Bound and determined: Independent, local bookstores provide a tangible niche in a digital world

Looking for some cheap entertainment?

A few local hot spots have you covered. Not only do they offer affordable amusement, but they also offer quite the variety.

Their brand of fun takes you to places all over the world, introduces you to people you've never met and teaches you things you've never known. You can enjoy their offerings where and when you choose and can even trade with others.

So what, you ask in great suspense, are these hot hubs of cheap thrills?

They're local bookstores and they're right in your backyard.

"You can read stories of people that know that we're not alone. Our fears, our joys are shared by other people," said Pat Giacinto, owner of James Island's Ravenous Reader.

"Of course, it's always a learning experience. No matter what you read, you can learn from that. Sometimes, it's just nice to step outside our life and live in someone else's for awhile. We can't all travel and do all those things we dream of, but we certainly can through a book. We can go anywhere, see anything, do anything through a book."

Cherry Collins, proprietor of Dreamalot Books in Goose Creek, also loves the escape books provide. She is a self-proclaimed book addict.

"It's a way to escape into a world you don't normally live in," she said. "Books are like any drug. If you asked a cocaine addict why they do it, they say they do it for the escape. Books are the same thing but legal and they don't hurt your health."

In fact, books can actually be beneficial to your health. We all know the cliches of how books make people smarter, how they exercise the brain and how they're better than the movies. Sometimes, though, they are just a matter of making people slow down and relax.

"You are so bombarded by external forces and reading provides you a quiet time for yourself," Giancinto said. "And I think that Americans are losing the ability to power down. I think books can help provide that for you."

"Everything is so instantaneous now. We're losing the ability to just relax. There's nothing like a glass of lemonade, a hammock and a good book."

Books are good for more than just relaxing, too. They can make you laugh or even be scandalous, as Jonathan Sanchez of Blue Bicycle Books, downtown, reminds everyone.

"It is a relatively new thing, a novel because it was a novel thing only 200 years ago," he said.

"It was considered salacious for women to go off and read these novels by themselves. Sometimes being written down makes things more muted or sometimes it makes them way worse. There are some things in the grocery store that if they were on TV, they would be on Cinemax," he laughs.

Whether it's romance, action, history, adventure, mystery or any other genre, there is a book for everyone. In fact, there are hundreds.

One thing local bookstores love is helping visitors narrow down those choices.

A neighborhood bookseller is someone who has read the books, has read the reviews on books and is an expert in finding the perfect match for customers.

Giacinto, like other booksellers, knows her customers and her customers' families. With a twinkle in her eye, she can size up newcomers, too. And with a few questions, she can give them a book "with their name on it," as she says.

"What I offer would be personal service, someone who reads the books and has a genuine interest in matching people to books," Giacinto said.

"And my biggest thrill is having them walk out the door with a smile and can't wait to get home to read it," she said.

Customer service and that interaction with the customer is consistently what most local booksellers say they absolutely love -- after the books, of course.

"When they just come and say I'm looking for a book, I say tell me something you read that you liked or even tell me a book you didn't like," said Linda Malcolm, owner of Indigo Books in John Island's Freshfields Village.

"We do explore whether or not someone would like that book and, quite often, it's an author they hadn't heard of before.

"The challenges but joys of bookselling is matching a person with a book. It's knowing your customers. After 11 years, we have a good idea of what our customers like and we're not above, if a book comes in, calling them to say we have a book you'd like!"

Most booksellers pride themselves on knowing their customers and being able to give personalized recommendations. But even more important to them, is making their store part of the community.

"We had a great head start," Sanchez said. "Breeden, the last owner, built up a lot of loyal clientele. We have a lot of locals and people who may come once a year. But when you come here, it's nice to come to a place that feels like it belongs to you in a way. There are people that this store is as much their store as it is mine."

Malcolm feels the same way.

"Probably something that I've said before that sums up what we feel about this store, is we've been so welcomed and embraced by the community from the very beginning.

"We know when we've done our jobs when a local comes in with their visiting friends or family and says this is 'our' bookstore," she continued. "When they feel it is a part of their community and it's their bookstore, we're very grateful for that. That's the most rewarding, what keeps me going. It's just the people, our clients, are family."

Entertainment with endless variety brought to you by someone who remembers your name. That's hard to beat.

Local book stores

All Books

210 East First North St.,

Summerville

871-2772

Blue Bicycle Books

420 King St.,

Charleston

722-2666

Book Exchange

1131 Savannah Highway,

Charleston

556-5051

Dreamalot Books

123B S. Goose Creek Blvd,

Goose Creek

572-4188

Here Be Books

4650 Ladson Road,

Ladson

695-1498

Indigo Books

Freshfields Village,

Johns Island

768-2255

Ravenous Reader

792 Folly Road,

James Island

795-2700

Trade A Book

428A Old Trolley Road,

Summerville

873-4207