A couple years ago I visited a store that was a unusual combination of yarns and used books in Chattanooga. It's not uncommon for bookstores to sell stationary, literary t-shirts, coffee, pastries, and even music along with their books, but you don't see the yarn shop/book store combo very often.
Well, it's happened again. A quaint bookstore in Apalachacola, Florida is another such place. Located in the heart of this historic Florida panhandle town, Downtown Books and Purl is a bookstore that also has both, except in contrast to the store in Chattanooga, where the books are more of an afterthought, this store has well-curated stock of fiction, Florida fiction, history, nature books, and cookbooks that deserves some serious browsing, but it also has a wide selection of yarn and knitting items.
The friendly owner Dale Julian explained the yarn idea came out of necessity since she liked knitting and she would have to drive to Tallahassee (well over an hour) to purchase yarn. She discovered that yarn vendors are like book vendors and would visit her store bringing product -- so instead of her having to drive, she could just stock her store. Also, since many people who stay in the area are snowbirds from New York and New England and like to knit, she found it was great way to generate additional foot traffic.
Even though I was already well stocked with beach reading (see previous post), I did purchase a copy of The Sunshine State: No Appointments and a Tank of Gas (2014) by Tim Dorsey, a pictorial guide to the funky Florida as seen by the novelist Tim Dorsey. I didn't know this, but Dorsey is quite the prolific Florida writer along the same lines as Carl Hiassen.
The things you can learn by going into a bookstore.
