Reading Guide

We asked our academic advisors to name which bookstores in the U.S. have the best backlist of literary fiction, which out-of-print works should be reissued, and which literary websites are most notable. The following lists were compiled from their responses.

Bookstores in the U.S. With the Best Backlist of Literary Fiction

These stores are ranked according to the number of votes they received. A couple of interesting things have changed since we last published a similar list of bookstores in the Review of Contemporary Fiction. First of all, a few major independent bookstores have gone out of business, including Books & Co., Coliseum Books, Great Expectations, and Posman Books. The other major change is the reduction in the number of individual chains stores that made the list. Last time ten chain stores were included, this time only five received any votes.

Seminary Co-op, Chicago, IL
Cody’s Books, Berkeley, CA
St. Mark’s, New York, NY
City Lights, San Francisco, CA
Gotham Book Mart, New York, NY
Barnes & Noble at Union Square, New York, NY
Labyrinth Books, New York, NY
Community Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY
Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore, Los Angeles, CA
Elliott Bay Book Co., Seattle, WA
Barbara’s Bookstore, Oak Park, IL
Barnes & Noble at Astor Place, New York, NY
Talking Leaves Books, Buffalo, NY
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA
Shakespeare and Co., New York, NY
Lenox Hill, New York, NY
Strand Book Store, New York, NY
Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, WI
Powell’s City of Books, Portland, OR
Schuler Books & Music, Grand Rapids, MI
Brown University Bookstore, Providence, RI
Chapters: A Literary Bookstore,Washington, DC
Borders, Chicago, IL
Reader’s Oasis, Tucson, AZ
Barbara’s Bookstore, Chicago, IL
Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC
Harvard Coop, Cambridge, MA
London-Porter Books, Hoffman Estates, IL
Barnes & Noble at the Grove, Los Angeles, CA
Third Place Books, Lake Forest, WA
Powell’s Books, Chicago, IL
University of Washington Bookstore, Seattle, WA
Emory University Bookstore, Atlanta, GA
Black Oak Books, Berkeley, CA
57th Street Books, Chicago, IL
Shaman Drum, Ann Arbor, MI
Malaprop’s Bookstore, Asheville, NC
Von’s Books, West Lafayette, IN
Ruminator Books, St. Paul, MN
Square Books, Oxford, MS
Kepler’s Books and Magazines, Menlo Park, CA
Vertigo Books, College Park, MD
Atticus Books, Amherst, MA
Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, CA
Illini Union Bookstore, Champaign, IL

Out-of-Print Works That Should Be Reissued

The Dramatic Symphony and the Forms of Art, Andrei Bely
The Seventh Horse and Other Tales, Leonora Carrington
The Inconvenience of Living, and Other Acts of Folly, Marvin Cohen
This is Moscow Speaking and Other Stories, Yuli Daniel
African Tragedy, R. R. R. Dhlomo
That Awful Mess on Via Merulana, Carlo Emilio Gadda
Had I a Hundred Mouths, William Goyen
Landscapes after the Battle, Juan Goytisolo
Moira, Julian Green
Captain Maximus, Barry Hannah
The Passion Artist, John Hawkes
Balcony of Europe, Aidan Higgins
The Sundial, Shirley Jackson
Places in the World a Woman Could Walk, Janet Kauffman
Skin, Kathe Koja
Up from the Country, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux
The Forthright Spirit, Chris Marker
Ancient History: A Paraphrase, Joseph McElroy
The Mangan Inheritance, Brian Moore
No Country for Young Men, Julia O’Faolain
And Again?, Sean O’Faolain
A Void, Georges Perec
A Visit from the Footbinder, Emily Prager
Pilgrimage, Dorothy Richardson
Locus Solus, Raymond Roussel
Seducers in Ecuador, Vita Sackville-West
Going Away, Clancy Sigal
Wars I Have Seen, Gertrude Stein
Mr. Rouse Builds his House, Stefan Themerson
Motion Sickness, Lynne Tillman
Flats, Rudolph Wurlitzer
The Edge of the Storm, Agustin Yanez

Best Literary Websites

Arts and Letters Daily

www.aldaily.com

Assoziations-Blaster

www.a-blast.org

Conjunctions

www.conjunctions.com

Documenting the American South at the University of North Carolina

docsouth.unc.edu

Electronic Book Review

www.electronicbookreview.com

Electronic Literature Organization

www.eliterature.org

Electronic Poetry Center

www.epc.buffalo.edu

Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library

etext.lib.virginia.edu

Gertrude Stein On-line

www.tenderbuttons.com

Hommage à André Malraux

www.malraux2001.culture.fr

Jacket Magazine

www.jacketmagazine.com

The Isle of Lesbos

www.sappho.com

Lannan

www.lannan.org

The Library of Maxim Moshkovpse

www.kulichki.com/moshkow

Making of America

cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/ (Cornell)

moa.umdl.umich.edu/ (Michigan)

Moby Lives

www.mobylives.com

Modern American Poetry

www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/index.htm

OuLiPo

worldserver2.oleane.com/fatrazie/oulipo.htm

Project Gutenberg

www.gutenberg.net

The Samuel Beckett On-line Resources and Links Page

www.samuel-beckett.net

Third Factory

www.umit.maine.edu/~steven.evans/3F-index.htm

Ubuweb

www.ubu.com

Web Del Sol

www.webdelsol.com

Wright American Fiction

www.letrs.indiana.edu/web/w/wright2