Word

Word up.  This charming little bookshop in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn may rival my current forerunner BookCourt.  I loved it, but for such different reasons that we’ll call it a tie.

The store is small - pretty tiny, in fact.  Its selection is therefore limited (but intriguing).

But of the indie bookstores that I’ve visited so far, this one was the most fun. Although its selection was smaller, I probably spent more time here.  When I first walked in, the first thing I noticed was the aroma of…chili.  Kind of bizarre, but on a cold winter’s day, strangely comforting and just quirky enough to work and make me like the store the more for its scent.  I’m sure it was a staff member (ok, the staff member)’s dinner, but it made the atmosphere homey, like I wanted to curl up with a blanket, a book, and a bowl of chili.

It had a great stationery section, full of hand-printed and hilarious cards; I’m a sucker for unique stationery.

My favorite

 By far, the best part of the bookstore is that it embraces its own booknerdiness.  Check out its Staff Picks page – they’re funny, too.  Word has literary events in-store and in local bars, but it also reaches out to its bibliophile community more than I’ve ever seen: it runs a basketball league exclusively for book nerds (you have to take a book test to be eligible for participation; clearly, they’re working out some dork-picked-last-on-the-playground issues).  There’s also a message board with two sections.  One is an apartment/roommate search, and in addition to the traditional price range and amenities sections, one section asks “Which book will you unpack first?”  The other section, the best section, is a matchmaking section, though I haven’t added myself as a candidate. (Yet.)

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