The Book Barn (Niantic, CT)

 

A happy discovery. While exploring the Connecticut shoreline, with all its geographic and travel permutations because of the rivers flowing into Long Island Sound. Niantic, and the surrounding area, looked intriguing. Our goal was to find a small town to walk, wander, and eat. Some place that would be engaging and entertaining on a Sunday afternoon. I set the destination on my GPS for a place, The Book Barn, more because it was on the far side of town. The intriguing name provided a mystery to be discovered. Making our way through town, scouting locations, I aimed to turn around at the destination. But upon arrival, we decided that The Book Barn may should have been our destination in the first place.

Inside the main barn

A used bookstore that combines a love of gardening and animals with the pleasures of reading, The Book Barn is a hub of activity for bibliophiles and treasure seekers. It has outgrown the barn that originally contained the business into many outbuildings and stalls around the property. I told Angie, who was worried about some of the books getting wet, that some of the stalls approximated ones that line the Seine in Paris. People wander from building to building, looking for treasures. Signs, prints, and jokes (e.g., The Bridge over the River Koi) entertain and distract browsers. Today, the bookstore has spilled over into two other locations in Niantic, one just a tenth of a mile away and another in downtown Niantic.

Overwhelmed Shopper

On some level shopping was a bit overwhelming: Too many choices, and an assault on the senses. It was difficult to get my head organized because, not knowing that I was going to a used bookstore, I had not thought about what I would hunt for. By the end of the day, after visits to all three locations, I had purchased two books: A Penguin edition of Dickens’s American Notes for General Circulation and a juvenile book called Frank on a Gunboat by Harry Castleman, published in 1892, at $4 apiece.

Inattentive Assistant