Independent bookstores where you can disappear for an hour

There are days when you want to see and be seen, and then there are days when you’d rather turn your phone on Do Not Disturb, find a quiet corner and temporarily forget that anyone knows how to reach you. Fortunately, Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky have plenty of independent bookstores made for doing exactly that. Some have five floors to wander. Others pair their shelves with coffee, art or a particularly good chair. All offer an excuse to slow down, browse without a destination and emerge an hour later carrying a book you had no intention of buying. Ohio Book Store 726 Main St., Downtown If the goal is to disappear, five floors of books should do the trick. Ohio Book Store has been operating since 1940 and is the kind of place where going in to “just look around” can become an afternoon. Its downtown building is packed with used, rare and collectible books and magazines covering just about every subject imaginable. Don’t rush it. Wander upstairs, poke