Bookshop Visit//Snowball Bookshop

Last Thursday I visited Snowball Bookshop in Barberton, Ohio. It is a bookstore I have been wanting to visit for quite a while but the store has limited hours and it has taken a while to find a day where my time off and their open hours coincide. The store describes itself on Instagram as “the largest used and out-of-print bookstore in NE Ohio.” I am not sure I agree with that description, Loganberry Books is much bigger, but they do have a lot of books crammed in the store.

I have mixed feelings about this bookstore. We will start with the positives. As I have already said, there are a lot of books in there. As well as the main floor there is the “super secret basement” (actually labeled that way) with shelves and shelves of books. The staff is very friendly. I was greeted as soon as I walked in and given a tour. The owner (I believe) chatted for quite a while, took me down to the basement, and left me to browse. Also, there are two bookshop cats.

All of that is great but there were a few negatives as well. The store is not well organized and, while I enjoy a bit of treasure hunt, this was a little more chaotic than I like. The basement was organized for their online sales, so not really ideal for the casual browser, especially since many of the books were stored in boxes so customers couldn’t see what was down there. And finally, the store had a definite odor of cat in some areas. I felt it was a store with a lot of potential but I wanted to go in and organize, clean, and install better lighting.

I did find a few books to buy. These two are familiar authors but I don’t know anything about these particular books. I found both of them in the basement. Those boxes I couldn’t look in are still bothering me. What treasures did I miss?

I was very pleased to find the H. V. Morton book. I have read a couple of his other travel books and greatly enjoyed them. This is full of lovely old photographs. Plus, when I flipped through the pages I found this old postcard. It was sent to Miss Margaret West in Hiram Ohio. It pictures the Silver Bay Association in New York which is a YMCA conference and retreat center that is still in operation. The postcard says,

Dearest Meg, The campus here is simply beautiful. The green building is the dorm I live in. The big white one is the Inn where I wait tables. Of the 300 member staff 101 colleges, 22 states, 8 foreign countries, and 8 faiths are represented. Dick and I just love it. Very religious atmosphere. Love, love, love. Lynn

Snowball Bookshop is a bookshop of pluses and minuses. But then, that is true of many things. I am glad I was able to tick another bookshop off my list of Ohio bookshops. My husband discovered one I had never heard of when he was out with a friend so maybe that will be the destination for our next bookshop outing.

Snowball Bookshop

564 W. Tuscarawas Ave # 102

Barberton, OH 44203