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My Trip To The Book Barn in Niantic, Connecticut

     Erica Robyn      26 Comments

July 28th, 2017 was certainly one for the books! I hit the road early in the morning and traveled to Niantic, Connecticut to meet up with a couple of book bloggers and explore The Book Barn.

I admit, I didn’t do much research before the trip… I knew there would be lots of books, but I totally underestimated just how many!

The drive itself was over two and a half hours. Luckily, it flew right by and we didn’t hit any traffic. My future sister-in-law, Alex, and I arrived much earlier than I expected, so we decided to take a look around while we waited for the meet-up time.

When we first walked into the Main Barn property, I was totally blown away! I had no idea that The Book Barn would be that massive! And then Alex pointed out that there were three other locations! WHAT?!

We did a quick lap around the property taking it all in. It was absolutely incredible!

A short while later, we met up with the two book bloggers that I had been in touch with regarding this trip. We all chatted for a little bit and then made a game plan for the rest of the day. We were going to continue wandering the Main Barn for some time, go snag some lunch at a local pizza place, and then hit the other three locations. Below is a group shot of us.

From left to right:
Alex, my future sister-in-law that joined me for this road trip!
Chris of Wildmoo Books. (Photo credit!)
Myself.
Lory of The Emerald City Book Reviews.

While we all did our own thing at each location, we kept bumping in to one another and chatting for a bit, showing off our finds!

Lunch was where we really got to talk and get to know one another. We went to a local pizza shop and Chris treated us all to a pie and drinks. Thanks again Chris, that was so lovely of you! What a welcome to Connecticut!

During lunch, we talked about blogging platforms, bookish events, local book shops, best practices, social media, and many other such things. I very easily could have sat there all afternoon chatting, but the other three barns were beckoning!

Needless to say, I had an absolutely incredible time!

Special shout out to Lory for getting us all together and organizing this lovely trip! I cannot wait to meet up with both of you ladies again soon!

Now, let’s get to the photos!

Here are a bunch of photos that I took throughout the day as we visited each location.

Enjoy!

Main Barn, 41 W Main Street

Below is the map of just the first location!

There were books EVERYWHERE and all of the shelves, carts, and racks were packed!

Seriously, books were EVERYWHERE:
There were also many lovely gardens with lots of flowers, decorations, and seating. There was even a Koi pond!

I LOVED all of the little touches like these:

“HIT MEN! EXTORTION! MURDER! ROBBERY! ALL YOUR FAVORITES!” 😂
Decorations like this cracked me up! The Hobbit hole was near the entrance and the graveyards were over by the Haunted Book Shop, which was a shed in the far corner of the property.

Here are some shots from the Haunted Book Shop:

There were also games and things scattered all around the property for visitors to use, like chalk, checkers, chess, connect four, basketball, and such!

And to top it all off, there were cats that wandered the property and a couple of goats!

Store Four, 55 W Main Street

These images are from Store Four of the Book Barn locations. This first image does not do justice for how large this buildings book selection was. This shop also had a lovely selection of rare books as well as t-shirts, mugs, magnets, and other such things. I, of course, got a shirt and a mug.

Books on books!

Downtown, 269 Main Street

Here are a few shots from the Downtown location. This was one of my favorite stops because it held all of the Horror books and Graphic Novels. There was also a LOT of Sci-Fi! Boy, did I load up at this stop!

Midtown, 291 Main Street 

The last stop we made was the Midtown store. We missed this one on our way into town because it is set back off of the main strip. This shop had incredible middle grade and mystery sections!

My Book Barn Haul

I’m not usually one to post my book hauls…but this time I just have to. I could not help myself while I was there… Alex and I just kept saying things like, “Oh, it’s only a dollar! I gotta have it!” 
Check out this stack!





Thanks for reading!
If you ever had the opportunity to travel to New England/Connecticut, I highly recommend taking a day to check these locations out. You will not regret it, though your wallet may struggle a bit! 😉

Check out this great recap of our trip from Chris of WildmooBooks! And this awesome trip summary and haul from Lory of The Emerald City Book Review!

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Comments

  3. Chris Wolak says

    It was so much fun to meet you and talk about books & blogging practices. Great photos! I'm going to have to go back for one of those tshirts. Hope to see you again soon!

    Reply

  5. Barb says

    Man, I could spend a whole week's vacation there! It looks like such a lovely place and your meet-up sounds like such fun. I see some Stephen King in your stack – I really liked Doctor Sleep and even though it's a sequel to The Shining, I sort of consider it a stand-alone. I can't wait to see more of your blog and am glad to be your August comment buddy!

    Reply

  6. Rissi says

    Looks like a fun trip. How cool that you were able to have this kind of meet up and that your future sis-in-law was able to come with you. Always makes that kind of trip more fun when you have company. 🙂

    Reply

  7. Lory says

    I love your photos! I did not even notice many of those details because I was just looking at the books. This was really a special place, I definitely want to go back.

    Reply

  8. Katiria Rodriguez says

    Ohh wow I absolutely love the idea of barns being book stores especially if there are different sections. This is the first time I heard about this. Glad you enjoyed your trip Erica and great haul my friend. Thank you so much for the awesome post Erica!

    Reply

  9. Alexia561 says

    Love that you drove 2 1/2 hours to go to a bookstore, as that's totally something I would do! I think I need to visit the Book Barn next time I'm on the East Coast, as it looks amazing!

    Reply

  10. Greg says

    Wow, I think I'd move in. Fabulous looking bookstore! And 4 locations? I want to check out the sci fi downtown location myself, but who am I kidding? I'd have to see all four.

    Thanks for sharing! What a cool place…

    Reply

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