by Madeline Dell'Aria
It's summertime and like any true book lover knows, it's time to kick up your feet, soak up the sun, and relax with a good book. Whether you're picking up the latest book of the season or a classic from the canon, we're here to show your the best places throughout the D.M.V. for scoring fresh reads—our fantastic indie book shops, of course!
IDLE TIME BOOKS
Adam’s Morgan, Washington, DC
Along a street of hookah bars, dives, head shops, tattoo parlors, and boutique restaurants, Idle Time Books seems an incongruous addition, yet it resides harmoniously. Just three doors down from the prominent hot spot Madam’s Organ, Idle Time Books quenches the community’s literary thirst.
Outside the bookstore, the sidewalk is littered with carts full of one dollar books, discounted due to overstock or light wear. Visitors are first greeted by unique event cards (Hallmark doesn’t stock these) and stacks of vintage magazines spanning several decades. Beyond, the meticulously organized collection of used books rise not just one, but two and a half stories tall. Fiction occupies a large swath of the first floor, but there is so much more tucked away in this unassuming store. A glass case of first editions sits by the stairs: The Hobbit for the fantasy collector, The Fountainhead for the libertarian, an antique copy of the now out-of-print music magazine Creem with rock and roll supernova David Bowie emblazoned on the cover.
The well- kept landing carries biographies and other non-fiction. And upwards, on the second floor, section after section of non-fiction is featured; women’s studies, queer studies, racial studies, and the sciences, whittled down to subsections of biology, technology, chemistry and the like, military and foreign history divided by country. And then there is the fiction: sci-fi, fantasy, and vintage pulp books wrapped in cellophane like candy.
The most appealing aspect of Idle Time Books is that it invites its guests to linger. Folk music plays softly from the speakers. Hand-written signs like “YES WE CAN! Put Books Back Where We Found Them” and other vintage posters are cozily appropriate for a bookstore nestled amongst the politically savvy, witty populations of northwest DC. As the name suggests, visitors will want to have ample time to visit Idle Time Books and let their minds and attentions wander.
Madeline Dell’Aria, a Northern Virginia native, recently graduated from George Mason University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Growing up she wanted to become a tree, a witch, or an explorer; so she became a writer.
