The whole military-industrial-complex thing has gotten weird. When you walk into Tucson's Best New Bookstore while wearing your retro fedora, you're greeted by a clerk selling some shiny gadget called a Noogie, or a Nookie, or some damn thing that looks like it's right out of Lost in Space. Ironically, if the concept succeeds, there won't be bookstores anymore. Nor (hello?!) will there be any actual bookstore employees. It'll all be done electronically through the ether. But until then, we still have B&N, and they still sell real books. While their focus is more and more on best-sellers for the masses, you can still order the weird stuff that the rest of us read.
Runners up:
2. Borders
5870 E. Broadway Blvd., No. 448
584-0111
4235 N. Oracle Road
292-1331; borders.com
3. Antigone Books
411 N. Fourth Ave.
792-3715; antigonebooks.com
