Randi White, brainchild and owner, buys as many as 10,000 used books every week.
On a recent visit, I began to wander and browse. Fountains trickled, otherworldly Electronica music filtered in from points unknown, cats impassively watched. Thirsty and hungry, I turned to the table of doughnuts, iced tea, lemonade, and fresh coffee. A whole case of books on Napoleon, labeled "That Pestiferous Little Corsican," snared me for an hour, then another with books about Tutankhamen. I sunk into a low-riding couch with a stack at my side, and later woke from a daze believing I was an Egyptian prince. The sun had set. After four hours in the Book Barn I stepped, somewhat surprised, not into a pyramid, but my old car.
The Book Barn has one store in downtown Niantic, at 269 Main St., while the six-building complex is a mile down the road at 41 West Main St. Telephone: 860-739-5715. www.bookbarnniantic.com Majestically idiosyncratic
CONWAY, N.H. -- Before the glow of the red lights fades and the film begins, there is no trailer of a flaming Barbie doll to illustrate the theater's smoking policy, there is no trivia contest, no advertising assault.
Instead, Joe Quirk, the owner of the Majestic Theatre, strolls down the carpeted aisle and under the ceiling fans in the single-screen Main Street movie house to brief the audience. If the movie were the lengthy "English Patient," he would advise patrons to use the facilities now. But on this night, it is "The Matrix Reloaded," and Quirk welcomes the audience. "Thanks for waiting instead of rushing to see it somewhere else," he says.
Quirk, a Somerville native, began the pre-show monologues when he enlisted patrons' help a few years ago for a mail campaign to get the fourth "Star Wars" film to his independent theater, which has been around since 1931. The plea didn't work. But word got around about his chat and a tradition was born.
