List of independent bookstores in the United States

This is a list of independent bookstores in the United States, both current and defunct, which have had physical ("brick-and-mortar") locations. For bookstores with at least 4 locations, see list of bookstore chains.

Bart's Books in Ojai

Booksmith, San Francisco

The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles

Kramers (bookstore)

Harvard Book Store, Cambridge

Bluestockings in Manhattan

The Mysterious Bookshop, Manhattan

Current

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Name	State	Location(s)	Type
Grassrootz Bookstore	Arizona	Phoenix	African-American
Larry Edmunds Bookshop	California	Los Angeles
The Last Bookstore	California	Los Angeles
Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural	California	Los Angeles
Kepler's Books	California	Menlo Park
Bart's Books	California	Ojai
Vroman's Bookstore	California	Pasadena
Libélula Books & Co.	California	San Diego
Mysterious Galaxy	California	San Diego and Redondo Beach
Warwick's	California	San Diego
Booksmith	California	San Francisco
Borderlands Books	California	San Francisco
Bound Together Anarchist Collective Bookstore	California	San Francisco	Anarchist
City Lights Bookstore	California	San Francisco
Green Apple Books & Music	California	San Francisco
Marcus Books	California	San Francisco (2 locations)
Book Soup	California	West Hollywood
Circus of Books	California	West Hollywood	LGBT
Mile High Comics	Colorado	Denver
Bloodroot	Connecticut	Bridgeport	Feminist
R.J. Julia Booksellers	Connecticut	Madison
JF Books	District of Columbia
Kramers (bookstore)	District of Columbia
MahoganyBooks	District of Columbia
Politics and Prose	District of Columbia (3 locations)
For Keeps (bookstore)	Georgia	Atlanta
Charis Books & More	Georgia	Decatur	Feminist
Quimby's Bookstore	Illinois	Chicago
Seminary Co-op	Illinois	Chicago
Unabridged Bookstore	Illinois	Chicago	LGBT
Women & Children First	Illinois	Chicago	LGBT/Feminist
Prairie Lights	Iowa	Iowa City
ACME Comics & Collectibles	Iowa	Sioux City
Rainy Day Books	Kansas	Fairway
Eighth Day Books	Kansas	Wichita
Joseph-Beth Booksellers	Kentucky	Lexington
Weiser Antiquarian Books	Maine	York
Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse	Maryland	Baltimore	Anarchist
Lucy Parsons Center	Massachusetts	Boston	Anarchist
Grolier Poetry Bookshop	Massachusetts	Cambridge
Harvard Book Store	Massachusetts	Cambridge
The Bookmill	Massachusetts	Montague
The Odyssey Bookshop	Massachusetts	South Hadley
That's Entertainment	Massachusetts	Worcester
John K. King Books	Michigan	Detroit
Birchbark Books	Minnesota	Minneapolis
DreamHaven Books[1] Minneapolis, Minnesota (established 1977)[2]	Minnesota	Minneapolis	Sci-fi, fantasy, and horror
Mayday Books	Minnesota	Minneapolis
Moon Palace Books	Minnesota	Minneapolis
Mager's & Quinn	Minnesota	Minneapolis
Black Garnet Books	Minnesota	Saint Paul	African-American
SubText: a Bookstore	Minnesota	Saint Paul
Square Books	Mississippi	Oxford
Left Bank Books	Missouri	St. Louis
Montana Valley Book Store	Montana	Alberton
Gambler's Book Shop	Nevada	Las Vegas
The Writer's Block	Nevada	Las Vegas
The Lit. Bar	New York	The Bronx
Book Thug Nation	New York	Brooklyn
Books Are Magic	New York	Brooklyn (2 locations)
Community Bookstore	New York	Brooklyn
Greenlight Bookstore	New York	Brooklyn
PowerHouse Books	New York	Brooklyn
Spoonbill & Sugartown Books	New York	Brooklyn
Troubled Sleep	New York	Brooklyn
Unnameable Books	New York	Brooklyn
Argosy Book Store	New York	Manhattan
Albertine Books	New York	Manhattan
Bluestockings	New York	Manhattan	Feminist
Books of Wonder	New York	Manhattan
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe	New York	Manhattan
Left Bank Books	New York	Manhattan
McNally Jackson	New York	Manhattan
The Mysterious Bookshop	New York	Manhattan
Printed Matter, Inc	New York	Manhattan
Rizzoli Bookstore	New York	Manhattan
Strand Bookstore	New York	Manhattan
Womanbooks	New York	Manhattan	Feminist
Astoria Bookshop	New York	Queens
Firestorm Cafe & Books	North Carolina	Asheville	Anarchist/LGBT
Internationalist Books	North Carolina	Chapel Hill
The Book Loft of German Village	Ohio	Columbus
Two Dollar Radio Headquarters	Ohio	Columbus
The Duck Store	Oregon	Eugene
Powell's Books	Oregon	Portland
Rose City Book Pub	Oregon	Portland
Moravian Book Shop	Pennsylvania	Bethlehem
Baldwin's Book Barn	Pennsylvania	Philadelphia
Giovanni's Room Bookstore	Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	LGBT
Hakim's Bookstore	Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	African-American
Wooden Shoe Books and Records	Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	Anarchist
City Books	Pennsylvania	Pittsburgh
Otto Bookstore	Pennsylvania	Williamsport
Hub City Bookshop	South Carolina	Spartanburg
BookPeople	Texas	Austin
Pariyatti	Washington	Onalaska
Chin Music Press	Washington	Seattle
Elliott Bay Book Company	Washington	Seattle
Fuel Coffee & Books	Washington	Seattle (3 locations)
Third Place Books	Washington	Seattle (3 locations)
Left Bank Books	Washington	Seattle	Anarchist
Queen Anne Book Company	Washington	Seattle
University Book Store	Washington	Seattle
Taylor Books	West Virginia	Charleston
A Room of One's Own	Wisconsin	Madison	LGBT/Feminist
Renaissance Books	Wisconsin	Milwaukee
Woodland Pattern Book Center	Wisconsin	Milwaukee

Historical

The following is a list of independent bookstores which no longer sell books at brick-and-mortar stores but did in the past.

Name	State	City	Years active	Type
Acres of Books	California	Long Beach	1934–2008
Bodhi Tree Bookstore	California	Los Angeles (eventually West Hollywood)	1970–2011
The Book Shop	California	Hayward	?–2017
A Change of Hobbit	California	Southern California[3][4]	1972–1991	Sci-fi, fantasy, and horror
Cody's Books	California	Berkeley	1956–2008
Comics and Comix	California	Berkeley	1972–2004
Computer Literacy Bookshops	California	Sunnyvale	1983–2000
Daliel's Bookstore	California	Berkeley	1945–1952
Dawson's Book Shop	California	Los Angeles	1905–?
Dutton's Books	California	Valley Village (Los Angeles) and Burbank	1960–2006
Eso Won Books	California	Los Angeles	1988–2022	African-American
Fahrenheit 451 Books	California	Laguna Beach	1968–1994
A Different Light	California	Silver Lake (Los Angeles) and The Castro (San Francisco)	1979–2011	LGBT
John Cole's Book Shop	California	La Jolla (San Diego)	1946–2005
Lobal Orning	California	Topanga	2003–2008
Midnight Special Bookstore	California	Santa Monica	1970–2004
Old Wives Tales	California	San Francisco	1976–1995	Feminist
The Other Change of Hobbit	California	Berkeley[5] later in El Cerrito (now mail-order only)	1977–2014	Sci-fi, fantasy, and horror
Printers Inc. Bookstore	California	Palo Alto	1978–2001
A Woman's Place	California	Oakland	1970–1989	Feminist
Brian MacKenzie Infoshop	District of Columbia		2003–2008
Lambda Rising	District of Columbia		1974–2010	LGBT
Teaching for Change Bookstore	District of Columbia		?-2015
Washington Bookshop	District of Columbia		1938–1950
World Bank Infoshop	District of Columbia		1996–2016
Haslam's Bookstore	Florida	St. Petersburg	1933–2020
Open Books & Records	Florida	Miami Beach	1979–1994
Kroch's and Brentano's	Illinois	Chicago	1954–1995
New World Resource Center	Illinois	Chicago	?
Prairie Avenue Bookshop	Illinois	Chicago	?–2009
Better World Books	Indiana	Goshen and Mishawaka	2002–2019
Boxcar Books	Indiana	Bloomington	2001–2017
Iron Rail Book Collective	Louisiana	New Orleans	2003–2014	Anarchist
Daedalus Books	Maryland	Columbia	1980–2011
Greetings & Readings	Maryland	Hunt Valley	1969–2019
Victor Kamkin Bookstore	Maryland	Rockville	1953–2002
Globe Corner Bookstore	Massachusetts	Cambridge	1982–2010
New Words Bookstore	Massachusetts	Cambridge	1974–2008
Schoenhof's Foreign Books	Massachusetts	Cambridge	1856–2017
Marwil Bookstore	Michigan	Detroit	1948–2013
Amazon Bookstore Cooperative	Minnesota	Minneapolis	1970–2012	LGBT/Feminist
Common Good Books	Minnesota	Saint Paul	2006–2019
Coliseum Books	New York	Manhattan	1974–2007
Community Bookstore	New York	Cobble Hill, Brooklyn	1974–2016
A Different Light	New York	Manhattan	1979–2011	LGBT
Forbidden Planet	New York	Manhattan		Sci-fi, fantasy, and horror
Gotham Book Mart	New York	Manhattan	1920–2007
J. Levine Books and Judaica	New York	Manhattan	1905–2019
Librairie de France	New York	Manhattan	1935–2009
Nkiru Books	New York	Brooklyn	1976–?
Oscar Wilde Bookshop	New York	Manhattan	1967–2009	LGBT
Pomander Book Shop	New York	Manhattan	1975–1990s
St. Mark's Bookshop	New York	Manhattan	1977–2016
The Wooster Book Company	Ohio	Wooster	1992–2017
Cameron's Books and Magazines	Oregon	Portland	1938–2021
In Other Words Women's Books and Resources	Oregon	Portland	1993–2018	Feminist
Leary's Book Store	Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	1836–1969
Beauty and the Book	Texas	Jefferson	?

See also

• American Booksellers Association
• Books in the United States
• List of bookstore chains
• List of independent bookstores

References

1. "Home". DreamHaven.
2. Our Store History, last visited Dec. 29, 2015.
3. Duke Helfand, "For Science Fiction Fans, Old Habit Dies Hard : Change of Hobbit Devotees Are Already Mourning Bookstore Demise", Los Angeles Times, Feb. 10, 1991.
4. Sherry Gottlieb, "Escape Velocity: A History of A Change of Hobbit Bookstore".
5. Bullock, Ken (August 10, 2010). "The Other Change of Hobbit is Living in South Berkeley". The Berkeley Daily Planet.

External links

• AALBC.com's map showing black-owned independent booksellers
• American Booksellers Association member directory
• Independent booksellers resource page and listings
• IndieBound.org, independent bookstore association sponsored by the American Booksellers Association
• Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
• NewPages guide to independent bookstores in the U.S. and Canada