our ship sank, the plane crashed, you took a wrong turn on the kiteboard – whatever happened, the travel plan failed you, and now you’re stuck on a deserted island. As a glass-half-full type of person, I’m seeing nothing but unlimited beach time.
There’s little as relaxing as having a good book stuffed with paper pages to sink your mind into while stretched out in a lounge chair or on a beach towel.
For those who love to read, a cozy, well-stocked, independent bookstore is just about Nirvana. Fortunately for readers, the Outer Banks has seven such bookstores strung at convenient distances from Corolla to Ocracoke.
Indie bookstores are enjoying a resurgence, and nowhere is this more evident than on the Outer Banks. You may have heard that brick-and-mortar (or, more appropriately for the Outer Banks, shipwreck-timber-and-nail) bookstores are a dying breed.
There's an air of enchantment surrounding the vintage gray cottage with the lace-scalloped porch that houses Buxton Village Books. Maybe it's the bright red geraniums dancing in the breeze, or the teasing glimpse of the Pamlico through grasses and reeds, or the sign on the front door...
"I have piles of half-read books waiting for me to get acute hepatitis or some other serious condition that would force me to rest so that I could read more." - Isabel Allende
Obviously, Isabel Allende needed a vacation.
It is said that to everything there is a season. For an independent bookseller tucked away in a small seaside resort village overlooking the vast Atlantic, Spring would appear to be a time to re-stock, re-organize and re-energize for the imminent return of thousands of summertime vacation visitors.
Quaint houses and locally owned businesses dot the roadside of Highway 12 in the village of Buxton. Just around a bend sits a Civil War era cottage that has housed Buxton Village Books for the last 30 years.