Page Turner
The 5 Southern bookstores author David Joy can’t live without
DAVID JOY’S INSTAGRAM FEED appears equal parts animal, vegetable, and Joy’s rustic Southern cooking. The award-winning author, based in western North Carolina, brings his sporting side to the fore more readily than his literary one, but that’s likely because he’s more comfortable catching carp than waxing on about his deft literary ability.
Joy is the author of five novels; he explores human nature and its darkest parts, yet his books don’t shut out the light completely. Darkness and dawn coexist, and Joy is seeking to find both through his fractured characters. His novel Where All Light Tends to Go was recently made into the feature film, Devil’s Peak, starring Robin Wright and Billy Bob Thornton, and he is on a book tour promoting his latest work, Those We Thought We Knew.
We asked Joy to name his must-visit bookshops in the South:
City Lights Bookstore, Sylva, NC: This is my hometown store. The owner and I live just a few miles down the road from one another. I love him and the other booksellers like family. When I sold my first novel, that was the first place I went because those were the people I wanted to tell. Five novels in, they’ve shipped signed copies of my work all over the world. The love, the kindness, the passion for books. They’re the definition of what you can’t get from buying books off Amazon.
McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro, NC: I’m picking McIntyre’s as much for the cows as the bookstore. And don’t get me wrong I absolutely love the community and booksellers (especially Pete who always turns me onto beautiful books that have somehow managed to slip by me). But where else can you shop for books then walk outside and stand along a fence to watch belted Galloways graze a pasture? Nowhere else on Earth.
M. Judson Booksellers, Greenville, SC: Just a cool store in a cool town of cool ass people. I love the layout. I love the building. I love the booksellers. The branding is pitch perfect. My favorite bookstore t-shirts have all come from M. Judson. I’ve got a whole collection.
“Where else can you shop for books then walk outside and stand along a fence to watch belted Galloways graze a pasture? Nowhere else on Earth.”
Plott Hound Books, Burnsville, NC: Yeah, yeah, the Old North State is heavy on this list, but I’m a twelfth generation North Carolinian, and we’ve got a pile of beautiful bookstores. If you’ve never traveled to Burnsville, it’s a hidden gem tucked away just out of spitting distance from Asheville. Plott Hound is a fairly new addition, having only been open a year, but its owner is a name everyone should come to know. Ronni Lundi is literary gold, both as an author and as a bookseller. Tell her I sent you, and while you’re there, grab a copy of her book, Victuals. You can thank me later.
Rare Square Books, Oxford, MS: Everyone knows the legendary Square Books in Oxford, a literary capital for the American South. But not often mentioned are the three other bookstores (that’s right, four bookstores in one town square) that accompany the keystone store. Rare Square is an off-shoot filled with rare books and signed first editions, most of which I cannot afford. It’s worth the drive just to walk in and smell the air in that place. Hell, walk the block and you can also hit Square, Square Jr., and Off Square then run in City Grocery and square up to the bar.
