Samael13 t1_iya5sya wrote on November 29, 2022 at 9:56 PM

Upstate New York and most of New England are positively *littered* with used book stores and antique shops. If Fell, NY is big enough to have apartment rental buildings, it would absolutely have some used book stores. I go camping in upstate NY pretty regularly, and one of our favorite things to do after a camping trip is stop in at random used book stores.

I don't know exactly which part of upstate NY Fell is supposed to be located in, but a quick search for "upstate NY used books" shows dozens of used bookstores throughout.

Hobart, NY, population under 400, is infamous for it's bookstores; it has six independent bookstores despite the village being less than a square mile in area.

[deleted] t1_iya6ryz wrote on November 29, 2022 at 10:03 PM

[removed]

MllePerso OP t1_iyeb1ke wrote on November 30, 2022 at 7:30 PM

My experience is antique stores and apt buildings, yes, book stores not so much for the kind of economically depressed, physically isolated small town she's describing. That being said, I'm trying to get past it, because I do like the author's style overall.

Samael13 t1_iyefeek wrote on November 30, 2022 at 7:58 PM

Could just be our different experiences coloring how we see this. I've been living in New England for most of the last two decades and, I spend a lot of time in upstate NY; I know it's supposed to be economically depressed, but I wonder if your mental picture of Fell might be smaller than the author intends?

Anyplace I've been in upstate NY big enough to have something that might qualify as a "downtown" area in the form of any kind of grid and with multiple apartment buildings, cafes, laundromats and a still functioning motel is big enough that it's almost certainly got at least one or more used bookstores.

MllePerso OP t1_iyf7y0u wrote on November 30, 2022 at 11:09 PM

I guess my mental picture of Fell was not so much smaller as poorer. Like the apt buildings made sense to me, and the laundromats, and the antique stores because the northeast US is crawling with old people looking to sell their old stuff, but for "cafes" the only mental image that worked was if I replaced "sells cute vegan baked goods, has wifi" with "sells Latin American and/or diner food, doesn't have wifi". If that makes sense.