I love this bookstore with the tucked away bar upstairs. The selection of books should cover…read morealmost every age and genre. I especially enjoyed the travel and wine centered books. The bar is quaint and cute. Not a vast menu, but it's not needed! Love the local select beers that are available although I opted for the gin cocktail. Very reasonably priced. It's very quiet during the day, quite a few there to read and work in a quiet space and it serves that purpose well. I've also visited in the evening before where a book club meeting was ending and a D&D campaign was beginning and it was quite lively, but still a great vibe. I've had 2 visits now with many more to come. Store workers were super friendly and greeting me upon entering and looking around. Bartender was friendly as well and seemed to enjoy engaging with the guests.

What a gem on Main Street of old EC. Not only does it have two levels of selection but it has a bar…read moreon the second floor and pizza in their courtyard. This bookstore has everything you need.

BLUF: Books, magazines, Paper Source products and a coffee bar…read more Visiting a Barnes and Noble takes me back to Saturday evenings in the late 90s. There was always something cozy about visiting B&N to sip coffee, flip through magazines and snicker at racy book covers. Now I visit B&N to shop their puzzles and to peruse the Paper Source collection. Yes, that's right, Paper Source is now sold at Barnes and Noble including one of my favorite brands - Rifle Paper Company. B&N also has one of the best brick-and-mortar puzzle collections around and in January they are buy one, get one 50%. On my recent visit to the Columbia Barnes & Noble I was poking around for a few things in particular and I found the staff to be very helpful. This particular store is located just outside the Mall in Columbia. It's detached from the main part of the mall but it's also not that far to walk between the mall and B&N.

Clean, well-organized Barnes & Noble with creative displays and easy-to-navigate sections…read more Everything felt thoughtfully put together, making it simple to find what I was looking for and fun to browse. Solid 4 stars.

I visited this location with my husband knowing exactly what we were looking for. We browsed for a…read morebit looking for a book that was featured on the BAM website but couldn't find it in what we assumed was the correct location, so I decided to ask an elderly female employee for assistance. When I told her what book I was looking for she said "oh" while rolling her eyes a lead me to it. She handed it to me and started walking away while I was thanking her for her help. I could feel the attitude radiating off of her because of my book choice. I laughed it off and continued to browse a bit more. Eventually we got in line behind another customer. The same elderly woman opened another register to assist the customer in front of us. Naturally we started looking at the products that are in the check out area while we waited. The customer that was in front of us had an issue and left so it was our turn. The elderly woman proceeded to wave over the female customer behind us and she said that we were in front of her. We kindly insisted that she just go ahead and check out and we'll wait for the other employee further down. Then the elderly woman rudely said "come on, put your stuff here" and then decided to tell the customer behind us that the line starts where she's standing and that there should be blinking red lights signally that the line starts there. At that point it was VERY clear that she had an issue with us because of the book we were purchasing and tried to insinuate that we were stupid. Fine, you have a personal opinion but you are at work and are supposed to be providing good customer service regardless of your personal opinions. At no point were we rude or passive aggressive so her attitude was very uncalled for. Feeling done with the situation, I handed her my book and she hurried through our interaction. We kept our cool and were respectful, she asked if we wanted a bag and we declined and then she gave us our receipt and I told her to have a blessed day and once again talked over me. I will not be visiting this location ever again. Thanks Jodi for your terrible customer service.

Walked in for the first time ever; place was very nice and clean; staff was busy until you got to…read morethe front. Beware when you check out they scam you into signing up for 3rd party subscriptions and then tell you there's no way out of it until you call the third party company and do it.! I will not be back.

I am Alba Johnson's biggest food fan. Having taken many, many classes from her, I have grown to…read morerespect her knowledge and her gifts for sharing her expertise in a casual, informal way. Her classes are very popular because she selects recipes that I can even prepare in my own kitchen; doable scrumptious recipes with a hint of sophistication and gravitas. Alba tailors each class to her students by actively engaging them in food preparation and soliciting their opinions and suggestions. Ever attentive and responsive to her students, she demonstrates stovetop technique required for preparing her recipes and thoroughly explains each task with humor and grace. Just one class with Alba elevates the student's kitchen techniques and educates one's palate. You leave class eager to enroll in her next one . . . and having gain a wonderful new friend in Alba.

From the owner: Chef Alba is a personal chef, cooking instructor, food blogger, and a cookbook author in the…read moreWashington metropolitan area. She was born in Naples, Italy and raised in North Africa. Currently teaching at Secolari in Columbia Mall, and Whole Foods Market Annapolis, at privately. Alba has appeared on FOX TV Washington, Channel 9 CBS Washington, and PBS Va. Programs demonstrating various cooking techniques and recipes. Alba is a member of Les Dames Escoffier International and IACP International Association Culinary Professional.

It's so refreshing to see a local bookstore that truly cares about its curation and being apart of…read morethe community. As stated on their website, "We take pride in being more than just a bookstore. We are a vibrant community hub, hosting events, book clubs, and providing personalized reading services that deepen your connection with stories and fellow book lovers. We believe that everyone can find themselves in the pages of a book, and we're here to help you on that journey." You can clearly see that mission reflected as you walk around the store. The book selection, displays, and merchandise all demonstrate thoughtful attention to detail. Everything is well organized, making it easy to browse, and the staff is knowledgeable and happy to help with finding the right selection or suggesting information about upcoming events. They also offered to order certain books to store if they were not on the shelf! In regard to community outreach, their social media pages clearly communicate upcoming events and highlight their wide variety of book clubs. I attended the Dark Romance Book Club and was please with how well the store facilitated the discussion, especially given the large size of the group. Coming in for the meeting, chairs had already been placed out in a circle for members to sit. The conversation was engaging and well organized with employees asking questions that had clearly been researched beforehand. My only complaint is that parking can be scarce during busy hours such as book club events, particularly after snowfall when available spaces are more limited. Overall, I love visiting this bookstore. It has a lovely charm and a makes a wonderful connection with its customers. It is an asset to our local community as a small hub. I look forward to seeing how their small business grows. I felt comfortable to ask followup questions - I love to talk!

Having just left a conversation about Spider-man with fellow teenager, Peter Parker, Mary Jane…read moreWatson, after reluctantly being made Homecoming Queen, is surprised to find her tempestuous best friend, Liz Allan, who deeply coveted that title, waiting for her in front of her home. "I decked Flash...He wouldn't shut up and, without even thinking, I balled up my fist and...Principal Gorbert chewed us out. Said we were a bunch of selfish brats. Said tonight was for everyone, and we ruined it." Moments later, with tears running down her eyes, Liz makes a startling confession. "I care about you so much. You're my best friend, my sister. I try to think of what my life would be like without you in it, and it makes me sick inside." Liz pauses. "Your popularity and success, it's all great. It's what you deserve. I should be happy for you, right? And, I mean, in a way, I am, but...I needed desperately to be Homecoming Queen. Not because I am trying to feel superior to anyone, or because I have it coming to me. I needed it so...so maybe I could stop feeling like...I hate you." Eventually, the panels of the fourth issue of Sean McKeever and Takeshi Miyazawa's Mary Jane: Homecoming miniseries end in complete silence--with the two lifelong friends each riding one of the adjacent swings Liz seized for them in elementary school, but the words that Liz spoke before are what spark the imagination and trigger empathy, regret, anger, and love. Sentences in the best-written novels, mysteries, fantasies, speculative histories, and gothic horror do that too; and there is no better place to discover new sequences of words that will linger in your memory than Queen Takes Book, located at 6955 Oakland Mills Road in Columbia, Maryland. There, the friendly service will welcome you as if to the sparking embers of a fireplace in which only your imaginations are lit.