Barbara's Random Thoughts

Saturday, February 14, 2004

Third Places

I came across this quote this morning in one of those publisher’s emails that I get:

"Third Place Books derived its name from the theory that your first place is home, your second place is work, and your third place is where you come for everything else. My third place was every bookstore in the city."
--Amanda Tobier, former book buyer at Seattle's Third Place Books, now marketing manager of the Perennial paperback imprint


I first encountered this concept a couple months ago while watching an interview with Nora Ephron, where she talked about everyone’s need for a "third place." Ephron talked about how Starbucks has become a third place for a lot of people, and actually attributed the decrease of crime in New York City partly to the advent of more Starbucks. (Starbuckses? What’s the plural of Starbucks?) It’s an interesting idea--that people sitting in coffee shops with large windows could be a deterrent to crime--but I find the third place theory far more intriguing.

I haven’t found a third place since moving here. For a long time, La Mirada Park was my third place. Here, I’m still looking.
| posted by Barbara | 12:59 AM