According to the New York Times, as major bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble are continuing to add nonbook products to their stores, such as games, toys, food, and drinks, consumers are now seeing more and more books in places like Urban Outfitters, Lowes, Target, and Bass Pro Shops, among others. Fraser Ross, owner of the chic L.A. fashion boutique, Kitson, estimates that he sold 100,000 books in 2010, twice what he sold last year. Ross says publishers have really turned to aggressively marketing books to Kitson, adding, “If there’s a good book, we’ll go deep into it. (Publishers) realize what a specialty store can do for their business, with the window and the table.”

Of course, for many years publishers have sold novelty items, like coffee-table books, in nonbook retailers, but just in the last year they’ve begun adapting in spite of the struggles of Barnes & Nobel and Borders. “The national bookstore chain has peaked as a sales channel, and the growth is not going to come from there,” said the chief executive of Perseus Books Groups, David Steinberger. “But it doesn’t mean that all brick-and-mortar retailers are cutting back.”

The clothing store Anthropologie increased the number of book titles it sells from 25 in 2003 to 125. Target has started expanding from a male-centered best sellers-only stock to a more women and children-friendly list of titles. Publishers still agree that having a physical place to peruse and purchase books is very important, while e-book retail continues to be a large, still-burgeoning market. Both Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Random House have said they are seeking out more specialty retailers.

The top sellers at these retailers are not, however, members of typical best seller lists. Quirky titles such as Awkward Family Photos, How to Raise a Jewish Dog, The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm, and Erotic Poems by e.e. cummings are leading the book sales charts at Kitson and Urban Outfitters.