Changing Hand's Bookstore

The layout of the old Mill Avenue store was amazing... 3 different rooms and a mezzanine with lots of places to curl up and flip through photos of cats painting. In high school I used to ride the bus from North Phoenix and check out the earings and lime-green Doc Martens in the store behind it. Though Changing Hands was always the headliner.
I was naive to believe all bookstores were this cool. It was rare to see one outside of a mall, and though Bookman's was quite large and also bought and sold used books, Changing Hands had it when it came to atmosphere. Unfortunately, my little book haven was hit with a rent increase which moved it to a strip mall several miles south of the university.Tragedy? No. It's been about eight years, but I'm slowly warming up to the new location. What's missing are the little corners to curl up in, the railing to peer over to find my companions, the gobs and gobs of stationary, pins and gifts sprinkled throughout the store like a bizarre treasure hunt... Yes, it was THAT good. The commercial chains could never compare.