This Iowa Bookstore Is One of the Coolest in America

There are plenty of good things to say about the computer era we live in.

Certainly, life is a lot less complicated on a number of fronts thanks to technology, but there have been some unfortunate concessions that have been made along the way.

Near the top of that list is a good old-fashioned book. Not the kind you scroll through on a screen, but one you can actually hold in your hand and turn actual pages.

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Luckily there are still places where readers can get their literary fixes.

They're called bookstores. Remember them?

Recently, Cheapism set out to find  20 of the Coolest Bookstores in America and one in Iowa made the list.

Prairie Lights Books & Cafe, in Iowa City, has been around since 1978, and in its current location on Dubuque Street since 1982.

The building was once home to a local literary society that met throughout the 1930s, bringing in such writers as Sherwood Anderson, E.E. Cummings, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, and Carl Sandburg, and now houses three-and-a-half stories of books.

If you're looking for some food and drink to enjoy while you're doing a little reading, Prairie Lights is also home to a 1,100-square-foot cafe featuring everything from coffee, tea, and pastries to hors d'oeuvres, beer, and wine.

OTHER COOL BOOKSTORES IN AMERICA

• Faulkner House Books - New Orleans
• Bart's Books - Ojai, California
• The Montague Bookmill - Montague, Massachusetts
• The Tattered Cover - Denver
• City Lights Bookstore - San Francisco
• Books & Books - Coral Gables, Florida
• Seminary Co-op Bookstore - Chicago
• Parnassus Books - Nashville
• Strand Bookstore - New York City
• Square Books - Oxford, Mississippi
• The Last Bookstore - Los Angeles
• John K. King Used & Rare Books - Detroit
• Boulder Book Store - Boulder, Colorado
• Henry Miller Memorial Library - Big Sur, California
• Harvard Book Store - Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Elliott Bay Book Co. - Seattle
• Powell's Books - Portland, Oregon
• Baldwin’s Book Barn - West Chester, Pennsylvania
• Semicolon - Chicago