The Lantern Bookshop

The Lantern is the bookshop a river town should have. It fills a 1920s storefront on Osceola Street with new books at the front, used books at the back and, along the whole left wall, the local shelf: the histories of the river and the pineapple trade, the fishing memoirs, the field guides to the lagoon, the sea turtle books for children and the novels set along this coast, which are more numerous than you would think. The owner, Ines Farrow, reads most of what she stocks and will say so when she has not.

There is a children’s corner with a rug, a table of staff picks that changes weekly and a stack of used paperbacks by the door for two dollars that is meant for the beach. Thursday evenings from November to March a writer reads at the back, free, with wine from the shop next door.

It opens at ten, closes at six, and Sunday afternoons are the quiet time to browse. Parking is on the street or in the city lots behind. The shop also keeps the only decent map of the county’s back roads.

Good to know

• The local shelf is the reason to come; ask for the field guides.
• Thursday readings in season are free and start at 6.30 pm.
• Two-dollar beach paperbacks by the door; bring one back when you are done.
• Books can be posted home if the suitcase is full.
• Sunday afternoons are quiet; Saturday mornings are not.