Alexis Turner

Cometbus Guide to Used Bookstores in NYC

(books, nyc, to do — )

20 Jan. 2008

I've been pestering S. for this list of cool used bookstores in NY ever since I left Portland. It is from the special 2006 25th anniversary issue of Cometbus (issue #50), and I haven't been able to track down a copy of my own, or even another copy of the list online. Thankfully, she finally found her copy buried under thousands of books of her own.

My goal is to visit everyone of these as a start to compiling my own list of used bookstores here in NYC. Please e-mail me ('holla,' at this domain) if you have any personal favorites to recommend).

Skyline Books

13 W. 18th St

Bookoff

14 E 41st St (near NYPL)

Community Books

143 7th Ave, Park Slope, Brooklyn

Uncertain if this is the same one referred to in Cometbus, but looks promising either way.

Clovis Press

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Closed. One story says it's been turned into a wine bar by local gentrification efforts.

Spoonbill and Sugartown

218 Bedford Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

7th Ave Books

Park Slope, Brooklyn - Closed

Brooklyn seems to be hard hit in the book realm.

Park Slope Books

Park Slope, Brooklyn - Closed

Another gentrification fatality.

Junk

197 North 9th St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Alabaster Bookshop

122 4th Ave

Westsider Rare and Used Books

Broadway between 80th and 81st, Upper West Side

Unoppressive, Non-imperialist Bargain Books

34 Carmine below Bleeker

Accidental CDs

location unknown, probably defunct

This used to be on Avenue A but then moved around the corner to St. Marks to squat in "the Cave." The landlord evicted the entire building with a sledgehammer about 5 months later. Unclear what happened to Accidental after that, but their original location is supposedly now a bakery that makes dog treats.

Gotham Book Mart

Closed!

After roughly 87 years in business, this one closed in summer 2007.

The Two in One Shop

52nd near 9th Ave, Times Square - closed?

I can't find any reference to this online or in the Yellow Pages, so I'm thinking it might be gone.

Mercer Street Books

206 Mercer St, NYU

12th Street Books

11 E. 12th St., Greenwich Village

UPDATE: Moved to 179 Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn in July 2008

86 Books

276 12th St, Park Slope, Brooklyn

Unclear if this is the same store mentioned in Cometbus.

Housing Works

126 Crosby St near Houston

Always a winner. Beautiful, delicious, charity.

Heights Books

109 Montague St, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn

The Strand

I should not have to tell you how to get here

Ah, a classic. Probably the first used bookstore I visited in NYC, all the way back in college. Because of its size, The Strand is great if you are looking for something specific, but it can be claustrophobic with all of the traffic and definitely isn't the place to go if you are looking to get lost in quiet stacks of books.

East Village Books

99 St Mark's Place

The Thing

1001 Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

The Vortex

222 Montrose Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn

This used to be around the corner from The Thing and was (is?) run by the Thing's wife

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List additions:

Adam's Books/Unnameable Books

456 Bergen Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn

Tiny but enjoyable selection of art, history, philosophy, and lit books. They also have a nice rack of what look like artists' self published zines? I went here looking for an obscure title by Jenny Perlin that they carry. Very cool.