Sunrise from the Courtyard by Marriott
Just about the only noteworthy thing to come from my brief visit to the Raleigh-Durham area (specifically: Durham) happened at the airport the morning of my return to Boston. Prior to this: I arrived, had a mediocre pulled-pork sandwich for lunch, stopped at Duke for a poorly-attended grad school fair, had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in a shopping plaza, and stayed at a perfectly-fine-yet-instantly-forgettable hotel. However, this morning I was a bit early for my flight, so I had a typical airport breakfast (a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit and orange juice) and wandered about the terminal.
RDU is your average medium-sized airport with the usual variety of locally-themed gift stores (in this case, an Atlantic Coast Conference store offering sweatshirts, hats, and shot glasses from Duke, UNC, NC State, etc.), national-and-local chain restaurants, and cookie-cutter "newstands" selling gum, Doritos, postcards of things I didn't actually see, magnets of Carolina kitsch, travel items, and magazines.
After a few minutes of idle browsing up and down the Terminal, I spotted what appeared to be your average airport bookstore and decided to stop in before my plane was ready to board. Almost immediately, I noticed something unusual about the place. Instead of the tidy spread of shiny bestsellers and the obligatory table of Oprah-approved paperbacks, I noticed slightly tattered covers and random arrangements bordering on disorder. What is this: "Rare and Collectible?" Could it be true--a used bookstore in an airport!? In that one moment, Raleigh-Durham totally redeemed itself. Then it was time for Zone 3 to board...
Used bookstore in Terminal A
