Miami bookstores?

After my recent trip to Miami, I figured out why no one responded to my
query of a couple of weeks ago: quite simply, the pickings there seem rather
slim.

I had to wait till Sunday really to explore. Two of the places I wanted to
check out were closed, but I did go to the 2 branches of The Kendall
Bookshelf. I found them mediocre. Their pricing system is interesting:
they mark--in pencil or more likely with a sticker--the original list price.
Then they charge half of that. (Apparently, there is a further discount if
you are using trade credit--but I didn't get into that.)

I generally measure a store by its religion section--simply because I know
those books best. One of the branches had an okay, if overpriced (despite
the system mentioned above) section. The other had half-a-shelf. (Boo,
hiss.) They seemed a decent place to find some good reading copies--I think
you'd have to look rather long and hard for anything collectible (or
resaleable) though.

I picked up an Oxford paperback of Henry James' *Washington Square* for the
plane. I did make one find: a signed copy of Carol Damian's *The Virgin of
the Andes: Art and Ritual in Colonial Cuzco* (Miami Beach: Grassfield Press,
1995). A friend of mine, a specialist in Andean/Incan studies, recently
gave a beautiful painted reproduction of a Cuzco Virgin--so the Damian book
was a welcome reference--and at half list price.


William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com