I know, I know: What’s so special about a Barnes & Noble store? Not much, unless you run into one that looks a little different from all the rest. On a recent trip to Fort Worth, Texas, my wife and I stayed downtown about two blocks from the Sundance Square shopping district, where stood a B&N with a decidedly more interesting architectural bent than the chain’s standard, generic, big-box appearance.

This one — from the outside at least — kinda resembled a castle, albeit one with a single turret. Castles — in case you didn’t know, Holmes — are cool.

Although it’s two stories, it looks pretty small from your outdoor vantage point, but that’s because you’d think it ends where the brick ends. Not so. It wraps around the building to the left of its café entrance, and extends to its right as well. In other words, it’s huge.

Walk inside, past the frigid temp of the Starbucks-shillin’ café, and you’ll see just how huge. Like howzabout a mammoth, neck-craning statue of a man on a horse spanning both stories? From that top floor, look out one side, and see immaculate statues of horn-blowing angels blaring your way. Yes, this B&N indeed rings unique.

Too bad its selection is, at best, for shit. With THE HAPPENING having bombed in theaters the weekend prior, I thought the time was right to read Michael Bamberger’s THE MAN WHO HEARD VOICES: OR, HOW M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN RISKED HIS CAREER ON A FAIRY TALE AND LOST, but the film section — normally at least an entire shelf at other locations — was limited to two haphazard rows. I wanted to pick up Max Allan Collins’ new mystery STRIP FOR MURDER, but they had nothing of his that wasn’t a CSI or CRIMINAL MINDS tie-in. While I was browsing aimlessly, BOOKGASM contributor Doug Bentin e-mailed me to let me know our review of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS is blurbed in the just-out mass-market edition he bought. I went downstairs to take a look, but guess who didn’t even have it on the floor yet?

So what did they have?
• Thanks to someone already unwrapping it, I got to see the glory that is Sam Ita’s MOBY-DICK: A POP-UP BOOK, but no way was I paying B&N’s full retail price for it.
• Being currently deep into Richard Preston’s new nonfiction effort PANIC IN LEVEL 4 reminded me I needed to pick up a copy of THE HOT ZONE to replace the one that went missing two home moves ago, but I don’t buy anything that’s dog-eared from overeager browsers.
• I happened upon a handsome hardcover anthology of John Richard Stephens’ ADVENTURE!: THRILLING TALES OF DISCOVERY, but wanted to check its contents against his INTO THE MUMMY’S TOMB collection for overlap first.
• And over at the bargain bin, Taschen editions of M.C. ESCHER and ATLAS MAIOR caught my eye, but I really didn’t want to lug around heavy coffee-table books on my way back to the train station. Luggage is leaden enough.

Our purchase was limited to a Reese’s peanut butter cookie my wife had her eye on from the café, so she ordered one (after all, we were on vacation). The employee asked twice, “You said a Reese’s, right?” Yet when we got back to our hotel room and unwrapped it, an oatmeal raisin one taunted us instead. Being raisin-adverse and just cheap enough to fight for a $2 item, I took it back. When you’re about to bite into something so fattening, the extra walking is good for you. —Rod Lott