This photo was taken inside a bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina, one of the dog friendliest cities I’ve ever visited. Noah isn’t quite sure what he’s doing inside a place like this, which is expressly forbidden in bookstores in South Florida, but he eventually relaxes into it.
The Arcade Bookstore has a coffee and wine bar inside, and zillions of amazing books – mostly used. Here, I found autographed first editions by Carl Sandburg and a number of other authors. I realized these books were part of people’s passion for rare first editions. They were pricey, but fascinating to see. I have recently been re-reading William Goldman’s Control, and in the store found a signed edition of Marathon Man, which I bought for ten bucks.
This is the kind of bookstore where book people love to wander, browse, sample, and sit awhile. There are tables, chairs, and couches everywhere. Here, book people walk around in a kind of stupor, touching, marveling, opening books at random. I could live in here. I often wonder if places like this are found in the afterlife.
Everything in the store is labeled, well-organized, by genres, authors, topics. This is the kind of bookstore where you and your dog arrive, find a book, buy a coffee, and settle in for the day.
The Arcade Bookstore is vastly different from some of the other bookstores in town, more traditional stores that don’t allow dogs. Inside, these stores have a lack of couches and chairs that invite you to sit down and stick around for awhile. Although these stores are independent, they followed the same type of bureaucracy that chain bookstores do.
I checked out the astrology section in this other bookstore, for instance, to see if Unloocking the Secrets to Scorpio was included. It wasn’t, so I approached the clerk at the front desk and handed him a postcard for the book. He gave me the name of the head buyer and suggested that I email her. I did. I never got a reply. In my mind, her silence became synonymous with the fact that they don’t allow dogs in their store- i.e., not too friendly.
When this connection first occurred to me, my left brain dismissed it as silly, irrelevant. But my right brain knows better. Part of that is because not too long after we left the bookstore, we headed toward the general store, where Rob and I took turns waiting outside with the dogs. While I was out there, an employee came up to me and said the dogs were welcome inside. This general store is larger than the bookstore, has more delicate things that can be broken by unruly dogs. But the dogs behaved just fine.
And that’s how it is with dogs. They’re curious but not naturally destructive. They listen, they understood, they go with the flow regardless of how strange it is to them. They would be more inclined to carry off merchandise from the general store than from the bookstore that won’t allow them inside.
Overall, I was truly impressed by the welcome mat that Asheville has set out for dogs, bowls of water outside most places, treats for the dogs, lots of pats. They ate it up. And so did we.
Asheville is in the middle of the evangelical fundamental Bible Belt, so it makes sense the area is a highly religious one. It is also one of the most gorgeous places on this planet…..not just the Biltmore Estate, which is phenomenal, but the Nature surrounding the city. Those mountains, forests, simply breath-taking. So very peaceful and calming for the Spirit.
I would describe Asheville as a more spiritual place than religious. The rest of North Carolina is conservative Bible-belt country, but Asheville is an oasis of open minds and hearts.
I have a synchro with this post. Yesterday my black Lab, Storm, was not at all her busy, joyful self, and I was terrified by her lethargy and behavior. I didn’t now if she had gotten into anything that could have poisoned her, or what the problem might be, and was prepared to take her to the vet this morning. But she is fine now, and I am so relieved I could cry with happiness. The bookstore….BORDERS in Jacksonville, altho a chain store, allowed dogs AND cats in their enormous store. They had comfy sofas, chairs, bowls of water for the animals, and doggie snacks like the store in Asheville. I was always delighted to go to that store before it closed forever. People are strange….one can tell when a person isn’t an “animal person”, because from time to time I would notice a customer asking a clerk why dogs and cats were allowed in the place and would stick their noses in the air as if just being around an animal was offensive. I personally have no space anywhere in my life for folks who don’t care for animals, and vice versa, for persons that animals don’t care for. Anyway, that Asheville store must have been a tremendous treat for you both AND for the pups. (I’m guessing Nica was along?) Even our WalMart here allows dogs inside if they are on a short lease and well-behaved. I think our country is the only one in the world that has such a genuine love for animals. Day before yesterday, on the national news, there was a piece showing three firemen rescuing a chocolate Lab baby from a drain pipe, and this is the norm. We love our animal companions here in America. Says something good about the USA.
Europe is way ahead of us. Bars and restaurants have been dog friendly for decades!
I’d never heard of Asheville before, so I did a search. It sounds a good town. I read that Asheville is the third most religious city in North Carolina. I wonder if that has any link with them being dog friendly!
Wow! I haven’t seen any evidence of the religious stuff!