I’ve been a little lax on my favourite bookshop posts, what with being overseas and moving house and attending to novelly things and that whole day job business. I do have many, many photos of several of the fabulous, multi-storey bookshops in Japan, which shall one day surface on this blog.

Due to being a miserly Scrooge in the aftermath of Japan, my own bookshopping has been more limited lately, consisting mostly of staring at pretty covers online and folding up the newspaper enough times that it resembles a paperback. So, I thought it was about time to live vicariously through another author and all their bookshopping glory.

Today’s favourite bookshop fellow is Jim C Hines (note the C, which is very important in differentiating him from the sprinter of the same name):

As a writer, I hate to play favorites … so let me preface this by saying to any bookstore folks reading this, I love you all so please don’t strip my books, ‘kay?

Here in the Lansing area, it’s no contest.  Schuler Books is an independent bookstore that started in Grand Rapids, and has now expanded to either four or five stores.  They’re large enough to compete with Borders and Barnes & Noble, with none of the chain store politics.  Speaking as a writer, they’ve been incredibly supportive of me and my books.  And speaking as a reader … well, let’s just say they’ve walked away with a significant chunk of my income.

I also have to give a shoutout to John K. King Used & Rare Books in Detroit. You know the scene in Willy Wonka where they first walk into the candy room? Or Scrooge McDuck’s giant money bin?  King Books is a lot like that.  We’re talking about a four-storey remodeled factory building, stocked full of books.  The outside isn’t all that shiny, but the inside … I think this might be what Heaven looks like.

Multi-storey factory building bookshops may well indeed be approaching Nirvana. Like this one (slightly blurry, as it’s an action shot [if an escalator can count as action]–there are 8 floors to this bookshop in Kyoto):

(The second photo is a gratuitous shot of beautiful covers, because Japanese books have astoundingly cool cover design.)

Anyway, back on track now, because this post has had enough digressions that it’s beginning to resemble a text by Ulrich Beck (the sociologist, not the Michael Moorcock guy).

If you want to say hello to Jim, you can pop by his LJ, or hang out on his spiffy SFF page. He’s cooler than me, and posts pictures of lolbooks, which are the thinking person’s lolcats. He’s the author of a humorous goblin trilogy from DAW Books, about a nearsighted goblin runt named Jig, and his next book, THE STEPSISTER SCHEME will be out in January of 2009–he describes it as a mash-up of fairy tale princesses with Charlie’s Angels.  (There aren’t any Japanese covers yet, but given the array of European rights sales he’s had, no doubt they’re not far away.) He has roughly 40 short fiction sales to his name, including appearances in Realms of Fantasy, Turn the Other Chick, and an award-winning tale in Writers of the Future. His favorite color is purple (did you see what I did there?). He lives in Michigan with his wife and two children.

Previous Favourite Bookshop posts: Margo Lanagan; Lucy Sussex; Marshall Payne; Michael Pryor; Kaaron Warren