This weekend we take a look at the top independent bookstores int he country and give you a chance to add your own recommendations, explore the worlds of mummies and bones, and ponder the coming of low-cost carriers to the long-haul airline world.
Ode to the bookstore
While bookstore chains are closing, there are still a group of wonderful independent bookstores. Many travelers make it a point to search them out. Here is a list of some of the best independent bookstores in the country.
Some people believe it is only a matter of time until all bookstores go the way of the horse and buggy. But all is not lost—at least not yet.
After all, we vote with our wallets. And if you care about the unique character of your community, if you believe in rewarding the rugged independence of small businesses, then your local independent bookstore deserves your support, now more than ever. This is an admittedly counter-cultural effort—but that is part of its appeal and sense of purpose.
Bookstores are different than other stores—they reflect the soul of a community. They are a place for meeting, browsing and reflecting. You bump into friends and neighbors, and see a book on the shelf you might have never crossed paths with before. They offer time for contemplation and conversation. As the sign hanging outside the late Gotham Book Mart famously claimed: “Wise Men Fish Here.”
“Independent bookstores are about community,” says Mitchell [Kaplan of Books & Books in Miami]. “We all need great good places—and independent bookstores and can serve as that third place, beyond home and work. They become that place which can make for a very distinctive experience. And the demise of places like Borders may open up opportunities for more independent bookstores because that need for community never goes away.”
I’ll add another bookstore to the list — White Birch Books in North Conway, NH. What are your favorite independent bookstores? Add them to the list in the comments.
Top 10 Mummies Worth Traveling for
From Budget Travel a fascinating look at the most intriguing bodies and bones that have been preserved for eternity. This article goes way beyond Halloween and across continents.
Mention the word mummy, and you probably think of the shiny case of King Tut or the linen-bandaged walking dead in a George A. Romero film. But if you haven’t seen a real mummy (a.k.a. a body whose skeleton and skin have been preserved) since you were on a school trip, this is a good time to get reacquainted. In recent decades, excavators have dug up remarkably well-preserved mortal remains at locations across the globe—in Italy, Peru, and the Philippines—that have changed a good deal of what we know about the history of preserving the dead. So come with us on a crash course of the world’s most “magnificent” corpses.
Norwegian Air Shuttle looks at the long-haul market
This Norwegian airline has some of the first orders for the Boeing 787. That means the low cost carrier is not planning on remaining a local shuttle. There may be plans for long-range shuttles to New York and Bangkok.
Low-cost trans-Atlantic services, long seen as airlines’ Holy Grail, have proved elusive: failed attempts include Freddie Laker’s Skytrain and more recently Canada’s Zoom Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008.
But Bjorn Kjos, Norwegian’s 65-year-old chief executive, thinks these earlier attempts failed because they weren’t, in fact, low-cost. “They were low-price flights. But not low-cost,” he says. “Anybody can fly low-price, you just cut the price tag.”
…Mr. Kjos, who thinks the next decade will see a boom in low-cost intercontinental travel.
Photo: Courtesy of Fountain Books
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
