NOLA Bookstore Visit

Hi everyone!  I took a bit of a break from my blog because it was my birthday, I was in New Orleans for a bit, and then we had Memorial Day weekend and I needed a few days to recover from all that fun!  I didn’t do any reading and I didn’t go on any social media, and it was honestly wonderful to take a break.

New Orleans is amazing; if you haven’t been, I could not recommend it more!  The weather is fantastic, the food is out of this world, the architecture is stunning - I’m ready to pack up my bags and head back down there again!  I won’t go through all the details of my trip because this isn’t a travel blog, but if you are interested in hearing more about it, you can visit my personal Instagram account, @jenstace.  

Whenever I travel, I try to hit up a local bookstore (I still have my post from last year saved as a draft…oops!) and NOLA was no exception.  I stayed in the Garden District, which is the quieter, more historic area of the city, and I was within walking distance to the Garden District Book Shop.  You have to be careful not to miss it, because the store is within a larger building called the Rink Shopping Center, so it’s not super obvious if you are just walking by.

The Garden District Book Shop is a medium-sized store, with tons of author events advertised at the front.  Unfortunately, nothing coincided with my visit, but it seems like there are frequently popular authors visiting to sign books.  

This store had two features that really stood out to me:  

First, they had a “Blind Date With A Book” display, which I’ve seen on Instagram, but never in real life!  If you aren’t familiar with the concept, basically they wrap a book in paper so that you can’t see the title or author.  Written on the outside is some vague information, like the genre or other books that it’s similar to, so you have some guidelines but you are pretty much taking home a surprise!  I didn’t choose one due to luggage constrictions, but I’d love to participate in this sometime. 

There was also a display that focused just on books about Louisiana and New Orleans.  They had travel guides, coffee table books, history, and then some fiction as well…there were a few mysteries that really caught my eye!

Overall this was a really cute book shop and I’m happy I made the time to visit.  If you have a trip to NOLA coming up, make sure to add a stop to your itinerary…any offers to take me with you will absolutely be accepted!