American independent bookselling is a relay of founding dates whose baton passes from shop to shop across the map. McNally Jackson Books began when Sarah McNally opened the original Prince Street shop in December 2004. Tattered Cover Book Store is the Colorado institution, keeping multiple Denver locations of a bookstore born in 1971. On the East Coast, Hakim's Bookstore & Gift Shop has stocked books and stationery since 1959 as the East Coast's oldest Black-owned bookstore. Zine shops, antiquarian rooms and museum stores sit between the flagships, which makes the neighbourhood as good a guide as the name. Pick one shop per city and stay for the events board, where the staff picks usually beat the window display.
Founded in 1982, Malaprop's is an independent bookstore and cafe in downtown Asheville known for its literary events and curated staff picks. It champions regional and diverse authors.
Best for Independent bookstore browsing; Author events and readings; Regional and diverse voices
Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe has traded in downtown Asheville, North Carolina since 1982. Emoke B'Racz opened it without business loans in a 2,000 square foot space on Haywood Street. B'Racz came to the United States from Hungary at fifteen, her father having left as a political exile in 1956. She spent nine years working at a Waldenbooks in Connecticut before moving to Asheville. She took the name from malapropism, the comic misuse of a word, and stocked shelves of international literature and poetry while paying staff wages with health insurance. Downtown Asheville in the 1980s had boarded-up storefronts and little foot traffic, and cheap rent went into inventory. After fifteen years the store moved three doors down into a historic building that had been an Elks club, with community members helping carry the stock. It now stands at 55 Haywood Street. In 2000 Publishers Weekly named Malaprop's Bookseller of the Year and the city gave it a Seal of the City recognition. Gretchen Horn, on staff since 2001 as barista and later financial manager, became majority owner in January 2019. The shop carries books for adults and children as well as young adults, along with gifts. The cafe serves pastries from local bakeries and locally roasted coffee. Hand-lettered signage and event posters line the walls, and the store makes room for emerging regional writers. Our State magazine profiled B'Racz in 2011 and Blue Ridge Public Radio in 2019.
Operating in downtown Austin since 1970, BookPeople is Texas's largest independent bookstore. It hosts author events and children's storytimes and runs an in-house cafe, CoffeePeople.
Best for Texas's largest indie bookstore, author events, kids' storytimes, and its CoffeePeople cafe
The gift shop of the Old Baldy Lighthouse and the Smith Island Museum of History is run by the Old Baldy Foundation. The non-profit preserves the lighthouse at 101 Lighthouse Wynd on Bald Head Island, North Carolina. Visitors reach the island by ferry from Southport, climb 108 stairs to the top of the tower and tour the museum in the keeper's cottage. Purchases in the shop go toward the foundation's preservation work on the site.
Best for Lighthouse heritage gifts and books
The gift shop at Old Baldy belongs to the Old Baldy Foundation. The non-profit preserves the Old Baldy Lighthouse on Bald Head Island, North Carolina, and interprets the island's history. The lighthouse stands at 101 Lighthouse Wynd, a five-minute walk from the ferry landing. The island is reached only by boat, on the passenger ferry from Southport. Visitors climb 108 stairs and five landings to the top for a view over Bald Head Island and the Cape Fear River estuary. Climbs are self-guided and unscheduled. The keeper's cottage beside the tower houses the Smith Island Museum of History. Artifacts from the foundation's collection rotate on exhibit there and orient guests to the island's past. More artifacts sit inside the lighthouse foundation. The grounds hold picnic tables and the old Oil House, with interpretive signs and a very old live oak. The foundation also runs a two-hour guided history tour by golf cart that covers four centuries of island history. The tour includes lighthouse admission and a ten percent discount in the gift shop. Its education work extends to a Junior Keepers programme and an archival collection. A monthly newsletter is called The Keeper's Times. Supporters fund the site through a Brick Walkway Program and Passholders for Preservation. The shop is the foundation's retail arm, and buying there supports the upkeep of the tower and the museum. The site closes in January and February and keeps seasonal schedules for the rest of the year.
Operated by the Bald Head Island Conservancy, this nature and gift store carries turtle- and nature-themed apparel, books and gifts. Purchases support local sea turtle conservation.
Best for Nature gifts supporting turtle conservation
An independent Hampden bookstore focused on indie comics, small press, zines and graphic novels. It is also the receiving address for John Waters' fan mail.
Best for Indie comics, zines and small-press books
The Ivy Bookshop occupies a house on Falls Road in Baltimore, with books and events at the centre of its programme. Readers can browse in person or use a subscription in which a bookseller selects titles for them. Book clubs also meet at the shop, extending its role as a place for conversations about reading.
Best for Bookseller-selected reading and book clubs in Baltimore
The Ivy Bookshop is a Baltimore bookstore whose physical setting is part of its cultural programme. The business has operated for twenty-two years and spent its first two decades at Lake Falls Village Shopping Center. In 2020 it moved into the former Divine Life Church in Mt. Washington, a nineteenth-century building surrounded by three acres of gardens. Those grounds support reading and gatherings as well as the shop itself. Author events and book clubs turn books into public conversation, while rentals use the building and gardens as community spaces. A subscription programme gives an Ivy Personal Shopper responsibility for choosing books for a reader or recipient. School-book services add an institutional role beside the public catalogue. The Ivy also identifies Bird in Hand as a sibling shop in Charles Village, where coffee and books have shared a locally sourced programme since 2016. Together these facts describe a bookseller shaped by continuity and place. The merchant joins staff selection with events and education, all supported by outdoor space, using a converted church and its gardens as infrastructure for Baltimore's reading communities.
The Brattle Book Shop dates its founding to 1825 in Boston's Cornhill section. The Gloss family has run it since 1949. It fills a three-story building at 9 West Street with more than 250,000 used, rare and out-of-print books, plus maps, prints and an outdoor lot of bargain carts. Proprietor Ken Gloss appraises for Harvard, Boston University and the FBI and appears on Antiques Roadshow.
Best for Antiquarian and used books
The Brattle Book Shop was founded in 1825 in the Cornhill section of Boston. It has belonged to the Gloss family since 1949. George Gloss and his son Kenneth built it into one of the larger antiquarian book shops in the country, and Ken Gloss remains the proprietor. The shop moved to West Street in 1969. George marked the move by riding through Boston in a horse-drawn covered wagon, handing out books and telling passers-by to go west. The shop still occupies the three-story building at 9 West Street in Downtown Boston. Two floors hold general used books and a third floor holds rare and antiquarian volumes, with an outside sale lot of bargain carts. The stock runs past 250,000 items, from books and maps to prints, postcards and ephemera on every subject. The rare book room keeps first editions and fine leather bindings. An experienced buyer is on hand during the day. The shop buys everything from single volumes to whole estates, by appointment. Ken Gloss is a past president of the New England chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. He appraises books and libraries for Harvard, Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern and the FBI, among others. He appears on Antiques Roadshow and lectures to library groups and historical societies across New England. The shop produces a podcast called the Brattlecast, and its staff post a find of the week from the shelves.
David Bolduc founded the Boulder Bookstore in 1973 with ten bookcases and five staff at 1133 Pearl Street. Since 1991 it has occupied the Cheney Block of 1899 at 1107 Pearl, on the corner of 11th Street on the pedestrian mall. More than 100,000 titles fill three floors. The upstairs ballroom, once a dance hall, hosts more than 150 author events a year.
Best for New and used books across several floors, author readings
Boulder Bookstore opened in 1973 at 1133 Pearl Street. Founder David Bolduc started with ten bookcases and five employees in the front of a building shared with a Mexican import store and a basement plant shop. In 1991 the store moved along Pearl to the Cheney Block, built in 1899. The building was renamed the Buckingham Block in 1905, as the stone at the top still reads. Bolduc hired a feng shui consultant to place the entrance and the office during the remodel. He fitted a tin ceiling on the main floor to match the building's period while saving energy. The Upper North Room, acquired in 1994, is known as the Annex. The store now employs about fifty people across 20,000 square feet and three floors. It stocks more than 100,000 titles, with a used-book department and an out-of-print service. It reports its bestsellers to the New York Times and the Denver Post. The ballroom upstairs was used from 1899 for lodge meetings and dances, with the orchestra in the mezzanine where the offices now sit. Later a Buddhist congregation met there. It now hosts more than 150 author events a year. The stained glass in its north windows was made to match the original west pair. Bolduc once organised readings for Allen Ginsberg when the poet lived in Boulder. He was a founding member of the Boulder Independent Business Alliance. The corner of Pearl and 11th was once called Pearl and Fight for the bars that stood there.
Two Hands Paperie is a Pearl Street shop for fine paper, cards, journals, pens and bookbinding and art supplies, including imported and handmade sheets. It runs workshops in calligraphy, bookbinding and other paper crafts.
Billed as Montana's largest independent bookstore, Country Bookshelf has anchored downtown Bozeman's Main Street for decades with a deep regional and general-interest selection. It hosts frequent author events and champions Montana writers across its two floors.
The Brooklyn Museum Shop curates art books, apparel, and prints tied to the museum's exhibitions and permanent collection, including its current Iris van Herpen show. The store operates both online and from its home inside the museum on Eastern Parkway, open Wednesday through Sunday.
Talking Leaves is an independent Buffalo bookstore, its Elmwood Avenue shop known for a deep, hand-picked selection across literature, poetry and small-press titles. Staff recommendations and author events have kept it central to the city's reading community for decades.
Best for Independent and literary books, local and small-press titles
The Art Institute of Chicago's museum shop sells prints, books, and gifts inspired by its collection, from Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte to Grant Wood's American Gothic. Shoppers can browse collection catalogues, exhibition catalogues, and postcard books through the museum's dedicated online store.
The Chicago Architecture Center's Design Store sells books, home decor, and gifts celebrating Chicago architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright, alongside CTA-inspired merchandise. The shop operates both online and from its storefront on East Wacker Drive, open daily from 10am to 5pm.
Best for Museum store, architecture, design, books
Three-floor used bookstore in Wicker Park with roughly 70,000 volumes, open daily until 8pm; bought from its founders by longtime staffers Matt Revers and J.R. Nelson in 2022.
Best for Three floors of used books
Myopic Books occupies three floors at 1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago's Wicker Park, stocking an inventory the shop itself puts at over 70,000 used volumes. Sources place its opening in the early 1990s, after an earlier spell on Division Street before the move to Milwaukee Avenue. In May 2022, longtime employees Matt Revers and J.R. Nelson-both of whom had spent years selling books on the floor-bought the store from its previous owners, keeping it independently run. It remains one of the larger secondhand bookstores in Chicago, open daily into the evening.
Founded 1961 in a Hyde Park basement, the Seminary Co-op became the scholarly bookstore — front tables that read like a syllabus of everything. Now a not-for-profit owned by its purpose.
Independent bookseller in Hyde Park with one of the one of the largest academic book collections in the United States, serving University of Chicago readers and scholars. The co-op curates a staff-picked "Front Table," hosts author events, and publishes its own titles under the Ode Books imprint.
Best for Academic books, staff picks, author events and Ode Books imprint
Founded in 1961 as a member-owned cooperative by University of Chicago students, this Hyde Park institution runs two shops, the scholarly Seminary Co-op and the general-interest 57th Street Books, and reorganized as a not-for-profit devoted to bookselling as a cultural act. Its shelves run deep in philosophy, history, and university-press titles rarely stocked elsewhere.
Torn Light Records began in Northern Kentucky in 2014, spent a decade in Cincinnati and moved to Chicago in January 2024. The Bucktown shop at 1855 N Milwaukee carries new and used records alongside books and print, and buys collections of any size.
Best for New and used records, tapes, CDs, books and zines
A nonprofit literary organization and publisher in Deep Ellum whose storefront bookshop specializes in translated and independent-press literature. Its publishing arm includes the Dalkey Archive Press imprint devoted to international and experimental fiction.
Best for Literature in translation and small-press titles
Deep Vellum Books is the storefront and headquarters of Deep Vellum Books & Publishing, a nonprofit literary arts organization at 3000 Commerce Street in Deep Ellum, Dallas. Will Evans founded Deep Vellum in 2013. He had found that Dallas readers had few places to talk about books and global literature. The name plays on the historic district Deep Ellum and on vellum, the thick parchment once used for fine books. In its first five years the press published 90 works in translation and hosted dozens of literary events. It has since become the largest publisher of translated literature in the United States. Seven imprints include Dalkey Archive Press, acquired in 2020, and the backlist holds more than 1,500 titles from over 100 countries. The shop stocks everything the press publishes together with a selection of literary fiction and nonfiction and poetry from independent publishers. It calls itself Texas's normalest bookstore and welcomes anyone who would like to read. The Dallas Morning News reported in 2026 on a listing by Condé Nast Traveler. That magazine had included the store on its list of independent bookstores in America. The same report noted that Mircea Cărtărescu's Solenoid, a Deep Vellum title, reached the International Booker Prize longlist in 2025.
An independent bookstore on West Lovers Lane with hand-curated fiction, nonfiction and children's sections and a busy calendar of author events. It runs subscription programs for children's, young-adult and mystery readers alongside fiction and nonfiction book clubs.
The Wild Detectives combines an independent bookstore with a bar in Dallas's Oak Cliff neighbourhood. It opened in 2014 in a converted house, with a selection shaped by literature from different countries. Books share the space with coffee and drinks, making it a place to browse and spend time with a new read.
Best for Literary browsing with coffee or a drink in Oak Cliff
The Clyfford Still Museum Shop sells art-inspired gifts, jewelry, notecards, and publications tied to the museum's collection of Clyfford Still's abstract expressionist works. The Denver-based shop emphasizes locally made and handmade products and offsets shipping emissions through verified carbon-removal projects.
Housed in the Bonfils-Stanton Visitor Center at 1007 York Street, this shop stocks more than 10,000 items, from locally made gifts and jewelry to gardening books written by the Gardens' own staff. Members receive a 10 percent discount, and the shop is free to browse even without garden admission.
The MCA Denver Shop, based in the museum's Fries Building at 1485 Delgany Street, sells handmade goods from local and underrepresented makers alongside exhibition-related books and gifts. It offers free in-store pickup and a 10% discount for museum members.
The Bookies is a Denver independent bookstore built around children's literature, families, and teachers, carrying new and used titles. It hosts author events and stocks classroom and educator resources alongside its general shelves.
The Hermitage Bookshop on Fillmore Street deals in used, rare, collectible, and antiquarian books across fiction and non-fiction. It belongs to the Rocky Mountain Antiquarian Booksellers Association.
Best for Rare, collectible, and antiquarian books at Denver's oldest independent bookstore
The Shops at the Denver Art Museum sell jewelry, books, home goods, and museum-exclusive merchandise from a storefront at 100 W 14th Ave Parkway, with a sister shop at the Kirkland on Bannock Street. The fully stocked online store ships nationwide and rotates collections around current exhibitions like The Stars We Do Not See and Space Is The Place.
The Wings Over the Rockies Museum Store sells aviation- and space-themed jewelry, apparel, books, and collectibles from the Air & Space Museum at 7711 East Academy Blvd in Denver, as well as from the Exploration of Flight location at Centennial Airport. Featured items include Randolph aviator sunglasses, Hot Wings die-cast collectibles, and Red Canoe bags and hats.
Operating since 1965 and housed in a former glove factory at 901 W. Lafayette Blvd since 1983, the main store shelves more than a million used and rare books across four floors with no in-store computers. Aisles are organized by hand, and a rare-book room upstairs holds first editions and antiquarian finds.
Retired Detroit Public Schools teacher Janet Webster Jones has sold books since 1989, opening a storefront in 2002 and moving to the Auburn Building at 4240 Cass Ave in 2013. The shop specializes in nonfiction spanning history and culture, health and wellness, spirituality and books by and about women.
An independent bookshop and toy store in the Emerald Plantation center on Emerald Drive, stocking beach reads, children's titles, puzzles, and games. The shelves lean toward family vacation staples, from local-interest paperbacks to sandcastle kits and classic wooden toys.
Doug Stowe has spent decades making boxes and furniture in a workshop at the edge of Eureka Springs, and has authored numerous books on the craft. His pieces are offered by custom commission and through his online storefront, with materials and design work available on request.
A three-generation candy maker on Highway 62 between Rogers and Eureka Springs, working from recipes that trace to a book published in 1897. The Greers hand-make their chocolates and nut confections with real chocolate, sweet cream butter, and dry-roasted nuts.
Best for Heritage handmade chocolates and nut candies
Clove & Creek is a lifestyle shop founded by Scott Neild and Michael Cook, who started with Catskills pop-up markets in 2015. Stores followed in Kingston and then at 613 Warren Street in Hudson, New York, with a third shop running seasonally in Provincetown. Home goods from small makers share the floor with apothecary items and books, plus a newer clothing range. The company also offers interior design services to its customers.
Best for Curated home goods and gifts from small makers
Clove & Creek began in 2015 as a series of pop-up markets in the Catskills, hosted by local restaurants. Those evenings showed handmade goods by friends and neighbours of founders Scott Neild and Michael Cook. The first permanent store followed at 73 Broadway in Kingston, New York. The second opened at 613 Warren Street in Hudson, in a double-fronted building dating to 1880 on Hudson's mile of independent shops. A third shop opened at 353 Commercial Street in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and runs on a seasonal calendar. Neild came to shopkeeping from musical theatre and event planning. He told TOAST Magazine in 2023 that shopping at a small business should be an experience and that staff need to know the story behind everything on the shelves. The stock blends new and heritage goods chosen to be natural and functional. It runs from kitchen and scullery pieces to bedding and rugs, and from apothecary items to books and vintage finds. Clothing for women and men is the newest addition, and the company also offers interior design services. Makers from the Hudson Valley and Catskills are the recurring thread, and the owners designed the store interiors themselves.
This bookstore and bar occupies the C.H. Evans Firehouse, a red-brick 1889 building designed by Michael O'Connor for Engine Company No. 3, converted to retail use and opened by a descendant of the Evans family in 2005. Evans' Ale, first brewed by Cornelius H. Evans in the 1800s, is still poured at the bar beneath the firehouse's original mahogany mantle.
Best for New and used books alongside a bar
The Spotty Dog Books & Ale occupies the C.H. Evans firehouse at 440 Warren Street in Hudson, New York. The building was erected in 1889 as the first purpose-built home of Engine Company No. 3, a company whose roots go back to 1799 and which took the name of Cornelius H. Evans, politician and brewer, in 1868. Architect Michael O'Connor planned the structure, and the cornerstone was laid on December 3, 1889 with gifts from the community that included a mahogany mantle and a bronze chandelier as well as a brass sliding pole. The upstairs served as a social hall while the truck floor was cleared for dances. In 2004 the firehouse was converted to retail use, with period doors replacing the garage door and a bar surface cut from a reclaimed bowling alley. Kelley Drahushuk, a Hudson native and Evans descendant, opened the store in 2005 after moving her art supply business down Warren Street. Her uncle Neil Evans, Cornelius H. Evans IV, owns the building and brews Evans' Ale in Albany, which is still poured at the bar. Some 10,000 volumes fill the shelves, with an art supply room at the back and kombucha on tap beside the beer. Author events and live music draw the town in, and trivia nights fill the tables. Hudson Valley Magazine profiled Drahushuk in 2014 and the Times Union covered the store in 2022.
Kids Ink stocks picture books, middle-grade fiction, and staff-picked young-adult titles from its storefront at 5619 North Illinois Street in Indianapolis. The shop runs its own storytimes and author events and fulfills online orders through the Bookshop.org affiliate network rather than a corporate warehouse system.
Dimensions on West Main in La Porte calls itself Houston's first genre comic store: weekly comics with a pull box, plus books, records, movies and collectibles in a deeper shop than the storefront suggests.
Best for Comics And Collectibles And Music in La Porte.
Schroeder's Book Haven is an independent bookstore in League City. Its in-person selection focuses on independent bookstore, making that specialty the practical reason for a focused local shopping stop.
Run by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, this shop sells officially licensed Oscars merchandise alongside exhibition-tied collaborations with Academy members like Spike Lee and Ruth E. Carter. Its catalogue spans apparel, collectibles, and one of the more comprehensive cinema book selections in Los Angeles, all purchasable through its direct online store.
Chevalier's Books is an independent Los Angeles bookstore, a general trade shop anchoring Larchmont Village on North Larchmont Boulevard. Open daily, it hosts frequent in-store author events and book clubs and sells new, signed, and pre-order titles both on the shelves and through its online store.
Craft Contemporary Shop sits inside the museum at 5814 Wilshire Boulevard, selecting jewelry, ceramics, books, stationery and artist-made objects that connect with the institution’s craft-focused exhibitions. The museum, founded in 1973, is a nonprofit devoted to contemporary art made through craft media and processes, and shop purchases support its exhibitions and programming.
The Getty Museum Store operates both a walk-in shop inside the Getty Center in Los Angeles and a full online catalogue of Getty-branded books, jewelry, and home goods inspired by the collection. Purchases fund the Getty's conservation, research, and museum programs, and the store also runs a wholesale and brand-collaborations arm.
The Hammer Museum Store sells art books, Hammer publications, artist editions, postcards, home goods, jewelry and Hammer-branded merchandise through the UCLA museum at 10899 Wilshire Boulevard and online. Its buying reflects the museum’s exhibitions, public programs and artist-centered mission, with limited editions and publications giving the shop a durable connection to the institution rather than relying on one dated exhibition-merchandise example.
The LACMA Store, housed in the museum's Resnick Pavilion on Wilshire Boulevard, sells exhibition catalogues, apparel, jewelry, and artist collaborations tied to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's shows. Current offerings range from an Alexander Calder chess set to books accompanying the Fashioning Chinese Women and Collecting Impressionism exhibitions.
The Shop at The Broad sells artist-driven prints, apparel, and objects inspired by the museum's postwar and contemporary collection, from Yayoi Kusama posters to a Jeff Koons x Lexon Balloon Dog lamp. Current collections include a Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind line and limited-edition works by Patrick Martinez and Robert Longo, with proceeds supporting the museum's mission.
Billed as California's largest new and used book and record store, The Last Bookstore fills a landmark space in downtown Los Angeles and hosts events from author signings to film screenings. It sells new, used, and rare books plus vinyl in person and through its online shop, and now runs additional locations in Studio City, Montrose, and Honolulu.
Mitchell Kaplan's Coral Gables courtyard bookstore grew into Miami's literary living room — readings, café tables and rooms of carefully chosen shelves. An independent that shaped a city's reading life.
The official online shop of Miami's Institute of Contemporary Art sells original exhibition catalogues, artist monographs, limited-edition prints, and museum-branded apparel such as the Design District crewneck and hoodie. Members get 20% off, and the shop offers free shipping on U.S. orders over $150, with items ranging from $20 books to a $469 Keiichi Tanaami limited edition.
Run by the Miami Design Preservation League out of the Art Deco Welcome Center at 1001 Ocean Drive, the gift shop stocks original Art Deco Weekend posters, books, vintage jewelry, and Miami Beach memorabilia. Purchases support the League's preservation work, and an international arm ships outside the US via its own direct online storefront.
Best for Gifts, books, apparel, jewelry, memorabilia
At 1103 Biscayne Blvd, the Pérez Art Museum Miami's gift shop sells art books, jewelry, apparel, and artist editions such as Jeff Koons-designed lamps alongside PAMM exhibition catalogs. Orders can be picked up in person during museum hours or shipped, with every purchase supporting the museum's education programs.
Best for Art, museum shop, jewelry, apparel, books
The Wolfsonian Design Store displays its stock on an original circa-1896 Snead & Co. cast-iron shelving system, billed as the first modular book-stacking system. It sells Wolfsonian-branded gifts and publications in Miami Beach, with members getting 20% off.
Best for It sells Wolfsonian-branded gifts and publications in Miami Beach
The Wolfsonian Design Store's centerpiece isn't for sale: an open metal shelving unit, dated to circa 1896 and manufactured by Snead & Co. Iron Works of Louisville and Chicago, that the museum describes as "the first modular book stacking system," built from standardized cast-iron parts and framed as "an expression of the democratization of knowledge" during the Progressive Era. The shop, at 1001 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach, displays its stock — books, toys, housewares, and decorative objects — directly on that ironwork.
Around the shelving, the store sells design-oriented merchandise tied to the Wolfsonian's own collection and current exhibitions: travel accessories, kitchenware, watches, jewelry, clocks, toys, and the museum's own award-winning publications. A coffee bar with complimentary WiFi runs alongside the retail floor, and museum members get 20% off purchases. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 10am to 6pm (until 9pm on Fridays), the store functions less as a standard museum gift shop than as a small, browsable extension of the Wolfsonian's design-history collection — its own fixtures, not just its inventory, carry a documented history.
Fact & Fiction is a long-running independent bookstore on North Higgins Avenue in downtown Missoula, with a lively schedule of readings, signings, and book clubs. It highlights local and regional authors and sells books, merch, and gift cards in the shop and online.
Founded on Rock Creek in 1988, this downtown Missoula fly shop carries rods from Winston, Scott and Sage plus flies tied for the Bitterroot and Blackfoot. Gear sells in the store and through a full Shopify catalog, and the shop also books guided trips and lodging.
Best for Gear sells in the store and through a full Shopify catalog
Bank Square Books is an independent bookstore in downtown Mystic, stocking new releases, staff picks and preorders and hosting author talks, storytimes and book clubs. Shoppers can buy in store or order print books, audiobooks and gift cards through its online shop.
Best for Staff picks, author talks, and storytimes at a downtown Mystic indie bookstore
Cheekwood Estate & Gardens runs two on-site shops — the Garden Shop at Botanic Hall and the Museum Shop inside the Historic Mansion — selling jewelry from over 20 brands, gardening and art books, and home decor. Merchandise from both shops is also available through its online store.
Best for Museum store, garden gifts, jewelry, books
Aidan Gill for Men combines traditional barber services with shaving tools, grooming products and masculine gifts. Clients can book a cut or shave, then buy the products used during the service.
Best for Old-school cuts, shaves, and premium men's grooming products
Founded in 1988 in the New Orleans French Quarter, Faulkner House Books occupies a Pirate's Alley building once home to William Faulkner and specializes in fine literature and rare editions. The intimate shop is open daily and buys and sells rare, signed and out-of-print books.
Hex: Old World Witchery gathers candles, wands, herbs, jewelry, ouija boards, statues and books of shadows under one roof. The range suits curious visitors and practicing witches alike, with a second location in New Orleans.
The New Orleans Museum of Art's shop pairs its collection with Louisiana's own makers — art books, jewelry and craft from the city that never needed encouragement to decorate.
The Shop at The Collection is the retail arm of the Historic New Orleans Collection, sitting at 520 Royal Street in the French Quarter and open Tuesday through Sunday. Its shelves and online storefront carry HNOC-published history books, curated jewelry, scarves, and gifts tied to exhibitions like A Vanishing Bounty and New Orleans Musicians in Art.
Best for Museum-store, books, jewelry, accessories
An independent, locally owned and operated bookshop that has served Lake Placid for over 40 years, stocking an extensive run of Adirondack and regional titles alongside children's books and general fiction. It also carries art supplies, filling the town's only combined book-and-art-materials shop.
Best for Adirondack titles, general books and art supplies
Sarah McNally opened the original Prince Street shop in December 2004. Five stores later, it still runs its own publishing imprint, McNally Editions.
Best for Books and staff recommendations at the SoHo branch
Sarah McNally opened the first McNally Jackson Books on Prince Street in SoHo in December 2004, building the store around curated, staff-driven selection rather than a big-box inventory model — the kind of shop where a "Staff Picks" shelf carries real weight in what sells. The approach scaled further than most independent bookstores manage: McNally Jackson now runs five locations across the city — SoHo, Williamsburg, Seaport, Downtown Brooklyn, and Rockefeller Center — each keeping its own curated sections rather than a single centralized buying list.
The store also publishes under its own imprint, McNally Editions, putting the bookstore on the other side of the business it's spent two decades curating for. Signed copies, a Reader Rewards program, and dedicated kids' and YA sections round out a format built less around volume than around the idea that a bookstore's judgment — what it chooses to stock and promote — is itself the product.
Northshire Bookstore anchors Broadway with a deep curated selection, staff picks and frequent author events, as a companion to the original Manchester, Vermont store. Gifts sit alongside the books on its shelves.
Colin Tunstall, Morgan Collett and Josh Rosen opened Saturdays as a SoHo surf shop in August 2009, selling boards and wetsuits alongside books and art before growing into a menswear label with additional shops in New York and Japan.
Best for Surf, Minimalist
Saturdays NYC opened in August 2009 on a small cobblestone street in SoHo, founded by three friends - Colin Tunstall, Morgan Collett and Josh Rosen - who each had backgrounds connected to the fashion industry. The original concept combined a downtown New York City surf shop with a lifestyle retail sensibility: alongside surfboards and wetsuits, the shop sold books, fine art and other lifestyle goods, aimed at supporting a surf-adjacent life within an urban setting rather than a coastal one. Within about four years, the business had expanded from that single storefront to a second New York location plus two shops in Japan, and it evolved from a shop selling third-party surf gear into a brand designing and producing its own menswear line.
Strand Book Store combines new titles with used and rare books at its Broadway shop near East 12th Street. Benjamin Bass founded the business on Fourth Avenue in 1927, before the move to its present Broadway location in 1957. The mix gives readers room to compare recent publications with older editions across a broad selection of subjects.
Best for New, used and rare books near Union Square
Bindlestiff Books is a volunteer-run independent bookstore in West Philadelphia, operating since 2005. Its neighborhood shelves and events emphasize independent bookselling and community access rather than a chain-store assortment.
Best for Volunteer-run neighborhood bookselling since 2005
Black and Nobel is an independent Black-owned Philadelphia bookstore and cultural center at 422 South Street. Its shelves and online shop span Black history and literature alongside health, wellness and natural products.
Best for Black history, African diaspora books, and rare titles
Hakim's Bookstore & Gift Shop on South 52nd Street in West Philadelphia specialises in books about Black history and culture. Dawud Hakim founded the shop, which later continued under his daughter Yvonne Blake. Its role as a neighbourhood gathering place is part of the story behind the historical marker awarded to the shop.
Best for Black history and cultural books in West Philadelphia
Harriett’s Bookshop is a Black-owned independent Philadelphia bookstore and community space opened in 2020, centered on women authors, artists and activists. Its shelves and programming make the Fishtown shop a cultural stop as well as a place to buy books, continuing the mission named for Harriet Tubman.
Best for A Black-owned independent bookstore and community space, since 2020.
Used bookstore opened 1975 on South Street, Philadelphia; moved to 7 N 2nd Street in Old City in 2004. About 130,000 secondhand books plus a second-floor record room, stocked mostly from customer trade-ins.
Best for Long-running used books at this local shop
The Book Trader opened in 1975 on South Street in Philadelphia and spent nearly three decades at the corner of 5th and South before relocating in 2004 to 7 North 2nd Street, in the city's Old City neighborhood, where it remains today. The shop is a roughly 5,000-square-foot space of floor-to-ceiling used books - more than 130,000 titles across fiction and nonfiction, including rare volumes - plus a second-floor room devoted to records. Its stock comes primarily from books traded in or donated by customers rather than wholesale purchase. It is counted among Philadelphia's oldest and largest used bookstores and is open daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Bookmans Entertainment Exchange is Arizona's long-running used bookstore and media exchange, trading in secondhand books, CDs, vinyl, video games, and collectibles. The Phoenix location hosts live in-store events promoted on its own Bookmans Phoenix pages, alongside an online storefront for browsing inventory.
Changing Hands has sold new and used books to Phoenix and Tempe since 1974, with more than three hundred author events a year. The Camelback Road shop sells in store and online, with audiobooks and bulk education orders besides.
Best for Books, Independent Bookstore, Gifts, Merchandise
The Mail Room has traded in southeast Texas for more than four decades, and the Celli family has owned it since 2002. Frank and Katie Celli took over from the first generation in 2025. The Port Arthur room at 4700 FM 365 runs a mail counter alongside a gift floor. Stock covers home decor, candles, books, kitchen goods, corporate gift baskets.
Best for Gift shopping and a working mail counter under one roof in Port Arthur.
The Mail Room has served this corner of southeast Texas for more than four decades. The Celli family has owned the business since 2002, and in 2025 the second generation took it over. Frank and Katie Celli run it now, and the counter service that built the company continues. Two rooms carry the name. The Port Arthur store sits at 4700 FM 365, and the older address stands on South Dowlen Road in Beaumont. Half of the floor is a working mail counter. It handles mailbox rental, professional packaging, bulk mail for businesses and notary work. The other half is a gift emporium arranged by department rather than by brand. Home and lifestyle goods cover decor, blankets, throws, books, candles, desk accessories, lighting, textiles, vases, planters. A kitchen section sits alongside. The buying leans on American gift houses that supply independent shops, among them Stonewall Kitchen, Voluspa, Swig, Shiraleah, Mary Square, Royal Standard and Michael Design Works. Corporate gift baskets are assembled on site for local businesses. The mixture is unusual for a town of this size. Most shipping counters do not also sell candles, and most gift shops do not hold a notary. Here the two trades share one counter staff and one family name.
Portland, Oregon perfume house founded by self-taught perfumer Josh Meyer, who began mixing scents in his basement around 2010 and launched the line in 2012 with artist Ashod Simonian; each fragrance is framed as a book by a fictional author.
Best for Story-driven American indie.
Imaginary Authors was created in Portland, Oregon by Josh Meyer, a self-taught perfumer who started experimenting with fragrance formulas in his basement around 2010. He partnered with creative director Ashod Simonian, whose illustrated artwork appears on every bottle, and the pair launched the brand's debut line of seven scents in 2012, each built around an invented book and its invented author. Meyer has since released dozens of fragrances through the label, including 'Memoirs of a Trespasser' and 'Cape Heartache.'
The Shop at PAM is the Portland Art Museum’s online store, stocking Claude Monet prints, French Moderns exhibition catalogues, jewelry, scarves and home decor. It ships museum-inspired gifts, books and accessories to shoppers beyond Portland, extending the museum’s exhibition and collection themes into a broad retail assortment that can be ordered directly online.
Books cast in hot metal, letterpress-printed, and hand-bound entirely in one San Francisco workshop since 1974.
Best for Books cast in hot metal, letterpress-printed
Arion Press makes books entirely by hand, describing itself as "the only printer in the United States to make books entirely by hand from comma to cover under one roof." Founded in 1974 as the successor to San Francisco's Grabhorn Press, it operates what it calls the last unified hot-metal type foundry, letterpress workshop, and book bindery still working together in America, based at 2 Marina Boulevard in the Fort Mason Landmark Building, open Tuesday through Saturday.
Arion Press states its foundry equipment once cast type for the United Nations Charter in 1945 — a claim repeated only in the press's own materials, with no independent archival or UN-history source found to corroborate it, so it is reported here as the press's own account rather than established fact. That same hot-metal casting, hand-typesetting, and hand-binding chain is still what produces each Arion edition today. The press pairs classic and contemporary literature with commissioned artists for small, hand-assembled runs — recent titles include Fables of Aesop with artwork by Kiki Smith, Octavia E. Butler's Kindred illustrated by Alison Saar, and A.A. Milne's Pooh illustrated by Sandow Birk.
Arion Press works alongside the affiliated Grabhorn Institute, which runs artist residencies and educational programs on the same premises, extending the craft beyond the press's own book production into teaching typecasting, printing, and binding to a new generation. Half a century after its founding, it remains a working type foundry and bindery, not a museum piece.
The Cable Car Museum's gift shop, run by the nonprofit Friends of the Cable Car Museum, sells cable-car-themed books, apparel, pins, and collectibles from its home inside the Washington-Mason powerhouse and carbarn. Its online store catalog is marked under construction with a non-functional cart, so in-person purchase at the museum is the reliable buying path.
Best for Museum store, transit memorabilia, books, collectibles
The Asian Art Museum's Cha May Ching Museum Boutique offers a curated mix of handcrafted jewelry, apparel, and home goods by artisans from the Bay Area and across Asia, alongside exhibition catalogues and books. The shop operates both online and from its location inside the museum, open Thursday through Monday.
Best for Museum store, Asian art, jewelry, home decor
Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti founded City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in 1953, and it remains both an independent bookstore and a publisher. Its North Beach rooms anchor Beat-era literary San Francisco.
Inside the de Young in Golden Gate Park, with a sister shop at the Legion of Honor, this FAMSF museum store sells exhibition-tied jewelry, books and gifts, plus 500-plus ART on Demand prints — proceeds support both museums' collections.
Best for Exhibition-tied jewelry, books and gifts
The de Young Museum Store operates from the de Young's Golden Gate Park building at 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, open Tuesday through Sunday, 9:30am to 5:15pm, with a sister store at the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park — together the official retail operation of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). The catalog runs from jewelry and accessories to home décor, stationery, books and children's items, with curated sections tied to whatever show is currently on view — recent tie-ins include Treasures of the Pharaohs and The Etruscans, letting visitors take home something specific to the exhibition rather than generic museum merchandise. A separate program, ART on Demand, offers more than 500 museum-quality custom prints in a range of formats and frame options, extending the store's reach into art reproduction beyond gift-shop goods. FAMSF members get 10% off, and the store runs buy-online-pickup-in-store service alongside a corporate trade program. The stores describe themselves explicitly as funding mechanisms rather than side businesses — every purchase is framed as directly supporting the collections and exhibitions of both museums — positioning retail as part of the institution's operating model rather than an add-on gift shop.
Green Apple Books is an independent San Francisco bookstore founded in 1967 by Richard Savoy on Clement Street. It has since grown into three sister stores, still majority book-focused despite selling records and gifts.
Best for Independent books on Clement Street since 1967
Green Apple Books began in 1967, when 25-year-old Richard Savoy — an Army veteran with a radio-technician job at United Airlines but no bookselling experience — took out a credit union loan and leased a storefront in a pre-1906 building on Clement Street, in San Francisco's Richmond District. He stocked it with used books, comics, and National Geographic back issues, and the shop grew from there: doubling in width over the years, adding a mezzanine and a second floor, and in 1996 acquiring its neighbor of twenty years, Revolver Records, which added new and used music until that annex closed in 2021.
Savoy sold the business gradually starting in 1999 to three longtime employees — Kevin Hunsanger, Kevin Ryan, and Pete Mulvihill — a buyout structured to run over a decade so he could mentor the new owners while spreading the cost of the inventory. Hunsanger sold his shares in 2018; Ryan and Mulvihill still run the store. Despite the vinyl, magazines, and gift items on the shelves, more than 85% of Green Apple's sales are still books.
The original Clement Street shop has since been joined by two sister stores under the same ownership: Books on the Park on 9th Avenue, and Browser Books on Fillmore Street — all three hosting regular author events and school and community fundraisers.
SFMOMA Museum Store at 151 Third Street stocks modern and contemporary art books, jewelry, and design objects alongside exhibition-tied merchandise such as the current Matisse's Femme au chapeau catalogue. The store also offers custom museum-quality print reproductions of SFMOMA artworks, with proceeds supporting the museum's exhibitions and education programs.
The Booksmith is a general-interest bookshop on Haight Street in San Francisco, serving neighbourhood readers as well as visitors. The store moved to 1727 Haight Street in 2021, continuing a bookselling history that began elsewhere on the street in 1976. Its author programme and broad selection give readers reasons to return beyond buying a particular new release.
Best for General-interest books and author events on Haight Street
The Booksmith combines bookselling with an active San Francisco events programme. Its catalogue includes printed books and audiobooks. Merchandise and services occupy separate parts of the business. Readings and author conversations give the calendar its own editorial role rather than treating events as incidental promotions. Staff recommendations add another layer of selection, and the shop accepts orders by email when a requested title is not already part of the immediate browse. Its distribution policy is unusually explicit. The Booksmith currently excludes consignment titles. It considers books available through standard returnable channels such as Ingram. Authors and publicists use a separate proposal route for events, keeping programming distinct from ordinary customer orders. These systems show how the merchant works behind the shelves. Catalogue, recommendation and public conversation are related but separately managed activities. The Booksmith's identity therefore comes from the combination of a general bookshop, a documented ordering practice and a literary programme that regularly brings writers into direct conversation with San Francisco readers.
The Walt Disney Family Museum Store operates out of the museum at 104 Montgomery Street in San Francisco's Presidio and online, selling books, apparel, and exclusives tied to Walt Disney's life and legacy. Current offerings range from paint-by-number kits based on Mary Blair's designs to a Carhartt vest from the "Mickey Since 1928" collection.
804 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94133, United States / San Francisco / United States
Founded 1974 by architect Bill Stout; one of San Francisco's essential design bookstores. AIA California: launched 1974 with Steven Holl; ~70,000-volume catalogue; Eames Institute acquired shop and publishers after Stout's 2022 retirement.
Best for Architecture and design books from a San Francisco shop founded in 1974.
The Burke Store at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture sells jewelry, pins, and gifts from Native and local makers such as Eighth Generation and Copper Canoe Woman, alongside books tied to the museum's natural history and cultural collections. Museum admission isn't required to shop, and Burke members save 10% in store.
Elliott Bay Book Company opened in Pioneer Square in 1973 and now fills a landmark Capitol Hill space with cedar shelving and deep stock. A long-running author-reading series accompanies its staff picks.
Best for Independent bookstore browsing, staff picks and author events
1201 South Vale Street, Seattle, WA 98108 / Seattle / United States
Georgetown shop at 1201 S. Vale St opened with the 30 Years of Misfit Lit show; the house is the US alternative-comics publisher's only complete-inventory storefront.
Best for Alternative comics from a Georgetown publisher storefront.
Worker-owned anarchist collective bookstore at Seattle's Pike Place Market, operating since 1973 with no bosses or managers; stocks 10,000+ new and used radical, anti-authoritarian and independent titles.
Best for Radical books, poetry and movement history
Left Bank Books has operated as a worker-owned collective at Seattle's Pike Place Market since 1973, when a group split off from the University District's Red and Black Books to start their own store. It has no bosses or managers; decisions are made collectively at bi-monthly meetings run by consensus. For much of the 1980s and 1990s the collective also ran two related projects: AKA Books, a used bookstore in the University District, and Left Bank Distribution, a mail-order operation supplying radical books, zines and magazines. The current Pike Street store carries more than 10,000 new and used titles across nearly 70 sections, specializing in anarchist, anti-authoritarian, independent and small-press publishing.
Located inside the Seattle Art Museum's downtown building at 1300 First Avenue, SAM Shop sells contemporary design objects, jewelry by local artists, and books alongside original artwork displayed in the adjoining SAM Gallery. Every purchase supports the museum, and the shop is open during museum hours, Wednesday through Sunday.
Seattle's National Park Store, run by the nonprofit Discover Your Northwest, sells books, gifts, and outdoor-themed merchandise from its Pioneer Square-area storefront, open Wednesday through Sunday. Its online store stays open 24/7, with sale proceeds returned to Klondike Gold Rush and other public lands to fund visitor services and youth programs.
The Museum of Flight Store in Seattle sells aviation- and space-themed gifts, apparel, models, and books online, including branded Blue Angels and Apollo Program merchandise. Museum members receive a 15% discount, and purchases support the museum's nonprofit mission.
Best for Aviation gifts, space merchandise, apparel
The Wing Luke Museum's Marketplace, open Wednesday through Sunday at 719 S. King Street in Seattle, is a gift shop and bookstore that sources from more than 100 small businesses connected to the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. Its online store is currently paused for a refresh, but in-person shopping, phone orders, and online order pickup are all available, with proceeds supporting the museum's exhibitions and youth programs.
Auntie's Bookstore is a long-running independent bookstore in downtown Spokane selling new hardcovers, paperbacks, and staff picks alongside a full events calendar and book clubs. The shop runs a robust online store with signed copies, audiobooks, and gift cards.
Best for Signed copies, audiobooks, and gift cards
Founded in 1989 in Inman Park, A Cappella Books deals in new, used and rare titles. Its author events and antiquarian selection draw readers and collectors alike.
Best for Independent bookselling, signed and antiquarian titles, author events
This Madison bookstore on Atwood Avenue pairs a deep, staff-curated selection with a busy calendar of book clubs, author launches, and community gatherings in its Reading Room. Shoppers browse titles in person or order books, merch, and subscription boxes through the shop's online store.
Trading since 1981, this used and rare bookshop stocks deep shelves of science fiction, fantasy, military history, and occult titles that outlast the trend cycles of Strip retail. Staff buy, sell, and trade stock directly with customers, keeping the inventory local rather than routed through a distributor.
Best for Used and rare science fiction and occult books
Annabel DeGroot opened Annabel The Shop on Main Street in Sag Harbor in May 2023. She bought across thirty to forty independent and women-owned labels herself. The mix runs from clothing and shoes to candles, glassware, photography books, priced below the usual Hamptons range. The shop now lists 150 Main Street in Sag Harbor, 2442 Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton and a third address in San Francisco.
Best for Independent-designer fashion and lifestyle goods
Annabel DeGroot opened Annabel The Shop on Main Street in Sag Harbor in May 2023, aged twenty-six. The Sag Harbor Express reported the opening and quoted her on the buying, which she had done herself across thirty to forty labels. She had spent the better part of a year thinking about the shop before signing for the space. Her stated aim was a mix of sustainable and women-owned brands at prices below the Hamptons norm, so that a wider range of customers could buy something. The stock at opening ran from crocheted tops to pinstriped jackets, with strappy heels beside combat boots. Candles, glassware, beach towels, decorative matches, photography books filled the gaps between the racks. DeGroot told the paper she had to persuade suppliers by email that a new shop in Sag Harbor was worth shipping to. The business has since added a second Hamptons address at 2442 Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton and a third in San Francisco. Sag Harbor remains at 150 Main Street. The buying still runs to independent designers and female-founded labels, which is how the shop describes its own collection.
This downtown shop stocks both new and used books and shares its building with Angry Mom Records, a vinyl, cassette, and comics shop. Members of the PM Press book club get 20% off in-store purchases, reflecting its focus on independent and small-press titles.
A Moab bookstore on North Main Street specializing in natural history and regional titles of the Colorado Plateau, alongside used and rare finds. New books sell through its online catalog and in the store, which also hosts author events.
Founded in 1964, Bart's is the world's largest outdoor bookstore, its courtyard shelves holding over 130,000 new and used books. Open seven days a week on Matilija Street in Ojai, it welcomes everyone from rare-book hunters to beach-read seekers.
Bear Pond Books is a second-generation, family-owned bookstore covering more than 3,700 square feet inside the historic Depot Building in Stowe, Vermont, and has traded since 1970. Alongside fiction and children's books, it stocks a large selection of Vermont and New England titles, puzzles, and gift wrap, and still offers curbside pickup.
Beaverdale Books has sold new titles across all genres from its Beaver Avenue storefront in Des Moines since 2006. The shop stocks work from more than 500 local authors and runs a steady calendar of readings and events.
The Wynwood factory runs guided tastings with more than 20 chocolates and confections, from single-origin dark bars to filled pieces. Visitors can book the experience separately from buying boxes at the production shop.
Best for Miami chocolate maker producing bonbons, bars
Between the Covers is a neighbourhood bookstore at 106 E. Main in Harbor Springs, Michigan, and the official bookseller of the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book. Open daily, it hosts half a dozen local book clubs and sells new titles, audiobooks and staff picks online with shipping and curbside pickup.
Biblion Used Books & Rare Finds occupies a corner shop at Second and Market Streets in Lewes, stocking a curated mix of used, rare and antiquarian volumes alongside literary gifts, stationery and original art. The shop keeps daily hours from 11am to 5pm for browsers hunting first editions and out-of-print finds.
Best for Rare and used books, literary gifts, and antiquarian finds
Biblion is a used bookshop at 205 Second Street in Lewes, Delaware, that also sells cards and gifts, with art on the walls. The shop describes its stock as a thoughtful collection of contemporary and antiquarian books, with the literary and the quirky as its strength. The majority of books arrive from regular guests through a trade credit policy, so the shelves reflect the reading habits of the town. A very small selection of new titles covers local subjects by local authors, joined by History Book Festival titles in the lead-up to that September event. Because the collection is small and turns over quickly, the shop asks callers to phone rather than email about a specific book. Cards and gifts come from other small businesses, with boxed note cards and writing paper alongside. The walls hold original art by local artists and prints by artists from around the country. Nothing is sold online, since the owners prefer the in-person experience and point visitors to their small suppliers instead. The shop does not typically buy books for cash and directs sellers to the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. A quotation on the site calls second-hand books wild books, homeless books that come together in variegated feather.
An independently owned Gullah and Lowcountry gift store at 556 Spanish Wells Road stocking handwoven sweetgrass baskets, prints by Jonathan Green and Amiri Farris, and books on Gullah culture. The shelves also carry woven straw bags, candles and jewelry from regional and Gullah makers.
Owned by author Louise Erdrich, Birchbark Books is a Minneapolis bookstore specializing in Indigenous American writing, language, and art, with shelves 'lovingly chosen' and tended with care. Open daily on West 21st Street, it sells books, Native crafts, and gifts in the shop and online.
Best for Bookstore, Indigenous Books, Native Arts, Gifts
An independent shop in the Old Bisbee Convention Center stocking new and used books, vinyl records, and instruments such as guitars, ukuleles, and flutes alongside art supplies and games. It has been voted best or second-best specialty store in Bisbee every year since 2020.
An independent Columbus bookshop selling curated new and used titles in a relaxed reading-room setting. It leans on personal recommendations and neighborhood events.
Bluffton General Store at 12 Church Street curates Lowcountry-made gifts, candles and home decor alongside books, bath goods and specialty foods. It spotlights Bluffton Made products from local artisans, including oyster-shell crafts and hand-painted canvas.
Books Are Magic is the independent bookstore opened by novelist Emma Straub, stocking new fiction, children's titles and a busy calendar of author events. Its Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens shops are known for handwritten staff recommendations.
Best for Handwritten staff recommendations and author events at novelist Emma Straub's bookstore
Books & Books is an independent, locally-owned bookstore owned by Mitchell Kaplan for over 40 years, with its original flagship store on Aragon Avenue in Coral Gables. The shop stocks new and signed titles, runs an on-site café, and hosts regular author events and readings.
Best for New and signed books, café stops and author readings
Family-run since Margot and her daughters took over about a decade ago, BookWorks pairs 6,000-plus titles with a Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co. coffee bar near Lover's Point. It's been voted Pacific Grove's Best Bookstore nearly every year since 2015.
Best for Coffee bar near Lover's Point
Since 1980, BookWorks has anchored Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove, a few blocks from Lover's Point Beach. Roughly a dozen years ago, three women — Margot and her daughters — took over the shop, folding a coffee counter into the stacks and turning it into the combination bookstore and cafe it is today. The shelves hold more than 6,000 titles, weighted toward new releases, bestsellers, and children's literature, with a dedicated section on local history for browsers curious about the Monterey Peninsula. A case near the register stocks puzzles, puppets, games, and stationery alongside the books. The coffee bar pours Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co.'s organic beans and steeps Rishi's organic loose-leaf teas, giving regulars a reason to linger past the new-arrivals table. BookWorks runs its own author series, "To the Lighthouse," bringing writers in for readings and discussion, and gives wall and counter space to work by local artists. The recognition has been consistent rather than occasional: readers have named it Best Bookstore in Pacific Grove in 2015 through 2018 and again every year from 2020 through 2025, plus a 2025 nod for best bookstore for new books. For a town of this size, that's a long, unbroken run of local loyalty — the kind that comes from a shop people actually return to, not just visit once.
Boswell Book Company is a full-service independent bookstore on North Downer Avenue in Milwaukee, known for a busy calendar of in-store author events and shelves of staff recommendations. Beyond books it stocks gifts, puzzles, and its own branded merchandise, with online ordering through IndieCommerce.
Goldsmith Brady Mesch hand-forges and hand-engraves rings, necklaces, and earrings in gold and silver set with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and topaz from an Evergreen studio. Clients book a studio visit to watch traditional hand techniques and commission bespoke pieces.
Best for Hand-engraved and hand-forged custom fine jewelry
An independent fly-fishing outfitter and shop selling rods, reels, flies and apparel while booking wade and float trips on nearby waters. It operates as a locally run gear store rather than a chain outdoor retailer.
This independent bookshop at 18 North San Francisco Street sells new and curated titles and hosts author events and staff-pick shelves in downtown Flagstaff. Orders can be placed for in-store pickup or home delivery.
A fixture on Main Street in downtown Northampton, Broadside is packed with fiction, poetry, nonfiction and children's books along with cards and gifts. Titles can be ordered through its online store or browsed on the shop's crowded shelves.
Open since 2001 on Main Street, this Montana-focused new and used bookshop carries paperbacks, rare titles and audiobooks alongside toys, soaps and regional odds and ends. Rare books can be viewed by appointment in a back room, and staff will track down titles not on the shelves.
Buffalo Street Books is an independent Ithaca bookshop where browsing the shelves sits alongside a programme of literary events. Its activities connect readers with authors and local organisations, giving the shop a role beyond selling individual titles. Staff recommendations and community gatherings help readers explore unfamiliar books or return to subjects they already enjoy.
Best for Independent bookselling and literary events in Ithaca
Bunch of Grapes is an independent, locally owned bookstore at 23 Main Street in Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard, open daily. It sells books online and in-store and hosts a Martha's Vineyard author series and other events.
Best for It sells books online and in-store and hosts a Martha's Vineyard author
Burnwater Books is a locally owned Huntsville bookshop at 2211 Seminole Drive Southwest curating fiction and nonfiction centered on the poetic and philosophical sides of the human experience. The store sells online and through mobile pop-up events and lists its stock through Bookshop.org to route sales to independent booksellers.
Best for Literary fiction with a philosophical bent
This independent bookshop at 43 Front Street has anchored Greenport's village center for roughly fifty years, run today by proprietor Scott Raulsome. Its shelves lean into local subjects such as nautical history, regional cookbooks, and poetry, alongside a dedicated children's and young-adult section.
Best for Browsing a true small-town independent bookstore
This independent bookshop on Highway 12 keeps a dedicated Hatteras Bookshelf stocked with Outer Banks novels, island histories and guides to fishing local waters. Alongside the regional titles it carries maritime writing, children's books and seafood cookbooks from the Carolina coast.
Best for Regional Outer Banks books and local histories
Capitol Hill Books, at 657 C Street SE in Washington, DC, stocks three floors of used books, first editions and rare books. Its Rare Book Department in Hyattsville, Maryland, shared with sister company Bookstore Movers, catalogs over 6,000 items with an emphasis on Literature, Americana and Antiquarian material.
Caprichos Books is an independent bookstore in Snow Hill stocking new releases, local authors, and audiobooks alongside gift merchandise, with staff-curated lists like its mystery-themed Clues and Brews book club. The shop sells in person and ships online, holding items for pickup once an order is confirmed in stock.
Best for Bookstore, Independent Bookseller, Local Authors
The Computer History Museum Store sells tech-themed books, apparel, and novelty gifts like binary-code mugs and framed silicon wafers, with free in-store pickup during museum hours. Every purchase supports the nonprofit museum's mission of preserving computing history.
City Lit Books is an independent general-interest bookstore at 2523 N Kedzie in Logan Square, reopened under new ownership in 2021. The shop pairs staff-curated shelves with book clubs and author events for adults and younger readers.
Best for Independent bookselling, events and community programs
Cold Spring General Store has combined home goods and pantry provisions with apparel since 2014. Its current shop is at 66 Main Street in Cold Spring, New York, with books, bar accessories and local souvenirs also in its catalogue. The Officer's Quarter at 119 Main Street is a separate men's shop, not another address for the general store.
Best for Hudson Valley provisions, home goods and Cold Spring gifts
Cold Spring General Store opened in 2014 with an emphasis on local makers, small farms and artisans. Its current address is 66 Main Street in Cold Spring, New York. The general store should not be confused with The Officer's Quarter, the separate men's shop that the website promotes at 119 Main Street.
The offer brings together home goods, pantry provisions and apparel, with books and bar accessories also represented alongside outdoor items in the catalogue. Cold Spring souvenirs provide a more location-specific choice: the current selection includes a ceramic mug, a magnet and a cloth market bag. A local name on a product, however, is not proof that it was manufactured in the village.
Chronogram's 2020 shopping report described the business as part gift shop, part boutique and part outdoor outfitter. That remains useful background to its broad general-store format, without guaranteeing any brand or food item mentioned in the older article. Start with the purpose of the purchase: something for the pantry or the home, or a reminder of Cold Spring, rather than expecting a specialist shop devoted to one category.
Operating on Main Street since the late 1800s, this general store still rings up penny candy and groceries on original fixtures including a hand-crank cash register. Owners Troy and Beth Wilson carry sporting goods, hardware, books, gifts, beer and wine, and run the in-house Trout Rider Fly Shop selling Montana, Wyoming and Yellowstone fishing licenses.
Best for Groceries, penny candy, fly-fishing tackle and licenses
An independent bookstore in downtown Punta Gorda since 2012, Copperfish Books sells new and used titles, runs active book clubs, and gift-wraps purchases for free. The shop at 212 W. Virginia Avenue also ships books nationwide and stocks audiobooks and e-books through its website.
Crow Bookshop sells used books alongside new titles and publishers' remainders on Burlington's Church Street Marketplace. Keith Terwillegar started the shop in 1995, and its stock covers subjects from art history to zoology. Readers can look for staff selections as well as secondhand finds at the Church Street shop.
Best for Used books and publishers' remainders in Burlington
Crow Haven Corner is a Salem witch shop, carrying magical supplies, occult books, herbs, crystals and spell kits. Resident readers also offer psychic readings.
The nonprofit Outer Banks Conservationists steward the 1875 red-brick Currituck Beach Lighthouse, which visitors climb up 220 steps beside the Whalehead estate. A museum shop at the base sells lighthouse-themed books and gifts, with admissions funding the tower's ongoing restoration.
Best for Heritage lighthouse climb and museum shop
Set in an 1898 island home shaded by live oaks, Books to be Red is Ocracoke's independent bookstore paired with Deepwater Pottery, offering curated titles alongside locally made pottery and handmade gifts. Shoppers can visit the School Road store or order books through the shop's Bookshop.org page.
Best for Bookstore, pottery, handmade gifts, local craft, gift shop
Housed in a 1921 hunting cottage on Currituck Sound, Duck's Cottage has sold coffee and Outer Banks books since 2002. Jamie Anderson, who ran the bookstore from day one, bought the shop from co-founder Allen LeHew in 2023.
Best for Coffee and Outer Banks books inside a 1921 former hunting cottage
Duck's Cottage occupies a building that dates to 1921, when New York investors built it as the Powder Ridge Gun Club — a hunting cottage that remains, by the shop's own account, the only hunt club ever built in the town of Duck, and one of its oldest surviving structures. The original layout held three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen with an attached porch, a shared living-dining room and a screened front porch, plus outbuildings for guides and a boathouse. Its last private resident, known locally as 'Duck' Braithwaite, became a local fixture for sunset gatherings on the property with his wife, Betty.
In 2002, childhood friends John Power and Allen LeHew converted the cottage into a coffee-and-bookshop, bringing in Jamie Anderson to run the book side from the start. LeHew ran the espresso machine for nearly two decades before retiring to the mountains and selling the business to Anderson in 2023 — a handoff that kept the shop within its founding circle rather than passing to an outside buyer.
Today the shop, at 1240 Duck Road in the Waterfront Shops on Currituck Sound, pairs a curated stock of bestsellers and Outer Banks-specific titles with coffee poured by a barista staff whose combined experience the shop puts at more than 114 years — depth unusual for a shop of its size.
Dudley's has sold books over coffee on NW Minnesota Avenue in downtown Bend for more than fifty years, since 1973. The two-floor shop pairs new and used titles with a cafe, keeping the feel of an independent neighbourhood bookstore.
This Main Street shop stocks new fiction, island histories and children's titles, and will order in whatever it doesn't have on the shelf for in-store pickup. Staff recommendations and a steady run of author events keep it tied to the year-round Vineyard reading community.
Eureka Books sells new books alongside used and rare editions in Old Town Eureka. Its shop on Second Street has traded since 1987, with a catalogue that also includes collectible books and prints or maps. Browse the online subjects before visiting if you are searching for a particular field or an older edition.
Best for New and collectible books in Old Town Eureka
Set in a historic Victorian house with a bistro upstairs, Explore has sold curated books and hosted author events since 1975. It has long been part of Aspen's cultural life.
Five Little Monkeys is a Bay Area toy and gift store with a Pleasanton location on Main Street, selling creative toys, books, games, and novelty items with free gift wrapping. The Pleasanton shop also hosts in-store craft classes and sells its inventory online with nationwide shipping.
Friends Book Store is a nonprofit used bookstore in the Casa Del Sol Shopping Center in Pleasant Hill, selling books, CDs, vinyl records, and board games with proceeds supporting the Pleasant Hill and Contra Costa County libraries. The store is open daily and also sells inventory through its online shop.
Glottman runs three connected businesses from one Wynwood Art District address: a design showroom, an architectural studio, and a retail shop. The shop stocks books, jewelry, gifts and home accessories.
Best for Books, jewelry, gifts and home accessories
Glottman operates out of Miami's Wynwood Art District, at 2213 NW 2nd Avenue, structured as three connected businesses under one name. The showroom carries lighting, doors, textiles, furniture, and accessories aimed at design-forward homes; the studio arm works on architectural, interior, and lighting design projects directly; and a separate retail shop stocks gifts, home accessories, jewelry, and books for browsing without a design commission attached. That structure — showroom, studio, and shop under a single Wynwood address — is what separates Glottman from a typical design boutique: a customer can walk in for a Taschen coffee-table book or a piece of jewelry, or commission full interior or lighting design work, without leaving the building. Its location inside Wynwood, a neighborhood built around galleries and design-oriented retail, also places it within Miami's broader design and art scene rather than a standard shopping district. For a shopper comparing Miami design shops, the combination of retail, showroom, and in-house design services in one Wynwood space is the distinguishing structure, positioning Glottman closer to a design house with a public storefront than a conventional home-goods retailer.
Gramercy Books is an independent bookshop in Bexley founded by author Linda Kass. The shop's programme includes conversations with writers and book discussions alongside its selection for readers. Checking its event listings can help you combine a book-buying visit with a talk that interests you.
Best for Independent bookselling and author events in Bexley
Harmony Glassworks combines a contemporary glass gallery with a working glassblowing studio in Harmony, on California's Central Coast. Glassblower and instructor Eric Dandurand founded the business in 2007, bringing his own work together with pieces by other artists. Visitors can browse the gallery or arrange a glassblowing class, with the studio located on Old Creamery Road.
Best for Contemporary glass art and bookable glassblowing classes
HearthFire is an independently owned bookstore on Evergreen Parkway that pairs a curated selection of titles with locally made, sustainably sourced art and other goods. It serves readers across the Evergreen mountain community west of Denver.
This North Main Street bookshop stocks new fiction, regional history, and children's titles, anchoring a town that pulls weekenders from across Litchfield County. Author readings and signings keep the front tables turning over, and staff picks lean toward books with a strong sense of place.
Best for Independent new-book selection and author events
Hudson Beach Glass runs a glass gallery and glassblowing studio in Beacon, NY, selling blown-glass wine glasses, animal figurines, bracelets, tableware, and barware. It also offers bookable make-your-own glassblowing experiences.
Best for Blown glass tableware and glassblowing workshops
Irons One Distillery hand-crafts small-batch whiskey at 2211 Seminole Drive, Studio 2061, in Huntsville, and describes itself as the source of Alabama's first bourbon. Visitors can book private or standard tours to see the still and sample spirits made to drink neat, on the rocks, or with a dash of water.
Best for Small-batch Alabama bourbon and whiskey tours
Island Bookstore's Corolla branch occupies a two-storey building near Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Historic Corolla Village. The independent bookseller carries general reading and local-interest titles, alongside books about travel and other subjects. This branch offers two floors to browse, while the wider business also operates elsewhere on the Outer Banks.
Best for General reading and Outer Banks books in Corolla
Island Bookstore's Corolla branch occupies a two-storey building in Historic Corolla Village, close to Currituck Beach Lighthouse. The building was designed on the footprint of an earlier general store, recalling that structure without being the original shop itself. Its position beside Historic Corolla Chapel places it within the village rather than along a generic shopping strip.
Inside, the bookseller offers general reading as well as titles connected to the surrounding Outer Banks. Fiction and local-interest books sit within a broader range that extends to travel and practical subjects. Two floors give the Corolla branch space for browsing beyond a single display of holiday reading.
The company also operates at other Outer Banks locations, so the Corolla address matters when planning a visit. A report about a different branch should not be read as a description of this building. For someone staying nearby, the useful distinction is between choosing a book about the area and finding something unrelated to read during the trip. The general bookshop format allows either approach within the same visit.
Run by the same couple who opened it in 1975, this Broadway shop hand-selects books with real depth in art, architecture, photography, cookery, and antiquarian titles. The stock is curated rather than comprehensive, favoring quality over volume.
Housed inside Taller Puertorriqueño at 2600 N. 5th Street, this bilingual bookstore is, by its own account, the only one of its kind in Philadelphia specializing in Puerto Rican culture while carrying literature and art from across Latin America.
Best for Bilingual Puerto Rican books in Philadelphia
Julia de Burgos Bookstore operates inside Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia's Puerto Rican and Latino cultural arts organization, at its home on North 5th Street in the Fairhill/North Philadelphia area known locally as El Centro de Oro. Named for the Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos, the shop describes itself as the only bookstore of its kind in the city — bilingual, and built around Puerto Rican culture specifically while stocking literature and materials from across Latin America.
Shelves mix English- and Spanish-language books with merchandise made by local artists and artisans, giving the space a role beyond retail: a showcase for community makers alongside a source for books that are hard to find in mainstream Philadelphia stores. It functions as an extension of Taller Puertorriqueño's broader mission — proceeds from sales go directly back into the organization's after-school programs, youth artist initiatives and community events, so a purchase here supports the same cultural center that houses the shop.
For visitors, it's a chance to combine browsing with a look at Taller Puertorriqueño's gallery and programming, in a shop that treats bookselling as part of a wider community cultural mission rather than a stand-alone business.
At the corner of Alejo and Palm Canyon since 2007, Just Fabulous stocks home decor, candles, greeting cards, art books and gifts across two boutiques. Shoppers find Assouline, Nest and Taschen titles plus Palm Springs souvenirs in-store and online.
Design studio and shop screen-printing tees, sweatshirts, and mugs that celebrate Appalachia and West Virginia, alongside hand-picked jewelry, books, and home goods. Much of its apparel and prints are made in house at the Tennessee Avenue store.
Komoda is a neighborhood gift shop at 2448 W Chicago Avenue with an eclectic, practical edit rather than a single design category. Shelves run from candles and incense to cards, books, puzzles and small gifts.
Best for Gifts, soaps, incense, tools, toys and small design objects
Left Bank Books is a longtime independent bookstore on North Euclid Avenue, running a busy calendar of author events and book clubs alongside its curated new-release and staff-pick shelves. The store sells both in-person and through its own e-commerce site, with audiobooks, gift certificates, and signed editions available online.
Legends Bookstore is Cody's independent bookshop, stocking regional guides to Yellowstone and the Tetons, Western fiction including Craig Johnson's Longmire novels, plus puzzles and children's books. The Sheridan Avenue store curates a strong local-interest shelf and hosts author events.
Leiper’s Fork Distillery makes Tennessee whiskey and bourbon in small batches, with tours and tastings at its village site. Bottle sales are the genuine retail component, while advance booking may be needed.
Best for Small-batch Tennessee whiskey and bourbon from the village of Leipers Fork
Lemuria Books has run as an independent bookshop in Jackson since founder John Evans opened it in 1975, building a reputation around Southern literature, signed first editions, and author events. The shop now occupies its longtime Banner Hall space and remains tied to Jackson's literary community, including ties to the Eudora Welty House.
Best for Signed first editions and Southern literature
Lemuria Books is an independent bookstore in Jackson, Mississippi, opened by John Evans in 1975 in a converted apartment in The Quarter on Lakeland Drive. Two years later it moved to Highland Village along the I-55 North frontage road, where it stayed for eleven years. In 1988 it crossed the interstate into Banner Hall, where it remains. The shop specialises in signed first editions, and its First Edition Club has run for more than 25 years. New hardbacks and paperbacks fill the main rooms and a children's section called OZ has its own space. Genres run from gardening to Zen and from history to music. The store's focus is literary fiction, with an emphasis on Southern writers. Half a century of signings has built relationships with authors, above all Jackson native Eudora Welty. Willie Morris, Barry Hannah, Ellen Gilchrist and Jim Harrison have read here. So have Richard Ford, Larry Brown, John Grisham, Greg Iles, Jesmyn Ward and Angie Thomas. Evans describes small business as a matter of adding value and taking part in the community. That means bringing in writers the staff love and supporting the writers Mississippi already has. Lemuria marked its 50th birthday on April 11, 2026, an anniversary reported by SuperTalk Mississippi, which called it one of the state's first independent bookstores.
Lenox Coffee serves from a converted house with a porch on Main Street in downtown Lenox, open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. It's a walk-in coffee shop pouring locally roasted beans and tea on the same Main Street stretch as the town's independent bookshop and galleries, and has been named among the Berkshires' best coffee houses in the regional 'Cross County Latte-Guide.'
Best for Locally roasted coffee and tea served from a quaint house
Lenox Coffee operates from Main Street in downtown Lenox, Massachusetts, open every day from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The shop is housed in what local write-ups describe as 'a quaint house with a porch' -- a residential-scale building rather than a purpose-built retail storefront, with outdoor seating on that porch for guests who want to sit outside. The drink program is built on locally roasted beans rather than a national wholesale brand, paired with a tea selection for non-coffee drinkers. Lenox Coffee has been singled out in the Berkshires' 'Cross County Latte-Guide,' a regional resource that tracks the area's best coffee houses, placing it among the handful of shops locals point to when asked where to get a serious cup in town. Its Main Street address puts it on the same walkable stretch as the town's independent bookshop and galleries, making it a natural stop for visitors touring the historic district on foot. It suits anyone wanting a straightforward, well-sourced daily coffee or tea in a low-key, porch-seating setting rather than a large-format cafe with an extensive food menu -- a neighborhood coffee stop that leans on its building's character as much as its drink list.
A cooperatively owned independent bookstore in downtown Durham carrying fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children's books, and graphic novels. Located at 116 W Main Street, it frames itself as a downtown gathering space run by neighbors and fellow readers.
A Newport Beach fixture for over 40 years, Lido Village Books is a community bookstore on Via Lido. It hosts storytimes and events and sells books in the shop and through its online store.
Loganberry Books is an independent bookstore on Larchmere Boulevard, with new and used books alongside rare editions. Harriett Logan founded it in 1994, and the collection has particular strengths in illustrated books and women's history. Readers and collectors can also browse literature and books on the arts, with discussion groups and gallery shows forming part of the shop's programme.
Best for New, used and rare books on Larchmere Boulevard
Loganberry Books gives readers room to move between ordinary reading copies and more collectible editions. New and used books share the shop with rare material, and the selection has particular strengths in illustrated books, women's history and literature. Books on the fine and performing arts broaden the reasons to browse beyond a search for a particular novel.
Harriett Logan established the business in November 1994. It originally shared premises with an Oriental rug dealer, expanded into an adjacent space, and moved into its own building in 2003. The name comes from Logan's collegiate nickname, a detail that reflects the personal history behind the independent shop.
Its Larchmere Boulevard setting places it among other small shops and galleries. Inside, visitors can browse across subject areas or ask about an edition they are trying to find. Discussion groups and exhibitions in the annex gallery add other uses for the space. Check the current programme before making a visit around an event, rather than assuming that every activity happens daily.
On Bay Street for more than 25 years, this downtown Beaufort boutique stocks gifts, jewelry, accessories and clothing. Cards, books, candles and home goods round out the shelves.
M. Judson Booksellers occupies the historic courthouse building in downtown Greenville, South Carolina. Its shelves combine current books and classics with a selection of gifts for readers. Booksellers provide recommendations, and the café gives visitors somewhere to pause with coffee.
Best for Bookseller recommendations and café browsing in Greenville
M. Judson Booksellers occupies the historic courthouse building in downtown Greenville, South Carolina, stocking bestsellers, poetry, Southern literature, cookbooks and gifts sourced from around the Upstate. Its in-house café, The Kitchen, serves coffee, wine and food to browsing customers — a name the store ties to its own namesake, patron Mary Camilla Judson. The calendar runs well past a typical reading series: recurring book clubs, author events branded Books Over Drinks and Pop-Up Author sessions, trivia nights, a standing Reading Challenge, and an annual Reading Retreat. The store partners with the literacy nonprofit Writeshare and runs programs aimed at schools and educators, alongside bulk ordering for businesses. A second location operates in Fountain Inn, extending the store beyond its original courthouse address at 130 South Main Street. Hours stretch late on weekends — open until nine on Fridays and Saturdays — keeping the café and events calendar running well past a typical bookstore's close. No founding year is published on the site; what's documented instead is the building's second life as a bookstore and the namesake behind its café.
An independent bookshop on neighboring Sanibel Island stocking new titles, local and nature writing, and paper goods and stationery. It serves the paired Sanibel and Captiva islands as their community bookstore.
Run by florist Maggie on North Street in Onancock, Magpie's Garden focuses on wedding florals, custom holiday arrangements and public and private flower workshops. The by-appointment studio books events across Virginia's Eastern Shore and sells seasonal arrangements through its online shop.
Best for Florist, floral studio, wedding flowers, flower workshops
A locally owned independent bookstore on Main Avenue since 1984, offering a broad selection of new titles and regular community events. The shop operates from its downtown Durango storefront alongside an active online store.
Marshall & Rose is a Chattanooga maker of literary-themed jewelry, designing pieces inspired by books and reading. The small studio brand sells its bookish designs online and through local markets and shops.
For more than 30 years this Lafayette workshop has hand-built single-row diatonic accordions for Cajun and zydeco musicians, alongside repairing older instruments brought in from around the region. Visitors can book a shop tour to watch the reeds, bellows and wood casings assembled by hand.
Avant-garde concept boutique founded 1969 by Tommy Perse as 'Maxfield Bleu' next to the Troubadour club; an early US stockist of Comme des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto. Now on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, carrying Rick Owens, Bottega Veneta and Alaia alongside art books and rare objects.
Best for Avant-garde fashion, art books and design objects
Maxfield opened in 1969 under the name Maxfield Bleu, founded by Tommy Perse next door to the Troubadour music club in West Hollywood, and quickly became known for dressing musicians and artists and for theatrical window displays involving coffins and hanging mannequins. In the mid-1970s the store was among the first in the US to carry European and Japanese designers such as Armani, Comme des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto. In 1985 it moved into an all-concrete industrial building at 8825 Melrose Avenue, staging its collections in a gallery-like space anchored by giant Moai-style sculptures. Today Maxfield continues under Perse's direction as a tightly curated multi-brand boutique carrying designers including Rick Owens, Bottega Veneta, Alaia, Jacques Marie Mage and Bibi van der Velden, alongside rare books, home objects, fragrance and its own 'Maxfield Exclusives' capsule line.
Founded in Memphis in 2019, this specialty coffee roaster blends Arabica beans into Beale Street, Rock N' Roll and Mighty Mississippi roasts. Sold online with merch and gifts, every purchase funds books for local elementary students through its 901 Fund.
Best for Beale Street, Rock N' Roll, and Mighty Mississippi coffee roasts
Mitchell's Book Corner is a long-running independent bookstore on Nantucket. Its titles can be browsed at the shop or ordered through its online store.
Best for A long-running independent bookstore on Nantucket, browsed in-store or ordered online
Moccasin Mountain Art & Gifts has operated from 406 West Main Street in Lewistown since 2009, curating Made-in-Montana art, bronzes and jewelry from Montana artists and craftsmen. The gallery carries Yogo sapphires alongside western and wildlife art, custom framing, and locally made toys, books and gifts.
Best for Montana-made western art, bronzes, and Yogo sapphire jewelry
Moccasin Mountain Art & Gifts operates at 406 West Main Street in Lewistown, Montana. The business describes more than twenty years in the downtown community, making continuity at that address part of its identity. Its selection is explicitly tied to Montana artists and craftspeople rather than presented as undifferentiated Western decor. The first-party account names authentic Made-in-Montana art and jewellery, as well as gifts, as the core of the shop. Yogo sapphires form a distinct local speciality within that range, while custom framing gives the gallery a service beyond retail display. The owners also describe themselves as Montana residents, linking their buying choices to the landscape and makers around them. This matters because the store's value is not simply a mountain theme. It provides a route into work whose place of production can be connected to Montana. The Main Street setting, long local tenure and focus on state-made objects give ORBIS three firm anchors for the entry: location, continuity and maker geography.
This Morro Bay yarn shop stocks fibre by weight and by brand, from Malabrigo and Sandnes Garn to needles, notions, sashiko supplies and craft books. Alongside the online store it runs classes and events for knitters, crocheters and menders.
Nantucket Bookworks is an independent bookstore on Nantucket carrying a curated selection of books. Its titles are available in the shop and through its online store.
Best for A curated book selection on Nantucket, browsed in-store or online
North Bay Letterpress Arts in Sebastopol is a center for teaching and practicing letterpress printing, housing 9 printing presses, over 200 typefaces and more than 1,000 cuts and ornaments. The organization has produced 243 books and offered 221 workshops to date, with 15 active studio printers among its members.
Best for Letterpress printing studio and workshops
A women-owned, curated independent bookstore in downtown Sturgeon Bay selling both in-store and online with shipping or pickup. The shop leans on hand-picked titles rather than a warehouse-scale catalog.
Artist Susan Marte runs Ocean Oracle Designs from her Block Island studio, where she created a 45-card ocean-themed oracle deck with a 32-page booklet, alongside monoprints, lino prints, giclee island photography, and printed tea towels and pillows.
Best for 32-page booklet, alongside monoprints, lino prints, giclee island photography
Susan Marte spent 27 years living in Australia before moving to Block Island, Rhode Island, in March 2022, the same island where her Ocean Oracle project first began. The Ocean Oracle is a 45-card deck paired with a 32-page interpretation booklet, built around calm, natural photography (much of it shot on Block Island) layered with numbers, messages and meanings meant to support reflection rather than fortune-telling in the traditional sense; Marte describes the cards as tools for 'Remembrance' of a deeper sense of self.
Beyond the deck, her studio work spans monoprints and lino prints, she calls the lino-cutting process 'meditative and fun', plus acrylic and watercolor pieces, giclee prints of island landscapes captured in early morning and evening light, and functional goods like pillows and tea towels printed with her designs. Her stated approach favors minimal image manipulation, keeping the photography close to what the camera actually captured rather than heavily edited. The combination of a self-published divination deck and a working printmaking practice, both rooted in the same stretch of Rhode Island coastline, gives Ocean Oracle Designs a narrower, more personal footprint than a typical souvenir or gift shop.
OffBeat sells vinyl records and comic books from a storefront on North State Street in downtown Jackson, run by owner Phillip Rollins. The shop is a fixture referenced in local guides to Jackson's independent record-store and comics history.
Ohio Book Store began in 1940 and moved to its present Cincinnati address at 726 Main Street in 1961. Books and magazines occupy five floors including the basement, with an enquiry service for specific titles. Its binding department also handles repairs and restoration, on a separate schedule from the shop.
Best for Used books and bookbinding repairs
Ohio Book Store has occupied its present Main Street building in Cincinnati since 1961, although the business itself began in 1940. James Hardwick founded it at a different Main Street address, and James Fallon later bought the business after first joining as an employee. The current premises provide five floors including the basement, giving a browsing visit a different scale from a small specialist bookshop. Books and magazines cover many subjects, and the store also offers an inventory search or enquiry for a particular title. Its bindery adds a practical service for readers who already own the book they need: repair and restoration, as well as custom binding. Those services have their own working hours, which differ from the shop's weekend schedule. A buyer looking for a particular edition can enquire before arriving, while someone bringing a damaged volume should contact the repair department about the work required. The combination makes this both a place to find books and somewhere to seek help preserving them.
A friendly used bookstore on Alvarado Street in downtown Monterey, stocking fiction, poetry, children's books and non-fiction. It hosts reading groups, poetry workshops and author signings, and lists titles through an online catalogue.
Run by William Chrisant & Sons since 1978, Old Florida Book Shop deals in rare books, antique maps and vintage magazines from its Griffin Road location in Fort Lauderdale. A member of the ABAA and ILAB, it buys and sells books and lets you browse hundreds of subject categories online.
Orinda Books is an independent bookstore at Village Square in Orinda stocking fiction, nonfiction and children's titles, with book subscriptions, gift cards and a busy calendar of author talks and book clubs. Customers can browse and order through its online storefront or shop in person six days a week.
Best for Bookstore, independent books, children's books, gift cards
Charlotte's independent general bookstore in the Park Road Shopping Center, with staff picks spanning fiction, children's titles, and regional authors. It hosts frequent author signings and community reading events.
Best for Staff picks spanning fiction, children's titles, and regional authors
Park Road Books has been Charlotte's independent general bookstore since 1977, trading from the Park Road Shopping Center at 4139 Park Road. Owner Sally Brewster runs a full-service shop that deals in new books only and does not buy or sell used copies. Titles come in directly from publishers, and the shop describes itself as Charlotte's only independent full-service bookstore. Fiction and nonfiction fill the shelves, with children's titles beside audiobooks and merchandise. Author signings are a fixture, and the guest list over the years has included David Sedaris and John Grisham. Local book clubs meet in the store, and the calendar carries poetry readings and story times through the seasons. Comfortable chairs and sofas invite customers to sample a book before buying. Park Road Books is a frequent recipient of Creative Loafing's Readers' Pick award. The Charlotte Ledger reported in 2020 that the shop shifted to mail delivery during the pandemic, relying on the postal service's media rate for online orders, and that customers turned to what Brewster called comfort reading. Staff recommendations remain the shop's daily trade. The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation has featured Brewster's reading list, noting that she reads Charlotte-based authors before their books reach the shelves.
Peach Street Books in Cape Charles, Virginia sells used titles at half retail or less alongside coffee from Eastern Shore Coastal Roasters. New releases picked by local book clubs get storewide discounts too.
Best for Peach Street Books in Cape Charles
Peach Street Books runs out of 401 Mason Avenue in Cape Charles, Virginia, stocking thousands of new and gently used titles across categories running from beach reads and classics to YA, sci-fi, modern fiction, nature guides and a notably large collection of historical nonfiction for a shop this size. Used books are priced at half the current retail price or less, a specific, stated discount rather than a vague "discounted" label, and new titles selected by local book clubs get a discount extended to all customers, not just club members. The cafe side pours coffee from Eastern Shore Coastal Roasters, a named regional roaster rather than a generic house blend. One small operational detail stands out: the shop lists no phone number, directing customers to reach it through Facebook messaging instead, a distinctly small-town, low-overhead way of running a bookstore. Between the named local roaster, the specific half-price used-book policy, and the book-club discount program open to all customers, Peach Street reads as a shop with concrete, verifiable habits rather than boilerplate independent-bookstore description.
Pelican Bookstore has served the coastal community of Sunset Beach, North Carolina, for 27 years from its shop at 1780 Chandlers Lane, stocking new and used books, puzzles, and coastal-themed gifts. The store regularly hosts author signings and events, including several scheduled for summer 2026.
Best for New and used books, puzzles, coastal-themed gifts
Phoenix Books is a locally owned independent bookseller whose Burlington shop hosts author events and stocks a broad general trade list. It runs on community membership and a sister store in Essex.
An art co-op, gallery, and workshop space at 426 Third Street selling handmade jewelry, ceramics, woodwork, paintings, photography, books, and zines by a dozen or more local artists. It also runs classes in clay, jewelry, fiber arts, printmaking, and collage, with open-studio access for members.
An independent children's bookshop built for young readers and the grownups who bring them, stocking picture books and middle-grade titles alongside toys and games. It rounds out the shop with art classes and mosaic-making sessions on site.
Plain Talk Books & Coffee is an East Village bookstore and cafe serving deli and vegan sandwiches on house-baked bread alongside small-batch local coffee. The shop hosts live music and author events on East Grand Avenue.
Best for New and used books with deli and coffee bar
Plain Talk Books & Coffee has anchored Des Moines' East Village since 2009, when it opened in a building whose printing-press history it wears on its sleeve. The shop takes its name from Plain Talk, a Des Moines newspaper once produced by Plain Talk Publishing Company on the same block; its logo is redrawn from a cartoon found in the paper's own archives, paired with a line from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream about the power of writers to give shape to the intangible. The building's earlier tenant, Hammer Pharmacy, left its own mark: Plain Talk's lunch counter is modeled on the pharmacy's soda fountain and named "Al and Lew's," after Alvin G. Hammer and Lewis G. Hast, proprietors of neighboring shops from that era. A ghost sign advertising "Alvin G. Hammer, Druggist" is still visible on the building's west facade. Inside, new and used books share space with an espresso bar, deli sandwiches built on house-baked bread, and locally roasted coffee. The East Grand Avenue shop doubles as a neighborhood gathering spot, hosting live music and author events that keep the East Village's small-press and pharmacy-row history in circulation rather than behind glass.
Porter Square Books sells books, audiobooks, and merchandise from locations in Cambridge and Boston, each paired with a cafe, Page and Leaf Cafe and Travel Mug Cafe. The shop hosts author events and book clubs, including Sci-Fi/Fantasy, YA, and Reading Romance groups, and partners with Libro.fm for audiobooks.
An independent bookshop in the Short North stocking a hand-picked selection of new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A small, considered inventory and staff recommendations shape the shelves.
Quail Ridge Books is an independent bookstore in Raleigh's North Hills neighborhood that hosts frequent author events alongside a full retail floor of new releases, staff picks and signed editions. Customers can shop in person or order online with free media mail shipping on orders over $75.
Best for New releases, staff picks, signed books and author events
A general used bookseller that buys, sells and trades across nearly every subject, with deep sections in science fiction, mystery, literature, art and children's titles. The Campbell shop is the western branch of the San Jose store that has dealt secondhand books on The Alameda for decades.
Rediscovered Books is an independent Boise bookshop with staff recommendations and a programme of reading groups and author events. Its current store is in the Linen District at the corner of 16th and Grove. The business also operates Once and Future Books on State Street, a separate shop for used books.
Best for Staff-selected books and literary events in Boise
Founded in 1886, Sherman's is a Maine bookseller, and this Main Street branch pairs its shelves with stationery and Maine-made gifts. The Bar Harbor store keeps the independent bookshop tradition alive on Mount Desert Island.
Six & Twenty Distillery has a tasting room at Poe West in Greenville. Visitors can explore the producer's spirits through tastings, with tours offering another way to learn about the distillery. Check the distillery's booking information before making a dedicated trip for a tour.
Best for Distillery tastings at Poe West in Greenville
Founded in 1974 near the University of Oregon, Smith Family keeps two locations and roughly half a million used and new books across hundreds of subjects. The Alder Street shop serves the campus while the downtown Willamette Street branch draws general readers.
Housed in a remodeled 1950s Texaco station in Princess Anne, Somerset Choice Station sells glassware, antiquarian books, vintage clothing, and salvaged architectural pieces on consignment. The nonprofit shop is open Monday through Saturday and channels proceeds back into its charitable mission.
An independent bookshop on Main Street with a curated stock of new fiction, nonfiction and children's titles. It runs author events and reading programming and is a member of regional independent-bookseller associations.
Best for New fiction, nonfiction, and children's titles with author events on Main Street
Storyhouse Bookpub is an independent bookstore on East Grand Avenue in Des Moines' East Village. It curates new titles and hosts community gatherings from its storefront.
This Main Street bookshop stocks new fiction and nonfiction alongside regional titles about the barrier islands, sharing its floor with racks of music and work by local artists. The owners host frequent author signings, clustering several during the July Pony Swim week when the island fills with visitors.
Best for Regional books, local author signings, music and art
Symposium Books is an independent bookstore on Westminster Street in downtown Providence, stocking new, used, and bargain titles alongside merchandise like tote bags and gift cards. The shop hosts regular author events and book clubs and sells online with free shipping over $45.
Taylor Books combines an independent bookshop and café on Capitol Street in Charleston, West Virginia. Books and magazines share the shop with cards, while the Annex Gallery presents contemporary art and handmade work. The business also offers art classes through its studio programme.
Best for Books, coffee and a craft gallery in Charleston
Taylor Books was opened by Ann Saville in 1995 on Capitol Street in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. It has become one of the fixtures the city measures itself by. It is at once an independent bookshop and a coffee shop, with a cafe and an art gallery inside the same building, and the combination reads as designed rather than accumulated.
The bookshop carries a broad general selection. The part regulars rate is the magazine rack, a wide range of hard-to-find titles, alongside a collection of cards and gifts chosen with the same eye.
The Annex is where it stops being only a bookshop. The Annex Gallery shows local contemporary art and handmade craft, and the Annex Studios run classes.
The building therefore supports the people making work as well as selling it, which is rarer than it sounds for a shop this size. The cafe does scones and coffee and plainly expects you to sit down with them. The magazines bring people in and whatever is hanging in the Annex tends to keep them there.
The Alamo Store is the official shop of The Alamo, the 18th-century Spanish mission and Texas heritage site in San Antonio. It sells Texas history books, Alamo-branded goods and locally themed gifts that benefit the site's preservation.
The Avid Reader is an independent Davis bookshop that opened under that name in 1987. It trades at 617 Second Street, where local reporting also documents an author-event programme. A 2025 Davis Enterprise profile identifies Erin and Brett Arnold as its owners.
Best for Books and author events in Davis
The Avid Reader opened under that name in Davis on January 5, 1987. A Davis Enterprise history explains that Alzada Knickerbocker bought Orpheus Books on E Street and renamed the business. The shop later moved to 617 Second Street, the address also given in the newspaper’s 2025 profile. That later report identifies Erin and Brett Arnold as owners, so the founder’s story should not be mistaken for a current ownership claim. Books remain the reason to visit, with author appearances forming part of the shop’s documented programme. The 2025 coverage describes visits by writers including Karen Joy Fowler and Mac Barnett during the preceding year. Those appearances are history, not an event schedule for a future trip. The two reports together show a neighbourhood bookseller with a changing programme rather than a fixed literary attraction. Before travelling for a particular author or title, confirm the current event listing or availability with the shop. The newspaper’s readers’ award records a specific vote, not a universal ranking of bookshops.
Set in a historic downtown building on Centre Street, this independent Fernandina Beach bookstore curates fiction, local-interest reads and children's titles. Author events and signings keep the shelves close to the community.
Best for Independent bookshop, local-interest titles, book signings
The Bookloft has sold new books in Great Barrington since 1974, with a staff known for wide reading across genres and hands-on recommendations. The independent shop hosts author events and ships titles from its own online store.
Matt Tannenbaum has run The Bookstore on Housatonic Street in Lenox since 1976, a warmly cluttered independent that has anchored the town for over four decades and inspired the documentary Hello, Bookstore. It shares its rooms with the Shade Gallery and Get Lit, a wine bar where customers browse with a glass in hand.
Open since 2017 at 1524 North Harrison Street in Davenport, The Brewed Book pairs a used bookstore with a coffee and Italian-soda bar. It hosts weekly role-playing game nights on Thursdays and console game nights on Fridays.
Best for Coffee, used books and tabletop gaming nights since 2017
The Brewed Book is a father-and-son business: Tony Fuhs and his son Trevor bought a vacant building at 1524 North Harrison Street in Davenport's Hilltop Campus Village and spent nearly two years and a considerable amount of their own money bringing it back to life before opening in 2017. The idea, Trevor's originally, was to combine three things in one space rather than choosing between them — a coffee shop, a used bookstore and a spot for tabletop gaming — because the neighborhood didn't have anywhere that functioned as a hangout. That combination still defines the place: an espresso and Italian-soda bar sits alongside shelves of used and new books, with regular role-playing game nights on Thursdays and console game nights on Fridays filling the space after hours. The Fuhs family has also made a point of supporting Quad Cities authors directly — buying local writers' books for the shelves, giving them physical display space, and hosting reading events rather than treating the bookstore side as just inventory to sell through. It's a small, deliberately mixed-use model built by two people fixing up one empty storefront rather than a chain concept dropped into a college neighborhood.
The Cauldron Black deals in traditional witchcraft supplies, from botanical and folklore books to divination tools and hand-made poppets. Spiritual consultations round out what the Wharf Street shop offers.
Best for Occult books and traditional witchcraft supplies
Goods & Curiosities is the Griswold Inn's own store at 47 Main Street in Essex, Connecticut, directly across from the Main Inn. It stocks Gris-branded merchandise alongside hand-crafted and Connecticut-made products. Limited edition prints from the Inn's art collection sit with home goods and books. Toys and artisan jewelry share space with specialty foods, and the Inn is marking 250 years of hospitality.
Best for Heritage inn goods and Connecticut-made provisions
The Griswold Inn Store, trading as Goods & Curiosities, stands at 47 Main Street in Essex, Connecticut. It sits directly across the street from the Main Inn and works as the Inn's retail arm. The stock draws on the Inn and on New England more broadly. It reaches from Early American and maritime heritage to Connecticut living and entertaining today. Gris-branded merchandise sits alongside hand-crafted and Connecticut-made products. The shelves also hold limited edition prints from the Inn's art collection as well as home goods and select books. There are toys and artisan jewelry too, and a case of specialty foods. The Inn is marking 250 years of history and hospitality, and the store carries apparel made for the anniversary. The online shop offers the Gris-branded products together with a small sampling of other goods from the shop. Those were added at the request of customers and guests who live farther afield. Nothing online replaces a visit, the shop says, since there is nothing like the real thing. The store sums up its own mix in three words: traditional, whimsical, contemporary.
A full-service Door County bookstore on Main Street in Fish Creek, billing itself as your peninsula bookshop. It ran a second Sister Bay branch until 2021 and now trades from its single Fish Creek storefront.
Retail arm of the Preservation Society of Charleston, the country's oldest community-based historic preservation organization, founded in 1920. It stocks Charleston-made prints, books, textiles, and the annual commemorative Christmas ornament, with proceeds funding advocacy for the city's historic buildings.
The Regulator Bookshop has sold new books at 720 Ninth Street in Durham since 1976, two blocks from Duke University. Tom Campbell and Aden Field joined David Birkhead's Regulator Press that year and turned the print shop into a bookstore. Longtime employees Wander Lorentz de Haas and Elliot Berger bought the shop in 2017. They keep its focus on small presses and author events.
Best for General-interest new books
The Regulator Bookshop takes its name from the North Carolinians who rose against colonial authorities in the 1760s. The founders chose it while running a small printing press on Ninth Street. David Birkhead, a Duke graduate, started the Regulator Press in 1974 to print for grassroots organisations. Two years later fellow alumni Tom Campbell and Aden Field joined him. The trio began selling books, and the shop opened in 1976 two blocks from the Duke campus. Field left in 1978 and John Valentine joined Campbell. The two ran the store together until both retired in 2017. They sold it to Wander Lorentz de Haas and Elliot Berger, employees of long standing who kept the culture they inherited. That culture favours small presses and the tastes of the neighbourhood over bestseller tables. The room is not large. A new-arrivals section at the entrance carries titles the owners and staff have read and liked. A mural of a balloon and a camel carrying books marks the children's corner, and two worn couches serve as a reading nook. The shop has hosted Margaret Atwood, John Hope Franklin and Al Gore. It still runs author events through a dedicated events desk. The drugstore and grills that shared the street in 1976 have closed, and the Regulator became the longest-standing business on Ninth Street. A 2024 profile in the 9th Street Journal describes local schools and book clubs treating it as a meeting place for the neighbourhood.
The official store and gallery of artist SHAG (Josh Agle), on North Palm Canyon Drive, sells his fine-art prints alongside tiki-themed merchandise. The Palm Springs shop and its online store carry drinkware, books, towels, lamps and accessories drawn from his work.
Lady Smith and Christina Tabereaux founded The Snail on the Wall in 2017 as a bookstore without a store, running pop-up shops and author events before opening a permanent location at 816 Wellman Avenue in Five Points in September 2024. The shop curates fiction and bookish gifts and offers personalized recommendations to customers.
Best for Curated fiction and personalized book recommendations
The Storybook Shoppe is an independent children's bookstore stocking picture books, chapter books and toys, with a reading nook and regular story-time events. The Bluffton shop curates its shelves for young readers and hosts visiting authors.
A fly shop in southwest Montana, trading on Main Street in Ennis since 1937 and an Orvis-endorsed outfitter since 1991. The counter rigs anglers for the Madison River with rods, flies, and apparel, and the outfitting side books guided float and wade trips.
Best for Fly-fishing gear and guided Madison River trips
This South Eugene shop on Willamette Street shelves more than 30,000 new and used titles alongside vinyl and rotating work by local artists. It doubles as a performance space, having hosted thousands of readings, concerts, and workshops over two decades.
Best for Used books and community events
Tsunami Books is an independent, locally owned bookstore at 2585 Willamette Street in South Eugene, Oregon. Its hand-picked stock runs to over 30,000 used and new books. Cards and postcards sit alongside a small collection of vinyl LPs and rotating art and crafts from the local community. Many of the shelves and fixtures come from recycled sources, including reclaimed bleacher boards from more than 20 school gymnasiums across the Northwest. Over its years on Willamette Street the shop has hosted more than 3,000 community activities. These range from author events and writers' workshops to poetry slams and concerts, and once a wedding. Scott Landfield has been a worker and owner of Tsunami Books for 29 years. He came to Oregon in 1978 to plant trees and planted over two million of them across a 20-year career. Eugene Weekly reported in 2021 that the store had started a publishing arm, Tsunami Press, formed in July 2021 with editors Steve Ellerhoff and Valerie Ihsan. Its first title was Ken Babbs' Cronies, a memoir of adventures with Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, the Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Dead. After thirty years of paying rent, the shop is now asking supporters to help it buy the property. New titles are discounted and orders ship free anywhere in the United States.
Tubby & Coo’s combines an independent bookstore with board games, events and community programming. The selection foregrounds diverse and marginalised voices, making the shop as much a gathering place as a bookseller.
Best for A tribally-owned bookstore and board-game café with community events
A Middlebury fixture on Main Street, the Vermont Book Shop is an independent bookseller with staff picks, local and Middlebury College authors, and regular events. Books, audiobooks, gift cards and merch can be ordered online or bought in the store.
Best for Books, audiobooks, gift cards and merch can be ordered online or bought
Videri Chocolate Factory makes bean-to-bar chocolate at its Raleigh factory, where visitors can take a free self-guided tour with complimentary tastings or book a guided tour led by the chocolate-making staff. The factory shop sells bonbons, bars and drinkables both on site and through its online store.
Best for Bean-to-bar bonbons, bars, and drinkables, with free self-guided factory tours in Raleigh
Husband-and-wife owners Skye and Whitney opened this independent bookstore at 38 West Birch Street in Victor to fill a gap in Teton Valley's reading life. The curated shelves lean toward diverse authors and fiction, and the shop runs several book clubs.
Lesbian-owned and operated since 1976, Womencrafts is an intersectional feminist book and gift shop at 376 Commercial Street in Provincetown that doubles as a hub for local activism and community events. The store sells books, original artwork, and gifts both in person and through its online shop.
WordsWorth Books stocks new fiction, poetry and Arkansas-interest titles from its Hillcrest storefront and is listed among the state's independent bookstores by national directories such as Poets & Writers. The shop relies on staff recommendations and author events rather than a chain's centralized buying list.
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