Welcome to Literary Ashland

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A lot of the book stores seem to concentrate in downtown Ashland. Let’s take a quick break from the chaos of theater, tourists and extravagant dining and visit a bookstore on the opposite side of town. Around the corner from the Ashland Street Cinema, in the plaza with the Wendy’s and the Dollar Tree is the Bookwagon. It is a smaller space tucked in next to the laundromat, filled with a vast array of used books.

The Bookwagon has been around for ten years, originally starting in a garage. It went through a few upgrades and then downsizes. I met with Carl, the owner, one afternoon in early September. I had never been in the Bookwagon before, which now seems so silly since it seemed like a promising bookstore. A few years back, half way through my college career, once I had moved out of my house with a washer and dryer, I discovered the Bookwagon’s location as I waited for my laundry to finish. The late night times I chose to wash my clothes never matched the day time hours of the shop, so I never went in.

The Bookwagon carries used fiction, mysteries and romance paperbacks. They also carry best sellers, new books and can special order books. Carl enjoys the book business because of constant surprises in various genres, books and authors that seem to pop up time and time again. Carl’s genre of choice when he finds time to read are creative non fiction books and mysteries.

I valued Carl’s perspective on the future of physical books. He believes there is always a market for books, even with the advance of literary technology. Certain people, myself included, don’t want an electronic version and want physical books. I would miss the smell of pages and paper books too much. Carl also explains the value in used books. People can always trade or re-sell used books; you can’t re-sell a Kindle or the books purchased online for the Kindle.

Don’t make the mistake that I did and wait five years to visit this quiet, cute bookstore. It is not overrun by tourists and noisy people. You can take the time to scout out what book you really want without being rushed by a sales clerks or obnoxious shoppers. While waiting for your laundry or a movie, visit the Bookwagon and enjoy the literary experience you can’t find anywhere else.

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For those of you that are not hip with the latest Ashland bookstore gossip: The Book Exchange has changed locations from next door to the Standing Stone Brewery in downtown Ashland. It is now located, since November, across the parking lot of Wells Fargo between the minute mart and Tabu.

The Book Exchange is around forty years old, starting as Edna’s Book Exchange for the first twenty years. When I visited The Book Exchange on a warm summer evening, I had the chance to talk to Roy. Roy described the store as a “reader’s book store” because they carry books that people actually read. The walls are covered with classics, mysteries, romance, history and so much more. What I personally enjoy about The Book Exchange is the comfortable atmosphere is provides for customers. It feels like a house of literature or twisty maze of books that stack to the ceiling.

Roy shared his connection to books. He likes books and the type of people that are attracted to books. He also enjoys the culture of books and the physical nature of the books. The book business brings nice people around and Roy finds the bookstore a nice place to work. Out of all of the people I interviewed, Roy was the only one who told me that his favorite type of literature was everything; he reads anything and everything.

Roy’s response to my final question made me hopeful for the future of physical books. Despite Amazon’s revolutionary approach to selling books by concentrating book sales all in once place, Roy believes that “books will be around for a long time.” He explained that books don’t need batteries like a Kindle. Books are easier for research when the research projects requires multiple books. While major bookstores like Barnes and Noble suffer, used book stores may not feel that same pain.

If you have not made the time to visit the new Book Exchange or simply thought it had gone out of business, make sure you make time now! This place appeals to every type of a reader from small children to Sci-Fi readers. The supply is endless, completed with a reasonable price tag on the inside of each book.