There are two types of bookstores: the ones like Powell’s and Murder by the Book, where you are greeted warmly and when you ask a question, people actually listen and do their best to help, and the ones who shall remain nameless, where selection is narrow and service could use a little TLC. When a book store is good, it’s a place that’s almost therapeutic to enter and you feel as if you stepped into anxiety-free zone. Just you, books, friends, and possibly coffee.
I’d like to invite you to share your favorite independent book store in the comments and tell us why you like it. Doesn’t have to be a US store. If the store has a website, we ask that you include a link so other people can check it out or please mention what city you are in, so other people can find this awesome bookstore as well. We don’t mind if you recommend a store that’s already recommended by someone else, but copy and paste will get your comment disqualified. If you really love your local B&N or Half-Price Books, you can enter it too, as long as you tell us why you like it.
One comment will be chosen at random and its author will receive a signed copy of Magic Bites Extended Edition.
Giveaway is opened until the comments slow down or next Sunday. Which ever comes sooner. International readers are welcome to enter. Goodreads readers, please click here to enter.
I love going to Books A Million in McDonough Georgia. The staff are helpful and knowledgeable.
I enjoy sitting in their coffee shop area and previewing a resent purchase while I have a latte…..yum….. I don’t like B & N in Morrow Georgia due to the problems I have finding certain adults books that I would like to read, but I love the atmosphere so sitting down and meeting with the book club.
Sadly we keep losing book stores in my town. We lost Books-a-million about 3 months ago. It was one of my favs because the workers were friendly and after a while I got to know some of the workers and they’d recommend books for me. I go to B&N now and some of the workers are nice but most don’t take a second glance to help anyone who’s under 30.
I have to say that my favorite bookstore is the B&N located at Metro Center-Downtown in Washington, DC. This is the website for that location: http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/store/2040 It’s a block from my office and I go there quite often. I love to go there with my Nook and get a coffee and read for hours. The staff there are very helpful. Even though I do have a Nook I still love to hold and read “real” books, so this is a great place to do that.
My favorite bookstore is Green Apple Books in San Francisco. Not only do they have a wide range of new and used books to browse through but other media like DVDs and CDs. New books are cover price and used books go as low as $1. I also love that I can sell my books to them for store credit.
http://www.greenapplebooks.com/
No website but they do have a Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Book-Corner/112286232134684
This is an adorable little bookstore in Bloomington, Indiana called The Book Corner. It has amazing leather-bound journals, great writing supplies, and wonderful new and used books. It smells like old parchment. The best part, the owner is the nicest person ever. He will chat with you about your day, throw in a free journal just because, and let you walk around his little store as long as you want. It’s magic!
My favourite bookstore in Saskatoon is McNally Robinson. It is part of a very small family-owned chain that has 3-4 stores in western Canada. I also recommend the restaurant inside, Prairie Ink. My husband and I had our first date there some years ago, and we still enjoy it. They often have live music, readings, and signings of both local and visiting bands & authors.
I’m not sure if this counts as a bookstore, but I buy books there– so I’m going to say it anyway. The Paperback Exchange in Roanoke, Virginia. I can’t tell you how wonderful the women are there. You can always tell in a store who is employed and who truly has an interest in what they’re selling, and these ladies definitely know their books. There’s never been a time that I’ve gone in there and DIDN’T have a conversation about books that lead me to a new author, and if there is anyone that I’m looking for, they do their darndest to find it for me.
I absolutely have to enter the McKay’s used bookstore of Nashville Tennessee. The place is a one-stop-shop for sheer awesomeness. It sells not only books, but also CD’s, movies, and video games for all of your entertainment fancies. But the book stacks are sooo huge! Everything is pre-owned, so the prices are excellent. My family and I will go in, spend at least a couple hours drooling over everything, and then come out again with carts full of books. Granted, there is not a coffee place in or around it, but that is only a minor setback.
http://www.mckaybooks.com/
I love the Book Loft in Columbus, Ohio’s German Village: http://www.bookloft.com/, an independent book store with a maze of 32 rooms of books. Wandering through it is like taking a journey through literature, and getting lost is the best part! It is a real treasure in a historic part of town.
I would have to second this bookstore. I remember it from when we lived in Columbus.
My favorite bookstore is my local B&N in Bellingham, Ma. Its not one of their larger stores, as its tucked in between a Walmart and a grocery store, but since it opened about 10 years ago, their late hours and Starbucks has been a staple in long hours of studying and reading. The staff has always been friendly and knowledgeable. Anything they didn’t have in store they always went above and beyond to get for me. Now that I’ve joined the e-reader world, B&N is still my go-to e-reader provider. I still spend hours there searching through books to get a great new series!
I live in a pretty big urban/suburban area, but there’s a surprising dearth of bookstores–indie or big box–now. TBH, I can probably count on 2 hands the number of times I’ve been in a “real” bookstore since the demise of Borders. (Oh, Borders, how I miss you.) I don’t really care for any of the B&Ns near me, but I do like BAM. The local BAM is small, cramped, and doesn’t have the largest stock, but the staff is great and it’s a nice place to hang out.
I’m glad to see that other folks still have access to some nice indie bookstores.
I really love to go to 2-floor Barnes & Noble stores. Drinking coffee and reading at somewhat higher altitudes is always fun. Here in Illinois, my favorites are in Orland Park and Naperville.
I use http://www.sfbok.se/ in Stockholm the few times I’m there at home I use these online stores. http://www.bokus.com/ http://www.adlibris.com/se/ http://cdon.se/
The Frugal Muse in Madison, WI. They have an amazing selection of used books and a good sized selection of new ones. They are willing to order things for you too. It’s a great place.
I forgot the URL: http://www.frugalmuse.com/
We usually go to the west side location.
Davids’ in Cambridge, England is amazing! They have new and secondhand art, history, fiction and cookery as well as antiquarian books, maps and P.G. Woodhouse on offer! Unfortunately they don’t stock much (any!) urban fantasy, but they always have the best weird and wonderful things. Today’s purchases included books on Caitin’s Native American portraits, 18th century art and culture, something on Bletchley park (the WWII enigma codebreakers), Inuit art from Darmouth Museum, and one on the stories of hidden underground landscape of Britain. The staff are wonderfully eridite, informative, chatty and downright insulting as only a Brit can be. Go and visit anytime you’re in Cambridge- they’re round the side of the Market Place next to St Edwards Church.
http://www.gdavidbookseller.co.uk/
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http://www.kingsenglish.com/ The King’s English Bookstore in Salt Lake City reminds me of the bookstore owned by Meg Ryan’s character in the movie You’ve Got Mail. May it not come to the same end. It is small but charming and is packed to the rafters with great books. I have enjoyed readings by some of my favorite authors at this little shop including Jessica Day George and Tamora Pierce.
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I admit I also love half.com for books not seen since childhood and hard to find books. You can find great deals there. However since the sales are so far removed from the authors I don’t see how it helps support them. So I try to buy new when I can afford it to encourage my favorite authors to keep on publishing.
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I like Barnes and Noble of Sugarhouse. I like the StarBucks coffee there. The people there are always friendly and helpful.
I have to give a shout out to my childhood bookstore haunts, the Falmouth Book Review and Camden’s The Owl and the Turtle, still both going strong in Maine. The majority of used books on my shelves are from C & W used books in northern Virginia, which somehow still had a cool vibe in the middle of suburban strip mall grossness. The Strand in New York is my favorite bookstore as a tourist, especially when I’m researching something random. I haven’t bonded too strongly with any of the bookstores now that we live in Bloomington, Indiana, but I have to give Boxcar Books a shout out for sponsoring the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project that I volunteer for. Thanks Boxcar!
Well, my favorite bookstore was the Borders in Buffalo, New York. I used to write articles in the coffee shop there just because the atmosphere in that place was absolutely incredible and the staff was so very friendly. Best way to shake off stress. With that closed down though, I suppose my next favorite bookstore would be the Books-A-Million in Colonial Heights, VA. This was actually my childhood bookstore. Once a month we would go to the dentist, and I could then get as many books as I could convince my mom to buy me for the “month”. (Sadly that was the closest bookstore to where I lived when I was young. 1.5 hours. I reread soooo many books). The workers there were always super nice to 10 year old me so I have lots of fond memories. I’ve never lived near a lot of independent bookstores though sadly. I’m hoping when I finally settle down, there will be some. I visited Powell’s books once when I was in the city for a conference and it seemed pretty amazing.
Well, I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For me, Kinokuniya Book Store has the best service and collection of books to offer. It’s very easy to navigate the shelves. They used to have this very cool playlist of classical musics that makes your book browsing experience a real pleasure – 2 hours passed in the blink of an eye. In all 8 years of going there, I’ve met only 1 worker whose head I would love to bonk – which is saying a lot. The price of the books there is also slightly lower than its rivals.
I live in Rapid City, SD. Most of the book stores have come and gone. But that’s OK, because the service was horrible and I usually had to wait at least a week after a release date to get the book I wanted. That’s practically criminal. I’ve already waited a year, and now you want me to wait another week?? But then Mitzi’s Books opened and I’ve never looked back.
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We have two great bookstores here in Colorado Springs – Hooked on Books and Beth Anne’s Book Corner. They both have an awesome selection of every kind of book imaginable and very helpful
Boulevard Books in Brooklyn, NY. Everyone there is friendly without being pushy, they have a reasonable selection of SFF for a store of their size, and if they don’t stock something they’ll order it. Plus, they have lots of nice community friendly events. And coffee.
http://www.facebook.com/BoulevardBooksandCafe
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My favorite store is Book Barn in Folsom, CA. While it is a used bookstore and carries a bit of everything, the owner is a huge fan of urban fantasy! I read a LOT! When I find a series I like a book a day isn’t unheard of and she has read 10x as many books as I have and remembers them all. I love going to her for recommendations and just to talk about what I’ve read. But lest you think she is a one trick pony, she is also great at helping my husband find his political drama and adventure type novels. Being there just makes me happy
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I love HFB because its like going on a treasure hunt. When I find the book I want, it’s like finding a pot of gold.
We have a little independent book store here in Hayward, CA, called, simply, “The Book Shop.” It’s mostly a used book store, although they do have a pretty decent selection of new fiction, science fiction, fantasy, kids, and young adult books. Hank, the old owner, was a bit of an old curmudgeon, but it was always perfect seeing behind the check out desk. He always gave me a discount for books I was planning to use in my classroom. (The new owners are also super nice, but there was just something about seeing Hank behind the desk…) Renee, employee, manager, and generally awesome person, always has a friendly greeting, knows absolutely everyone by name, and is featured in a nearby mural of downtown Hayward. She even greets my dog by name when we stop by on weekend walks! Everyone else at The Book Shop is friendly, knowledgable, and clearly love books.
My fav is the Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis, MN. Going into this bookstore is like walking into a series of small adventures, every section offers kids some new exciting discovery. There’s also always one of the residential creaters roaming about, the store is home to nearly a dozen animals ranging from chachillas, tarantulas, cats, rats, chickens and a lizard. The store’s design is based of the book “Salamader Room”. While the store is more centered around kids and their imagination but there is an area with huge comfy chairs for adults. I’ve purchased most of Kate Daniel series books from there. It’s a store where kids learn to explore and fall in love with reading and the adults can relax and just enjoy watching the kids discover.
The store’s website is http://www.wildrumpusbooks.com
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There are three bookstores in citys around the world that I love:
- in my current home town Constance, Germany: Osiander, it has the cutest little court yard to sit and read, a cafe with barely any tourists (very important in Constance) and competent and helpful staff
http://www.osiander.de/buchhandlungen/konstanz/konstanz_kanzleistrasse.cfm
- in Beijing, China: The Bookworm – more than a book store, it’s a community with very nice events and a good cafe, good if you find yourself overwelmed by the city, it also includes a library
http://beijingbookworm.com/
- and of course in Paris, France: Shakespear’s and Co. – the history alone makes it worth visiting, the books for browsing in the upper section are great, they have new and used books for sale and you can’t beat the view
http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/