Books-A-Million on Dupont Circle is a fascinating throw-back to the days when people bought books in a store and actually read magazines. Located in the basement of an office building right on the Circle, the store is a collection of incongruities, the most striking of which is that it actually manages to stay in business.
BAM doesn’t open on the week days until 11 AM, which is just about the time that Circle folks’ eyes start to focus. BAM features surely the least hip coffee bar in DC, “Joe Muggs,” part of the BAM franchise. I’ve never had any Joe Muggs coffee, which you can buy both by the cup and by the bag, but, well, it’s there.
BAM has lots of things that are hard to find elsewhere, like My Little Pony Monopoly sets (because who ever wanted to be an iron?), but my favorite section is way in the back and way in the corner, where they keep the philosophy books. There are Penguin editions of Kant’s mighty critique right next to a slender, obscure pamphlet by Kierkegaard, The Present Age (not good, according to Søren). A thick collection of Aristotle (“il maestro di color che sanno”—“the master of those who know!” raves Dante) is cheek by jowl with 10 minute guides to happiness, Buddhism for Dummies, the autobiography of the Dalai Lama, The Philosophy of the Walking Dead (and, of course, Star Trek and Doctor Who), Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian, the collected works of Thomas Paine, and many others, but the king of philosophy at BAM is unquestionably Sun Tzu. Half a dozen versions of The Art of War are available, including a deluxe slipcase edition that includes complementary text from von Clausewitz, Machiavelli, and Frederick the Great. Know yourself and know your enemy and you will win a hundred battles? Hey, it seems to be working for BAM on the Circle.
Afterwords
BAM is a national chain, with more than a dozen stores in the DC area, but the Dupont Circle location is the only one in DC proper. Kramer Books, a fancy restaurant cum bookstore is just north of the circle, while Second Story, an old-fashioned second-hand book store, is hanging on just to the west. Long, long gone is the Left-Wing Bookstore, once just south of the circle, which carried my all-time favorite record album (though I never listened to it), Barbara Dane’s I Hate the Capitalist System.
