BOOKSTORES LIST
Best Bookstores
The Iliad in North Hollywood, getting off the freeway on the lankersheim exit and always having to circle twice before homing in on it….Early days in LA at Skylight books in los feliz and Vromans in Pasadena and Small world books in venice. The Last Bookstore in downtown LA was a pilgrimage spot- we would take the family for the day to go to DTLA to eat pupusas at grand central market, see the Bradbury building and then spend the rest of the day at the Last Bookstore bypassing museums, concert halls and other amusements.
City lights, a pilgrimage spot of ours since we first came to CA when we were 19 years old. And Moe’s in Berkeley, Pegasus in Berkeley, Dalloways in the Elmwood neighborhood of North Berkeley, A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland and Revolution Books in Oakland and Browsers books in SF
And of course Bart’s bookshop in Ojai another pilgrimage spot for us with the kids building a whole day around a trip to a bookshop- two weeks late with my 4th baby, my husband saw me in tears of frustration and took the day off from work to whisk me away for a day excursion up to Barts for a burrito and some book browsing hoping it would bring on labor…it didn’t, but it did distract me and cheer me up. Gallery bookshop in Mendocino, CA is marvelous and always worth a pilgrimage up from Sea Ranch which we do every year., usually in the rain The Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur was a beloved stop when we were in our early 20s and enamored with Henry Miller and the romance of the coastal drive on highway 1.
In my beloved Land of Enchantment , Op.cit. books in both Taos and Santa Fe. one of the all time best is Somos- a nonprofit used bookshop in taos , Brodsky books in Taos, Garcia street in SF, collected works in SF where I’ve heard M. Scott Momaday read and also Joy Harjo. Books of interest, a used bookshop on cerillos, the Ark in SF for all your new age needs. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Bookworks in Rancho de Albuquerque without making a purchase. Another Albuquerque must stop is Page 1 Books. I’d lived in New Mexico for 6 years before I finally discovered the fabulous used bookstore Under Charlie’s Covers hidden in a low slung non-descript building in a strip mall off the busy main drag in Bernalillo. Its unassuming location on a strip filled with fast food chains belies the wonders it holds inside. I came within a hairs breathe of buying the entire stock in 2026.
Off the Beaten Path Books- Steamboat Springs, Co. and The Tattered Cover- Denver, love Boulder Bookstore and Trident Booksellers in Boulder, Co….Tsunami books and smith family bookstore in Eugene Oregon, Powells in PortlandIn NYC Rizzoli and McNally Jackson and of course the Strand and Books are Magic in Brooklyn
In Mexico city- Liberia Porrua in the bosque de Chapultepec, the Cafebreria el Pendulo Polanco in DF, in paris and prague I’ve been to Shakespeare and Co and the San Francisco Book Co a used bookstore of endless paperbacks on the Left Bank in Paris, I enjoy Politikens Boghal and Theimers Magasin in Copenhagen.
The pink house that housed the “The Remarkable Bookshop on Main Street Westport Ct was the first bookshop I feel head over heals in love with in mychildhood. Atticus bookshop in New Haven…Eagle Harbor Book Co on Bainbridge Island, WA is sweet as is Peregrine Book Company in Prescott Az
When in Austin we always hit South Congress Books and Bookpeople on Lamar
I have enjoyed browsing in The House of Books- St. Petersburg, Russia,Topping & Co. Booksellers- St. Andrews, Scotland, Antigua Books, Antigua Guatemala…Finding A Page in The Sun after walking aimlessly for hours in Puerto Vallarta Mexico summer of 2021.
In the Fall 2023 I had the pleasure of wandering John K King Used and Rare Books in the massive old Advance Glove Factory building on west Lafayette street in downtown Detroit, with over a million volumes stuffed onto four floors it demands repeated visits.
On my list to visit are:
Birchbark Books- Minneapolis
Parnassus- Nashville
Antigone Books Tuscon
Elliot bay Books- seattle
RJ Julia Independent booksellers- Madison CT
Albertine-NYC
The Midtown Scholar Bookstore, Harrisburg, PA
The Book Market, Glen Innes Australia
El Ateneo Grand Splendid, Buenos Aires. Argentina
Libreria Acqua Alta, Venice, italy
Selexyz Dominicanen, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Atlantis Books, Oía, Santorini, Greece
Livraria Lello, Porto, Portugal
Honesty Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye, Wales
Cook & Book, Brussels, Belgium
Carturesti Carusel Bucharest Romania
Foyles Bookshop, London, England
Daunt Books Marylebone, London
The Open Door Bookshop- Rome
