Address: 411 N 4th Ave., Tucson, AZ, 85705
Nina Chu
Back of Beyond Books was the first book I saw. Moab, UtahThe storefront was a welcome oasis in the dry heat of the desert town. A pitstop on a train journey from Salt Lake City You can also find out more about the following: DenverI had not intended to buy a new book but ended up spending an hour or more browsing the environmental literature section. It is a large section with Utah authors, from Edward Abbey (an historic icon) to Terry Tempest Williams who lives nearby.
David Everett’s passion is to represent Utah’s unique literature. He worked in local politics before purchasing the store in 2022. “Probably, the most important thing that brought me to Moab was the books of Edward Abbey. [national park] Writer, ranger, and artist for 3 years. Desert SolitaireHe describes it as a seminal piece of work in the history on the environmental movement. He says that nature writing in this part of the United States is “all about exploring”. “Exploration is external, but it’s just as much internal—and it feels like the desert gives you room to do that.” —Hannah Towey, associate editor
Recommended Reading Abbey alternates his reading between Utah’s core curriculum and best-selling books to keep up with the well-travelled and well-read customers he serves. His bookshelf currently includes an epic Western called Tom’s Crossing Mark Z. Danielewski is a novelist who takes place in a fictionalized Provo Utah. The Correspondent Virginia Evans’s speculative climate-fiction novel The Deluge Stephen Markley
Address: 83 N Main St. Moab, UT 84532.
Nina Chu
The 1822 Stone Barn is tucked away in Pennsylvania’s picturesque Brandywine Valley, Baldwin’s Book Barn—named after its founding couple, William and Lilla Baldwin—feels less like a bookstore than a living archive, its labyrinthine stacks filled with used and rare books, manuscripts, maps, and other local antiquarian finds. “We were in contact at one point with Guinness [World Records] Carol Pfaff Rauch is the manager of Carol Pfaff Rauch Used Books. “They said, ‘Count them.’ I am not going to do that. “We have more than 25,000 square foot and over 300,000.”
Rauch, who is 93 years old, has become part of the Book Barn mythology. She has lived many lives. She worked in real estate, archeology and raised five children. She began volunteering at the store in 2010, before becoming the manager. She is now a sort of literary first responder in the area. Each week, she fields calls from families dealing with estates—collections amassed over lifetimes that now need new homes. On Saturdays she and her child make house visits to determine what can saved and be added to Book Barn’s shelf. Rauch: “We cherry-pick the good books and I tell them to throw out what they don’t like.”
