Affiliate links may be included for your convenience. View our privacy and affiliates policy for details.
Fayetteville is blessed with one of the most amazing used book stores anywhere, the Dickson Street Book Shop. This place is spectacular, full of winding rooms stacked with floor-to-ceiling shelves, with books in piles at the ends of the aisles. 
It’s musty and awesome and you never know what you’re going to find, but I’m convinced you can find something for anyone there.
I set out to prove that this morning when I went there looking for books for everyone in my immediate gift-giving family, and after about an hour playing in the stacks I’m pretty pleased with what I came up with. 
There’s The Portable Elizabethan Reader from 1946, a Guide to Shells with more than 1,000 illustrations, a collection of early postcards and stories from Iowa, a pictorial account of life along the Lower White River, a recipe book and a book called How the Universe Works that has information, experiments and crafts I think the girl will love. 
My favorite for its sheer wackiness, though, is a book called The Greater Gulf State. Published in 1948 by the Mobile Chamber of Commerce, it’s a book that looks at the economic and recreational opportunities available along the Gulf Coast and surrounding environs. I can only guess it was printed to encourage businesses to locate in the area, but it’s full of retro photos and Chamber zeal and I was just impossibly drawn to it.
Shopping the used book store makes it possible to find books with a lot more character, on just about any subject you could want (though I’ll admit I didn’t find all the topics I wanted, it was probably more about me looking in the wrong place than their lack of existence in that shop).
I also found an Arthur book for the girl for $1.50 and for me, America’s Knitting Book by Gertrude Taylor, published in 1968. It has awesome line drawings to explain knitting techniques, and it looks like a lot of fun.
Have you scored any great books (new or used) lately? I’d love to hear about it.
