prairie lights

I love books. I love the smell of them, the covers, and most of all, the words inside. Bookstores are a paradise for me. A Borders or Barnes & Noble is nice, of course, but I love those quirky local bookshops with hidden nooks and crannies. Webster's in State College is a great example.

The University of Iowa in Iowa City is home of the famous Writers' Workshop and it's considered by many to be a literary university. The result is some great bookstores. During my visit, I spent a couple hours inside Prairie Lights. It was three-and-a-half floors of heaven.

They have a coffee and wine cafe, which means there's a great coffee smell following you around as you look at books. And boy, do they have a lot. They have a great selection of sale books (more on those later) and gifts for book lovers. They have a section of local reads and art as well. If you're lucky to be there at the right time, they host frequent author readings. And I don't mean one of those local aspiring authors who prints their own books off lulu.com, I'm talking about well-known, published writers.

I would go to the University of Iowa just so I could spend my days here.

Check out their website here: http://www.prairielights.com/