Left in Letters

My first visit to Letters Bookshop was an instance of classical conditioning. While walking along Main Street in early January, I heard the buzz of my phone, read the Duke Alert message “Tornado Warning: Seek Shelter Immediately” and ran into the nearest shop as it began to pour. You know, in accordance with Murphy’s Law: If you are planning a walk in Durham, it will rain.

But it turns out I had chosen the best place to be trapped in during a tornado: a beautiful used bookstore. With a basement.

For its relatively small size, Durham has lots of real, honest-to-goodness bookstores. Not the type that distract you with Pumpkin Spice candles and Moleskine notebooks, for example, but where you’ll know that you’ll leave with the promise of a good read. Durham has, among others, the Regulator on 9th Street, Books Do Furnish a Room (the bright blue trailer set back from West Markham Ave) and Wentworth and Leggett Books, a rare book store in Brightleaf Square.

Then, in December 2013, Letters Bookshop, opened, becoming the first bookstore on Durham’s rapidly developing Main Street. It joined Downtown Durham’s influx of quirky new restaurants and shops: Monuts Donuts, The Parlour and the Cupcake Bar. A delicious street, perhaps, but for intellectual sustenance, slim.

Opening in a previously vacant storefront near Dame’s and Beyu Caffe, Letters came to change that. It’s a cheerful little bookstore, filled from floor to ceiling with shelves of used books.

The owner, Land Arnold, a veteran of the book business since 2003, chose the space after walks around downtown Durham, inspired by its architecture and potential for reinvention. The spot he settled on, previously home to an interior design studio, has the perfect exterior for a bookshop: a large plate-glass window with rows and rows of books behind it. The shelves stock a mix of fiction, nonfiction and children’s books, with a good dose of local authors thrown in the mix. As Letters develops its presence in the Durham literary scene, Land hopes to continue its series of book readings, as well as branch out into community events, like an upcoming party for Book Harvest, a local non-profit that works to make sure every child has books available at home.

It’s cheesy but true: By stepping in a local bookstore, you become part of a part of a community’s story. At Letters, I was particularly excited to see an entire wall devoted to Southern authors, from early greats like Flannery O’Connor and Zora Neale Hurston to contemporary writers like Allan Gurganus and Barbara Kingsolver. And there are a few titles from Duke’s own ranks, like English Professor’s Michael Malone’s “Justin and Cuddy” mystery novels or "Three Gospels" by Duke historian Reynolds Price, who once graced the cover of “Time” magazine.

Of recent publications, though, Land’s favorites include: recent Duke speaker George Saunders’ “Tenth of December”; Philip Meyer’s “The Son”, a dark reimagining of the traditional cowboy novel; and Charlie LeDuff’s “Detroit: An American Autopsy,” a brutal examination of the Motor City with an oddly hopeful ending. “It’s an exciting time to be a reader,” says Land. I’d agree--and add that it’s particularly an exciting time to be a reader in Durham, as local bookstores fight back against Amazon and Barnes & Nobles, champion local authors and build the Triangle’s literary scene.

As a temporary shelter during an unexpected hurricane, Letters was perfect. Yet whether or not meteorological disasters continue to plague Durham, I’m excited to return to look for the next good local read, or simply to soak in the Main Street’s new atmosphere--sans a torrential downpour.