Bookstore confidential

One of the coolest things about small town western New England is the prevalence of used bookstores – they are everywhere. Every town seems to have one, usually housed in an old farmhouse, church building, or other historical structure.

This past weekend we ventured to the out-of-the-way village of Montague, MA to check out a place called The Bookmill (tag line: “Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find”). It’s a very cool, picturesque used bookstore, accompanied by a roomy café and a restaurant, built in a mid-1800’s grist mill on the edge of the Sawmill River. We didn’t bring a camera, but I found a few pictures online and am posting them here to give you a sense of the place.

The book selection is reasonable and well laid out, but there’s something about the place/location (or maybe subliminal messages piped through the sound system) that encourages one to spend an afternoon browsing, wandering the grounds, watching the falls, and having coffee or perhaps a glass of wine or ale. If you want to write the next great American novel but have had trouble getting started, the café might be optimal place to shake off that writer’s block…

- jbc