An in-depth review of baraboo wisconsin's the village booksmith
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The Village Booksmith is located at 526 Oak Street, neatly nestled on the east side of Baraboo's courthouse square, next to Third and Fourth Streets. It's next to a Corner Drug Store, and faces a historic monument. A canon.
The area is quite small, and cozy. Gives off a "Stars Hollow" feel. The square itself is part of the Downtown Baraboo Historic District, which features 19th- and early 20th-century commercial architecture—Italianate, Romanesque Revival, Neoclassical, and more—all framed around the iconic Sauk County Courthouse.
The essays section was quite under the radar. My first visit I almost walked out of the store without noticing it. There were however quite a view gems. Such as a first edition set of "The Essays of Montaigne" by Michel De Montaigne.
The poetry section in itself was around 2 decently sized shelfs tall. It had a decent collection of american poetry 16-18th century. I had managed to find myself two first edition copies. One of "Oxford Book of English Verse", and one of "Oxford 18th Century English Verse"
The Bookstore is quite small, and I assume run by the young woman I presume to be the Owner of the bookstore. She was quite helpful, and glad to show me to the reference section in hopes of finding a Oxford Compact Dictionary to make use of while on retreat. She also unlike several other employees who I don't necessarily blame for this. Decided to stay and search for a copy rather then pointing to the shelf and walking away. Even though she was unseccseful in finding one, I did manage to get my hands on a Webster's New World Dictionary which was ok for the time being. All together my experience there was quite pleasant, and I have no complaints about the service in the slightest.
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Yotam, Kris. (Jun 2025). The Village Booksmith. krisyotam.com. https://krisyotam.com/reviews/bookstores/the-village-booksmith
@article{yotam2025the-village-booksmith,
title = "The Village Booksmith",
author = "Yotam, Kris",
journal = "krisyotam.com",
year = "2025",
month = "Jun",
url = "https://krisyotam.com/reviews/bookstores/the-village-booksmith"
}