Books and Tranquility in Sarasota

While planning our Sarasota trip, my first priority was to find cheap lodgings that weren't too depressing. We wanted a romantic getaway, after all, not a shoebox with a rattling A/C. The Gulf Beach Motel fit the bill. During Sarasota's low season (mid-May to mid-December), rooms start at $75 a night - and that includes a small fridge and microwave. We stayed in a small studio for $86 a night. (You can also save $10 on your reservations by mentioning their website, www.gulfbeachsarasota.com.) Each room is individually decorated and you can see them on the website. We stayed in unit 103. I would probably try a different one next time, but I was still pleased. If you have a larger group, a two bedroom gulf-front apartment is $156 a night during low season.

Our room had everything we needed, including a full-size refrigerator, a nice table and chairs that didn't feel too crammed in, and a walled outdoor patio. The furnishing were a tad run-down in the same way most roadside motels are, and the curtains had a long smudge of dust or something on them, but overall everything seemed clean -bathroom, bed, floor, kitchen. The decor itself was nothing to write home about - typical "motel" style - which is why I'll probably choose a different unit next time. The best part was the access to the beach. No other beachfront hotel on Sarasota was this cheap, as far as my hours of Internet research could tell. Having Lido Beach just a stroll away was wonderful and we loved sitting on beach chairs watching a gathering of pelicans and the magnificent sunset.

We did have some wacky "neighbors" while we were there - like many Sarasota lodgings, the Gulf Beach offers weekly rates, and the older couple in the next unit over seemed to have settled in. Whenever we walked outside, the wife was sitting outside with laptop cords dragging from their room to a table and chairs outside the units so she could play Solitaire in a houserobe, prompting me to wonder why you would pay just to sit around and play Solitaire. "Watch out for that cord, there." The motel might attract some wacky clientele but no one seemed bothersome or dangerous, especially not the long-legged birds that were perpetually wandering outside our unit.

The staff are very friendly - due to an unexpected sickness and then a scheduling error, I actually had to call about reservations three times, and everyone was always very nice - this continued while we were there. I really felt at home.

The Gulf Beach Motel is also a historical site, with a fantastic kitschy sign. If you want to kick back and enjoy some affordable old-school Florida beach living for a day or a week, I highly recommend it.

If the words "remainder books" make your heart flutter, Main Bookshop is a must-see in the Sarasota area. With that said, I actually thought it would be better than it was. Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of books here, and they are considerably marked down from list price, but plenty of them were still $10, $20, $30, and I'm more of an under-$10 kind of girl.

One of the best parts about the Main Bookshop is the hours. Unlike most used and independent bookstores, the Main Bookshop is open late, so you can spend the day hitting the attractions, have dinner, and still have more than enough time to browse. When I was there, there was a coupon for the Main in the free tourism magazines, so be sure to sure to flip through one before you buy a stack of books. If you've been to the Strand in New York, the Main Bookshop is much smaller (but also far more manageable), with two floors of easy-to-browse remainders and used books on the third floor. I found treasures in both sections. And like any good bookstore, it has friendly cats wandering around.

I'm not usually the type to shop in used bookstores of the more "collectible" and "antiquarian" vein, but I did enjoy A. Parker's. I passed up quite a few books for being a little out of my price range, but then I found a few other treasures just as reasonable as anything in the Main Bookshop. So, like anything else, you have to dig.

A. Parker's has a few of those high, neck-snapping shelves where you have no idea what might be up there - annoying for the browser - but for the most part it's a pleasant place to shop. All the books are nice and well-kept, and the staff were friendly. An excellent selection of non-fiction of all types, from aged to new-ish.

Brant's is housed in an old army barracks, and has no A/C according to one review I read. I was undaunted since we were visiting Sarasota on a pleasant December day. Unfortunately, the books themselves reflect this lack of temperature control - they look like books kept in somebody's garage, vaguely warped and yellowed with humidity.

I'm not that picky, though, so Brant's may have redeemed itself with a few steals. The prices, however, were higher than my favorite cheapo used bookstores in Orlando, for books in poor condition. The romance/paperback section was the most extensive and you might have a different view of the place if that's your interest area, but we were mainly looking for a variety of non-fiction on history, culture, etc., and Brant's was not for us.