The long Vermont winters bring endless opportunities to tie trout flies, tan indoors with full-spectrum lighting, tromp around in snowshoes - and read a few good books.
There's a plethora of fine used bookshops in northern Vermont. Locally owned book stores are scattered across the state from St. Johnsbury to Burlington. There are at least eleven used bookstores open five days a week, most of them doing business on weekends as well, and during the evenings by appointment.
Driving Vermont east to west: In the St. Johnsbury area, less than a mile from I-91, are two of the best. Ellen Doyle's Green Mountain Books in Lyndonville, stocks over 30,000 volumes on all subjects. This writer once scored a signed copy of Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples (Vol. 1) for $25. His collection of hunting and fishing firsts began here as well.
Ten miles south is That Bookstore, owned and managed by Bob Streeter. With a stock of 25,000 volumes, this shop serves up an occasional big-time number too - books and ephemera. Streeter's store made national news in 1999 with two remarkable books - one, a 1350 AD volume of Aristotle's Metaphysics, and the other, a book by one Peter Aureole, 1250 AD. Quirky and pleasantly chaotic, That Bookstore also features a year-round flea sale, where you can find everything from hats to hammers.
Into bells? One of the world's two principal bell-book collections can be found at Country Bookshop in Plainfield, 100 yards south of Rt. 2. Among its 30,000 volumes is one of Vermont's best collections of first editions, signed copies (including T.S. Eliot) and much more. (Plenty of collectable outdoors stuff here as well) The pricing is reasonable; the coffee is good too. For atmosphere, you can't beat this place.
It took this writer twenty years to find a first of Art Flick's Streamside Guide, which eventually surfaced in The Book Garden in Montpelier. The selection is relatively small, but what's there is very well priced.
North Country Books on 2 Church Street, in Burlington is as good as it gets north of Boston or New York City. With 50,000 volumes, beautifully displayed and perfectly organized,
you can lose yourself in this basement-level labyrinth long enough to qualify for Senior discounts up on the street-level retail stores. It's one of the best bookstores Vermont has to offer. A bibliophile from Cincinnati, touring northern Vermont antiquarian bookstores with his wife, gave North Country Books a perfect '10' for selection and quality. Specials: Vermontiana, poetry, children's, maps, prints, lithographs and an enormous number of firsts and signed editions.
Also in the Burlington area is The Book Keeper, located at 141 Knight Lane, in Williston. For 
sheer size, this might be the most impressive. Owners David & Eli Enman carry a large stock of books relating to railroads, the Civil War, books over 100 years old and Vermontiana, including copies of the Burlington Free Press back to 1875.
Another not to be missed stop for book lovers: The Brick House Book Shop in Morrisville, seven miles north of Stowe, has 70,000 volumes of general stock in all categories, hardcover and paperback; Alexandra Heller has been selling books here for decades.
© 2012 
