Keep Austin Weird

And that is the slogan of the capital of Texas... "Keep Austin Weird."  I don't know who came up with that, and why, but it does fit that city.

We drove up to Austin this week and stayed overnight at one of the hotels. We usually stay at a B&B when we travel, but with the 'weird' thing going on up there, I didn't want to take a chance. There are a lot of very small vintage homes within the city limits of Austin and the last thing I wanted was a shoe-box sized bedroom with a bathroom in the hall which could be shared with five strangers.

Our mission up in Austin was to find independent bookstores, which we did (about 8 of them), and we also had breakfast at The Counter Cafe, which was featured on Diners/DriveIns/Dives--- such a teeny restaurant... how did Guy and his camera crew fit in there?

I love old bookstores, or new bookstores with old books... my husband searched for the shops before we left, arranged them in geographical order so we wouldn't be back-tracking in the Austin traffic, and the result was two shopping bags nearly filled with books. I was in book-heaven, and will be for quite a while... lots to read.

There was one bookstore on our list that we didn't get to see... it was closed when we got there, but after looking at the front of the store (painted a sickly neon blue) and then peeking through the very dirty windows to see dusty floors and haphazard displays, we didn't bother going back during their (irregular) business hours.

Another store had nothing but rare and collectible books. (Translation: very expensive.)  We did look around the small shop, filled with signed first editions and out-of-print books that were priced in the hundreds and thousands. (Who knew that an Ian Fleming novel with an intact dust-jacket could cost two thousand dollars?)

One of the largest Half-Price Books is up in Austin, and I spent nearly two hours in there, trying to look at everything. They have a separate room for Rare Books, and that was the best part... I found an old copy of "From Here To Eternity."

One huge store was called The Book People... two floors of books and nearly everything connected to books, and then hundreds of items that weren't related to books at all.  The books were all new, and I much prefer gently-read books anyway, but we looked around the entire store. I decided that a store like that should have bookplates, so I asked the young man at the register...

Do you have bookplates? said I.
Book plates? Tell me exactly what those are.
Ex libris... "From the library of..."  Small rectangular labels that are put into the front of your books and you write your name on them.
Ex libris... I've never heard of that before... doesn't sound familiar to me. Have you looked for book plates by our display of famous-author mugs?

After that short conversation, I knew that the person we were talking to wasn't really a 'book person' at all and maybe shouldn't be working at a store called "The Book People."

One of the best bookstores was run by the Austin Library... a fairly good-sized store independent of the main library building... all of their book donations and discards are sold in that shop. One dollar for paperbacks, two dollars for hardcovers. Everything was neatly arranged on shelves and tables with clearly-marked category displays, and very knowledgeable people working there. I found a vintage copy of Huckleberry Finn, an old copy of the children's book Madeline, and a first edition of the newest Anne Tyler novel.

Aside from the bookshops, we walked along a few of the main shopping streets of the city and browsed through an eclectic antique shop, and then found a clothing store that was jam-packed with every imaginable costume (and some un-imaginable) under the sun. Austin, in all of its weirdness, must be very big into costume parties, parades, and vintage clothing. Actually, walking along some of the Austin streets, one would think that every 20-something resident could be on their way to a costume party.  Walking into the front door of that costume shop, the first thing you see is a huge display of feathered boas in every color of the rainbow... and a huge sign immediately catches your eye:  "Please don't play with the boas!"  (I resisted the urge to stand in the middle of all those boas and surround myself with multi-colored feathers.)

We brought Savannah to the boarding facility on the morning we left, leaving her in one of their deluxe rooms while we were gone. She walked into the building very nicely, but tried to walk out with us when we were ready to leave. Savannah had been there before, and it's a very nice facility with an abundance of friendly people to take care of the pets. They told us that she followed the girl quietly right after we went out of the door, so the sense of guilt for us didn't last too long.

We thought the trip would be longer, but after we saw all the bookshops on our list, and tried a few of the restaurants, we were ready to come home. (I don't think we're weird enough for Austin.) We were able to pick up Savannah a day early because we got back into town before the boarding kennel closed yesterday.

The weather has changed again and we're having a couple of very cold days today and tomorrow. I don't plan on going out anywhere until the sun comes back again and the temperature gets back into the 70s.  (Keep Texas Warm.)