get away. :)
Posted by: Yvette | July 22, 2011 at 07:03 PM
Yvette, we're leaving Seattle early Saturday morning, so I won't be back in the bookshop again this trip. Coming home to 106 degrees (at least that's what it was today). Ugh doesn't begin to describe it!
Posted by: Les Blatt | July 22, 2011 at 11:03 PM
It's awful!!!
Posted by: Yvette | July 23, 2011 at 02:28 PM