After a five-day visit to Nashville over the Labor Day weekend, I came down with another respiratory virus, but at least tested negative for Covid this time. Just one more plane trip (a short one!) this coming weekend, and then no more flying for me for a few months!
Last Sunday I posted about visiting two of the three indie bookstores on this list of 10 Must-Visit Bookstores in Nashville, and promised this week’s post would feature Parnassus Books in Nashville, the independent bookstore owned by one of my favorite authors, Ann Patchett.
I took a Lyft ride out to Parnassus Books on a very hot Saturday afternoon. Its strip-mall location isn’t picturesque, but it’s in what seemed to be a high-volume shopping area, convenient for people to get to by car. (You wouldn’t want to try to walk there from downtown Nashville.)
Even though there were no special events going on, the place was hopping! I haven’t seen so many people going in and out of an actual bookstore in a long time, and it made me feel good to see the store so busy.
Some of the amazing spaces and displays inside the store:
I had read Tom Lake in advance of publication, but wanted to own a copy to share with family and read again sometime. I was disappointed that they all had celebrity book club labeling on the cover, but bought it anyway! My other purchases were Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe (a different celebrity book club label, grrr!) by Emma Törzs and a Parnassus Books T-shirt.
Then I bought a sandwich for lunch at a Great Harvest Bakery in the same shopping plaza, and found a little place in the shade to wait for my Lyft ride back to the hotel on the other side of Nashville.
Before our flight back to Boston, I made my husband traipse all the way back from our gate to where we had come through the security line to help me find the Parnassus Books outlet at the Nashville airport and take my picture. Because I didn’t realize how far from our gate it was, I didn’t have time to look around (or buy anything, so probably just as well!)
Notice I’m wearing my Parnassus Books T-shirt. I should have taken my hoodie off, but I guess I was panicky about missing our flight and didn’t think. (Not that we’re ever among the first to board, anyway!)
This is a real airport bookstore!
This Sunday post is so late, it’s practically a Monday post! I’ve figured out some of my WordPress photo problems, but probably my prose isn’t as sparkling as usual today. 😉 I blame my sinuses!
Sunday Salon is to encourage conversation about books and bookish things, but can expand into other topics. The weekly link-up and Facebook group are hosted long-distance from Italy this month by the Deb Nance of Readerbuzz.
I love a good airport bookstore! I have some happy memories of getting books in airports as a kid when we traveled. 🙂
That does look like a fabulous book store! I actually went into the local Barnes and Noble the other day, and it was kind of amazing to me, as I seem to just get everything from amazon or the library these days.
best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I’m drooling over the bookstore AND the sandwich!
I did not know that Ann Patchett owns a bookstore, even though I HAVE heard of that bookstore before! Has she always owned it or did she buy it to save it from going out of business? Has she had it for very long or is this a brand new endeavor?
Good idea to take Lyft to the bookstore.
I love that you made your husband traipse through the airport to take a picture of you at that branch of the bookstore! Was he a good sport about it or grumpy?
Hope your respiratory virus goes away soon and you’re feeling better!
That is an amazing airport bookstore. I had no idea they had outlets like that!
I love everything about this post! One of these days I WILL get to Nashville and visit Parnassus, but I always pictured it in a quaint old downtown building… not in a strip mall. The store looks amazing. Thanks for sharing the photos.
I thought that she bought it to keep it from going out of business, but, no, she and a business partner started it in 2011. We have an independent bookstore about fifty minutes away from us in Massachusetts owned by the children’s book author Jeff Kinney and his wife Julie, that’s also a great shopping destination!
Hubby was a pretty good sport about the picture. We should have done it first thing when we got there, but we were thinking more about grabbing lunch and finding an empty corner of the airport to eat in, and then he got absorbed in work he had to do to get ready for a work trip to Singapore three days later! Travel is stressful, but our connections all went amazingly well that time.
Me too!
There’s live music in the Nashville airport restaurants, too! Not a bad airport to hang around in for a few hours.
Not me! I was almost 16 the first time I rode on a plane! I remember going into Boston on the subway for pre-Christmas book shopping with my father, though. There used to be so many bookstores!
Thanks for taking us with you to the Parnassus bookstore. What a great way to start my week!
I didn’t know Anne Patchett owned a bookstore, or two, I’m glad you enjoyed your visit.
Wishing you a great reading week
The bookstore looks wonderful! It’s been such a long time since I’ve been in a real bookstore. What fun this is!
You got to go to Parnassus!! How wonderful! I really want to go 🙂 And another location in the airport – very cool!
Sue
Book By Book
I’ve always wanted to visit Parnassus Books. After seeing all your wonderful photos, I’m even more eager to visit it.
I am looking forward to reading Tom Lake when I get home from Italy.