Bookstore

At the Mystery Loves Company bookstore, don't expect to sink into an overstuffed sofa with a cafe au lait and a stack of books at your side.Behind the narrow Formstone facade, down the single aisle of black floor-to-ceiling shelves, the Fells Point shop beckons with books and only books -- no bistro, no compact discs, no poets reciting or musicians performing.In Baltimore, the "city that reads," the 5-year-old store is something of an anomaly. With its stock of nothing but mysteries, the shop never aspired to be all things to all people, finding its niche instead in the discriminating mystery reader.

Plans for an enlarged bookstore at the Johns Hopkins University received approval from the city's Design Advisory Panel yesterday, a key step in bringing to fruition the Homewood campus bookstore's much-anticipated move to 33rd and North Charles streets. An expansive Barnes & Noble bookstore and cafe would be the anchor for a student dormitory and retail district on East 33rd Street between North Charles and St. Paul streets, university officials and architects said yesterday. The university would clear some low-slung brick buildings on the site to make way for two new lofty brick buildings, connected by a footbridge, that would house as many as 600 students.

Dozens of books sat stacked on gleaming hardwood floors yesterday at the new Barnes & Noble at the Inner Harbor, as employees sorted titles and filled shelves. Plastic still covered the cushioned armchairs. And 55,000 compact discs and cassettes had yet to be stocked.But otherwise, downtown's first mega-bookstore appeared ready for its Oct. 6 premiere as the Power Plant's third major tenant. Fish swam in a 3,000-gallon freshwater tropical tank built into a wall; cafe counter workers served up lattes and tropical smoothies during a practice run, and two massive copper smokestacks -- from the days when the plant powered city streetcars -- rose through the store's two levels.

The Johns Hopkins University is moving forward with a new bookstore and commercial project across from its Homewood campus that will reshape the streetscape of Charles Village and, officials hope, foster a "college-town atmosphere" in the North Baltimore neighborhood. The mixed-use project along 33rd Street between North Charles and St. Paul streets, to be completed by July 2005, will include student housing, parking, retail, office and restaurant space near the bookstore, taking up much of the block.

Are you sitting down? The "bookstore Barcalounger" is missing. At the Barnes & Noble at the Power Plant in the Inner Harbor, the comfy chair that once sat across from the picture books is gone. So is the one in the Mystery section. Instead, two people sit forlornly on the carpet, open books in hand. Just a decade ago, the trend in the bookstore industry was to fit nooks and crannies with big chairs for browsing, which, it was hoped, would spur buying. The idea was to recast the bookstore as a community place or an extension of the home.

Entering the red door of Clayton & Co. downtown is like visiting a friend's home where the bookshelves are filled with fascinating tomes and the atmosphere is filled with hospitality. This two-story bookstore and cafe feels both cerebral and comfortable. At the heart of Clayton Fine Books are some 35,000 volumes - many of them rare and hard-to-find. And there is ample space to curl up and enjoy them in the sweeping 5,000-square-foot space. On the first floor, small tables and burgundy couches with artsy pillows beckon.

On the fence. That's where Baltimore area bookstore owners are when it comes to guessing public demand for "Monica's Story," the account by Monica Lewinsky of her dalliance with the president. The book will be in bookstores nationwide March 4.They cite the "all-right already" factor. The public is tired.The sick factor. As the president himself noted, "She's a troubled girl."The price factor. Why buy a $24.95 hardcover when special prosecutor Ken Starr tells the story in a $5 paperback?Monica's "been pretty exposed in public throughout the process and I don't know how much more she can tell that people are interested in reading," says Brian Weese, president of Bibelot of Baltimore, which ordered a modest 75 copies for each of its three stores.

For one month, Justin Tsucalas' worlds will collide. The 17-year-old senior at St. Paul's School in Baltimore County is the featured artist this month at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Ellicott City. Tsucalas, a photographer who lives in Ellicott City, also works at the bookstore's cafe not far from where 25 of his photos are being displayed. It was artist initiative that got Tsucalas his first public show. "I saw that they had artwork every month, mostly paintings and things," Tsucalas said.

The trickle, at once literary and titillating, began in July. As book buyer Dee Peeler remembers it, the first to arrive was a rather indelicate, how-to sexual guide that promised the "lowdown" on sexual techniques, toys and positions. That was followed in August by Jenna Jameson's salacious, if heartbreaking, life story about her rise from teenage pole dancer to porn-queen extraordinaire looking for love, marriage and babies. Next came a coffee table book picturing porn stars posed and exposed.

The feeling has become familiar, walking down aisles marked with signs: "Up to 40 percent off. " "Store Closing. Everything Must Go. " Consider some of the recent closures in the Baltimore area: Circuit City. CompUSA. Linens 'n Things. A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts. Filene's Basement. Super Fresh. Daedalus Books & Music inBelvedere Square. And now, one of my favorite hangouts: Borders. The Lutherville store, which a few years ago replaced a wondrous, sprawling downtown Towson Borders Books & Music, is the latest victim of the imperfect storm that has slammed the high-pressure system of the Great Recession into the cold front of the cybereconomy.