THE BEST BOOK STORE.

The Book Barn in Niantic, Connecticut, looks like a garden when you drive up. That’s because it IS a garden, and a quaint place where book lovers hang out, trade and buy books. And, yes, there is a barn, and many other sheds and shacks and benches and…well it is different by all accounts. So follow me for an abbreviated look.

Your first stop is a buy and sell counter with the above sign. You grab a number if you have books loaded in your car. When the counter is clear of book sorting, and your number is called, you can unload your books on the counter. If you have bags full you can carry in one hand, you don’t need a number. That was us, we turned in about 30 books.

Now its time to go shopping. You have to choose from roughly 350,000 volumes, mostly paper back. I chuckle at their designations. Perhaps you like books that bite?

Or maybe chick lit? A little building I love to browse. In one mystery barn, the alphabet stopped at G and was continued on over to another barn. Despite the widespread collections, everything is pretty easy to find with good signage and able helpers.

I have no clue what Paranormal Romance is but others must. I was after books by a new for me author, Iris Johansen. I found one in the latest arrivals kiosk, right out front at the entrance. Is she mystery or adventure thriller?  Hard to tell, maybe a little of both.

I followed the garden path.

Beauty in bloom.

A gargoyle overlooks a quiet pond. A person could easily spend a quiet day here in the garden reading.

And, they make it easy to shop with children. Besides the Peanut Butter Shanty, there are rideable and pushable toys at various wide sections of walkway, wagons to sit in and places to read for kids.  A penned goat to pet and many cats.

Then there are the graveyards.

Hey, fell victim to a dangling participle. What a hoot.

And cookbook Ken whose love of food did him in. You may have to double-click the photos to read the inscriptions.

Hovering over the graveyards, two skeletons with the sign, Death By Kindle. I expect they are writer’s skeletons.

It was at the haunted book shop building that I found 14 Iris Johansen books I hadn’t read. That’s because I’ve only read one and she’s  written about 40 books. I can see I’m going to have fun for weeks for my fourteen dollars.

Many cats sleep among the shade plants, but this one would be my choice. It was a fun day. The barn has two more stores in town and between the three, they have an average total of 500,000 books. Today, we were supposed to go raspberry and blueberry picking with Jim’s grand-daughter, Jaime, but it is raining and looks to continue for the rest of the day. Iris Johansen will keep me entertained.