Hidden Gems: The Unorganized Bookstore

I love hotels. As a temporary home in an unfamiliar city, a hotel offers the tantalizing opportunity to explore. Hotels whisper an invitation to wander the hallways to find something amazing. 

The Unorganized Bookstore in Marion is like a hotel left unexplored. Many have seen it, driven past it 200 times. What lies within, however, concealed from the hum of routine, is a curious haven waiting to be noticed.

The humble abode serves as the hotel for hundreds of sleeping volumes, waiting to be wakened. The selection is vast; comic books and cook books, dictionaries and mysteries, travel guides and words of the wise. Children's books, magazines, CD's, and DVD's also have a place in the tiny shop. Each bears suitcase, filled with the contents of its past. 

Each book once belonged to someone, during some year, somewhere. It could have been bought with leftover lunch money, stolen from a store shelf, unreturned to a library, borrowed over and over leaving ownership unknown. The pages prompted delight or boredom, the stories cherished or discarded. But every book shares one common experience: The Unorganized Bookstore to call a temporary home, a place for some R and R before joining a new owner's life. 

When I walk into the store, a Hotel for Sleepy Pages, I don't see a tiny building full of used books. I see history, I see possibility, and I see prized possessions just waiting to be found.

My last trip to the Unorganized Bookstore yielded some amazing finds! Two books about the love of my life (the city of San Francisco), two National Geographic magazines circa 1957, and a CD composed of sixty minutes of the sounds of Hawaiian surf. All for a mere $8 (hardbacks and media are $2, paperbacks $1) Best day ever.

Address: 3602 S. Washington St.

Enjoy your adventure!