Books-A-Million

I stop here all the time to get my book and stationary fix at least once a week. Do I walk in and each time walk out with something? Yes. Do I have a problem with this? No. While they don’t always have the largest or most organized selection, they do have great, caring associates who will gladly drop what they are doing to help you with what you need.
It’s like any other huge chain book store (think mini Barnes and Noble) but it’s a welcome location in Warner Robins, GA!

Being a book store you can’t really go wrong, books are good therefore a place selling them is good as well, only it seems this place is fading a little and seems just the slightest bit outdated even though the books on sale are fairly up to date. Unfortunately, this is the only large book store in Warner Robins so this is what you get.

Do I love the Books-​A-​Million? No. Not even close. But will I invite it back to my place, make it a cheap-​o dinner, dim the lights a tad, put on light jazzy music, pour it some white wine and talk, just talk, with it for hours? Yeah, sure. Why? Cause in this area, it’s really all I got. I’m a voracious reader who’s always in search of a new literary or borderline dorky fix, so I have to take what I can get.
Well, there is a tiny little bookstore in the mall, but that’s a mere speck in my sphere of vision. And it just can’t hope to appease my Galactus-​like appetite.
Books-​A-​Million, to me, is just another one of those corporate bookstores that we get stuck with. There’s a Barnes & Noble in Macon, which is great, but too far for a lot of my needs, so I have to make due with what I’ve got. Would I prefer a Barnes & Noble? Oh, hell yes. Even a Borders or a Powell’s or an old Tower Books would be fantastic.
But none of those beauties are in Warner Robins, and right now I am. With the Books-​A-​Million. And in this town, the book store is basically the cultural center.
Selection-​wise, I’ve been let down a few times by this store. As in, I come in looking for something amazing to read, and they don’t have it. I frown, I ponder the meaning of disappointment, and I kind of linger there, staring at the shelves where the book should be and I usually discover something there that looks interesting and wouldn’t strike me as belonging in this store (like every book by Anais Nin or Henry Miller ever or even someone like Neal Stephenson). This happens frequently at the Books-​A-​Million, and that’s what saves it’s ass in my eyes. That, and the fact that if there’s something I desperately need, I can go online and order it to the store, for pickup there to save S&H fees. That makes me happy.
Other than books, you’ve got the usual miniature coffee/​smoothie counter in the store, and a lovely sitting area for sucking down java and browsing your selections. Like most of these corporate places, you can pick up a book off the shelf and have a seat, reading for hours and no one will bother you. I frequently send poor students who come to me at work here, just so they can do their studying quickly and cheaply in the store, never having to purchase anything to take home.
The staff is kind and friendly. Not always the most knowledgeable, but they’ve got the occasion geek who knows what you’re talking about. And like the previous review noted, they are sometimes criminally understaffed. The patronage seems to be what I’d guess you’d call usual bookstore patronage. I will say that I have met a few young women at the bookstore here and gone on dates with them, so that’s always a plus in my eyes. In fact, one time, I was actually asked out by a man in the store. That was a little awkward and mostly a clich since I had been standing in the Self Help & Sexuality section.
After a few years in this area, I’ve marched up and down the aisles here more than a few times. Every time I want a Tom Robbins or Haruki Murakami book, they’ve got it. Their biography section is excellent, leading me to have read several books on Hunter S. Thompson, Tesla, Klaus Kinski, and many world leaders several times. Their science selection is pretty worthwhile as well, so I’m taken care of whenever I’m in the mood to read about string theory or the Fermi paradox or whatever new bizarre thing catches my fancy. They have multiple books on female masturbation and a pathetic guy’s primer to scamming his way into a girl’s party places (both of which I was inspecting thoroughly when the gentleman asked me for my phone number). Their magazine section is fairly basic, with a large selection, but not a lot of the more underground magazines you’d see in other corporate chains, but that’s fine since those would probably never get looked at in this area. And the last few times I’ve been there, I’ve eavesdropped a plenty on what would appear to be illicit trading deals between nerds for Magic: The Gathering cards. They always go a little something like this:
Teenage Geek: «I need something with more power.»
Middle Aged Geek sporting weird facial hair: «How about (blah blah blah)? That’s a lot of power. That’s crazy magic. That’ll get you flying. Just trade me your (blah) and (blah blah) for it.»
Teenage Geek: «I… don’t know. That doesn’t seem like a fair trade.»
Middle Aged Geek: «‘Course it is, don’t be a pussy. But hurry up and make up your mind. My mom’s out in the car waiting on my ass.»
Seriously, the last few times I’ve gone in there, I’ve overheard this basically same conversation in some form of another.
I’m going to give this place a 4 star rating. Comparatively, it really deserves maybe a 3, but when I’ve needed it, it’s been there and it hasn’t, I don’t know, killed my family or burned down my house or anything like that.

This is a totally decent bookstore. If you’re familiar with BAM or any other mega-​bookstore, then you know what to expect. Large selection, a small seating area, and a coffee/​snack shop. It has a pleasant atmosphere, and is a nice place to hang for an hour or two with some friends. And they can special order pretty much anything.
The downside is that they’re pretty understaffed. The staff they do have are usually so busy checking customers out or doing other tasks that you have to track them down in order to get them to help you. Or they’ve disappeared, leaving you to wait 5 or more minutes to check out while they’re who-​knows-​where. Totally weird, but my good experiences far outweigh the few bad ones.