2007 RFT Best Of

Best Bookstore (Independent)

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/bestof/2007/award/best-book-store-independent-377580/

We could bend your ears for hours about supporting local businesses. But how about local businesses that support you? Subterranean Books supports your book-buying habit. The shelves hold the best new titles culled from the reams of publishing dreck, the older titles you must read before you die, used books (not as many as it used to, but still enough to allow for the more-than-occasional serendipitous find) and stuff from the counterculture, subculture and high culture you won't find anywhere else. And now that Subterranean has opened a mezzanine on either side of the store, it's supporting local artists and artisans. The west mezzanine functions as a gallery — for example, this summer saw a show of original panels by graphic-novel artist Matt Kindt — the east as a sort of consignment shop for locally produced artwork, fashion, crafts and more. That's a lot of temptation in one store, but Subterranean does what it can to support your bank account, too: Their frequent-buyer card lets you earn a gift voucher equal to the average value of ten (book only) transactions.