Here’s a Look at What’s Believed to Be Kentucky’s Largest Bookstore

When Lincoln Mall (now Owensboro Christian Church) opened at the end of our drive, the world changed for all us neighborhood kids. Talk about adding a prime destination to bicycle journeys. I was there a lot, and when I was, I'd spend most of my time at The Book Corner, the first bookstore I can remember.

Defunct Bookstore Chains

That trend (passion?) continued with the arrival of Towne Square Mall and Waldenbooks, where you would find me during every visit. Then Eastland Mall opened in 1981, and B. Dalton came into my life. I believe Eastland also had a Waldenbooks, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Later came the behemoth known as Barnes & Noble, and, of course, there was Borders, which closed for good in 2011. (Borders was my favorite of all of the above.)

Second-Hand Bookstores

We are now deep within the "used bookstore" era; chains like Half-Price Books and 2nd & Charles hit home runs wherever they open. There's also McKay's Bookstore, which has six locations in the South, including one immediately west of Nashville. That one's enormous; the one in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (the only other one I visited)? Not so much, even though I did find a movie there that I hadn't anywhere else.

Glover's Bookery in Lexington

Since 1978, Lexingtonians have made Glover's Bookery one of the most popular destinations for readers in Kentucky. It doesn't hurt that it's thought to be the largest bookstore in the Commonwealth. Why, the category list, alone, takes up three pages on its website. But when you're dealing with more than 80,000 hardback books, not to mention collections of tribal art and antique maps, that's not surprising.

There's no telling how much time I could spend there, but I'll only have five hours at a time. Glover's Bookery is open Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 5 PM.

Make it count.