Adventure 108: A Salt Lake City Book Store Crawl

I had some time one Saturday afternoon. What started out as a stop into "Ken Sanders Rare Books" as another one of those moments of realizing I pass the building all the time, and had never been inside. It ended up piquing my interest in perusing old, interesting books. So I the day turned into a three-book-store tour.

First stop, Ken Sanders Rare Books. My previous experience with old book stores has been that the staff tend to have a love for the books on their shelves, and welcome questions, and love to tell you the stories behind some of the books in their keep.

That was not my experience at Ken Sanders shop. They leared at me suspiciously as I wondered. And when I asked about an old book behind the glass case, the young man working looked annoyed to interrupted behind the counter and came closer to where I was standing, though did not completely close the gap between us. He asked if I was really interested in buying or if I was just curious. Yikes!

On a positive note, once I escaped the judgmental eyes of the staff and started weaving through the stacks that were jammed packed with all sorts of treasures--or junk (who am I to say?), it was pretty fun.

There is all sorts of Utah historical artifacts in the shop. Pretty cool.

Next stop, Eborn Books. Okay, I didn't expect this place to also have an old-timey thumbprint. The name "Eborn" makes me think of the internet. I guess I expected more digital technology to be the focus. Nope.

Definitely a visual feast! And there are three floors! I felt like I was let loose in an old mansion perusing through someone's family collection from generations gone by. I sort of felt like an intruder. But this time there was actually no one looking at me suspiciously.

Here are the rare books that are hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars. I didn't even bother asking the staff about these books. The words, "serious buyers only please" made it pretty clear they felt the same about curios people as the Ken Sanders shop does.

A fun extended room of books. Pocket upon pocket of books to be explored!

Seriously, every corner I turned just made me want to keep searching for these bonus rooms of books.

And now, I venture downstairs. So exciting!

This is the room the red carpeted stairs lead me to. It looked like it was in the middle of a re-model.

Probably a much needed renovation.

But more corners squished with more books!

I mean...it has the potential of being glorious.

The disco-ball styled pillar seemed a bit out of place.

But I kind of loved it.

It was hard for me to tear myself away from this place. I could literally spend a year in this place.

My third and last stop ended in Trolley Square (I mean, a girl's got to eat) at Sam Weller.

By far the smallest operation of the three. But it had it's own charm. The charm of Trolley Square.

I could have taken a long rest in one of these seats after so much bookstore perusing. But they do look a little dingy, don't they?

It's very beautiful, well lit and very open. It did make me hesitant to stop at a book, mostly because it made me an easy target for the eager staff. 

Cute kid's section.

Time spent on adventure: 4 hours
Money spent: $0
Recommendation: 7 out of 10 adventure points!