Washington is a great city when it comes to independent bookstores. Oh sure, I enjoy wandering around Borders just like everyone else, but most Borders stores are basically the same. If I can find something with more idiosyncratic character, I’m there. Here’s two I like - one an old favorite and one a new discovery.

The new discovery, Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue, has actually been around since the mid-1980s, and I really don’t know how it slipped under my radar when I lived in northern Virginia. Despite the name, the store has books about cooking, gardening and travel as well as economic policy, current events and international studies. There are lots of children’s books, lots of fiction titles, and classical CDs for as low as $3.98 if you need to fill a gap in your Beethoven or Mozart collection.

Politics and Prose embraces cozy—wooden shelves stacked with books, old wooden tables and chairs scattered around, and an inviting coffeehouse on the lower level. On the sound system Willie Nelson was warbling “The Nearness of You.” It’s the kind of place where you’ll find a photo essay of painter Mary Cassatt next to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare next to The Essential Guide to Psychiatric Drugs in the on-sale section.

The current books section was up to the minute (oversize coffee table book The Art of Avatar) and appealingly offbeat (The Legs Are the Last to Go, a memoir by singer and Tony Award winner Diahann Carroll.)  My purchase here was a postcard featuring a vintage black-and-white image of Colette (French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette) circa 1951; she wrote Gigi, a novel on which the stage and movie musicals of the same name were based.

Since it was a sunny, not-too-cold Sunday afternoon I decided to take a sprightly walk down Connecticut Avenue from Politics and Prose toward Dupont Circle, a stretch that runs through a residential section of Upper Northwest filled with big brick apartment buildings. The twin stone lions flanking the Connecticut Avenue entrance to the National Zoo still had red holiday bows tucked between their haunches. And it wasn’t long before I reached the old favorite, Kramerbooks & afterwords cafe.

Kramerbooks is not only a local institution; it’s also the only bookstore I can think of with the aroma of sizzling burgers as a backdrop. afterwords cafe has a full-service breakfast, lunch and dinner menu, it’s open 24 hours and there’s live music Friday and Saturday nights. There’s also a narrow bar adjoining the cafe where you can belly up or sit at one of four small tables along the wall. Day or night, it’s a popular Dupont Circle hangout.

This is a smaller, more congested bookstore than Politics and Prose. Instead of Nelson’s folksy Americana, The Jam’s Who-influenced, old-school ’70s punk was playing when I walked in. This inspired me to check out the music section, where I found The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics (complete with appropriately freaky illustrations). A book with even more browsing potential was 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die by Tom Moon, which includes a brief appraisal of each disc by the author. This one I had to check out. A quick perusal turned up Cream’s “Disraeli Gears,” Patti Smith’s “Horses,” Pere Ubu’s “Dub Housing,” “Exile on Main Street” by the Stones and “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis. Just for the record, I heartily concur with each of these choices.

It’s comforting to know that in an era where Kindle is supplanting the printed page and chains are threatening the existence of independents (Seattle’s legendary Elliott Bay Book Company is relocating after 36 years in business at Pioneer Square), some bookstores—you know, those places where people really care about books—are thriving.   We also posted a blog about a Lahaina bookstore, let’s hear about some of your own favorites.  

Politics and Prose is at 5015 Connecticut Ave. N.W. Take Metro’s Red Line to the Van Ness station; the bookstore is about a 15-minute walk north (look for the purple awning). Kramerbooks & afterwords is at 1517 Connecticut Ave., across from the Dupont Circle Metro station (Q Street exit).