Austin Book Stores

What are some of the book stores in Austin, if I miss any please add others. I'm trying to find out if theres any I don't know about, especially as I just learned about one of these the other day.

The Barnes & Nobles, etc.
Borders, etc.
Half Price Books, etc.
Book People
Follette's IP
Monkeywrench Books

There any other smaller ones or used ones I'm missing out on?

There's a Bookstop near Central Market on Lamar.

12th St. Books: https://www.12thstreetbooks.com/

Checked out 12th street the other day, nifty store. I'll take a look at the Bookstop, thanks.

Checked out Book Stop. Wasn't impressed.

There used to be an antiquarian bookstore on 6th St, just 1 block west of Lamar. It was in the back of the green (and expensive) antique store whose name escapes me at the moment.
It (the bookstore) was called Hart of Texas Antiquarian Books, and despite my having been in that antique store maybe 5 times in the 18 years I've lived here, I never noticed it.

Well, I discovered it about a year ago. It had over 6,000 books -- several that were hundreds of years old. There were maps and folios and true actual TOMEs of books. I must have spent 4 hours in there. I came back a few weeks later with my oldest son on the week before she (Pat Hart) moved out.

Well, Pat's probably not more than 80 lbs, and looks like an old time school ma'arm, sweet as can be, but not quite up to the challenge of moving all those books. So I volunteered to help her. It took 3 days. And she did as much lifting and hauling as any of the 4 men that were helping her -- all of the books, all of the bookcases (2 were over 14 feet long!), the carpet.

About 2/3 of those books went offsite. The other 2,000 are currently at the
Antique Marketplace on Burnett Rd. -- north of 45th St, south of (and closer to) Koenig Lane.

Her area is near the front of the store; there's another book dealer along the back wall. I suspect that Pat has a web site, or at least sells books via an online broker.

Pat Hart usually has a booth at the Austin Book and Paper Show also. Awesome lady!

I saw another newish bookstore the other day called Brave New Books on the corner of MLK and Guadalupe. This evening I decided to check it out.

Unless you want to be lamblasted with 9-11 and other conspiracies, stay far away. If you go in you'll likely get a speech and even if you don't the owner will give you four free (burned) DVD's, including Loose Change and other 9-11 "Truth" videos.

I patiently and politely listened to the pitch and afterwards browsed their wares. They have shelves dedicated to, among other things, 9-11 "Truth", Genetically Modified Organisms and Crops, JFK, you get the idea. Most of their stuff is (in my opinion) of doubtful origin and intent, however I did walk out with an uncorruptible Dostoeyevsky compilation (shelved in the Dystopian Fiction section) and to all appearances there may be some libertarian literature there that isn't crazy (although I'm not totally so sure).

Check it out if you're curious, but Caveat Emptor couldn't be more fitting.

Yiggy,
Where is Monkeywrench books?

110 E. North Loop
Austin, Texas 78751

If you know where the UT Intramural Fields are, there is a cemetary that is just north of it. The road running alongside the North Edge of it is North Loop and it turns into 53rd street. Theres a shopping center there and Monkeywrench Books should be inside it.

Here is there website.

http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

Its supposed to be a "radical bookstore". I personally haven't gotten around to checking this one out yet, but hopefully its not a bunch of nutbars like Brave New Books.

Has anybody been to "Whole Life Books"? It's in a strip mall on So. Lamar, and I happened to notice it as I drove by it this weekend. I considered turning around and checking it out, but we were on our way back home from having bought several books already.

I think I stopped by that about a year ago, when I moved to Austin. IIRC, it had a lot of spiritual, crystal power type stuff.

The first one that came to mind when I read your post is Book Woman that used to be down on 12th?

I went and did a quick google and found the following page that has a long list of book stores - most of them are not true book stores, but it does give a list for thought.

http://austin.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=austin&cdn...

Thanks Atlaswinks

I've seen Bookwoman while driving by many times, however I was always under the assumption that it was a niche, feminist bookstore. Nothing wrong with that, it just seemed outside of my area of interest. What kind of books does it have?

I haven't been to Book Woman in a while, but if it hasn't changed then niche bookstore is a close description probably. I wouldn't necessarily call it a feminist bookstore, although they do have a large selection of feminist - women's studies books. They used to have quite a selection on parenting, new age lit, massage, aromatherapy, tarot, holistic health, alternative lifestyles, lesbian fiction, Psychology, Self-Help, environmental issues and non-mainstream spirituality. Now I am thinking about it, I wonder if the store is predominantly stocked with female writers, thus the name.

I love Book Woman because they have a ton of international fiction written by women which is hard to find. It caters to the lesbian crowd but it is a fantastic local bookstore.

Whole Life Books was kind of a let down, I am really in to yoga, eastern religion, healthy food, etc but they didn't have much at all. It seemed like they haven't gotten anything new since 1982 and I requested something and they said, "oh our catalog doesn't carry that".

I wish their was a better used book store, I think it is shocking that Austin only has Half Priced Books which I am not a fan of.

There's always 12th Street Books (maybe 1000 feet east of Lamar, and Curio Corners (NE corner of Burnett and Koenig).

I've found some real gems at both places. They don't seem to have much turnover, so I'll go to them maybe once every 4 or 5 months.

Last time, I left a copy of my 2-page wish-list with each of them, admonishing them not to go crazy hunting for the books, because I may find them myself somewhere else.

For comics and related books, video, and such, Dragon's Lair 94910 Burnet Rd) is pretty cool. It's not really my thing, but they also rent BBC DVDs which is what got me into their shop. They're nice folks and helpful.

O.

I read the AA-S today, and in the Book "section", just below the NYT Best Sellers list is the Local Best Sellers list - getting its numbers from a different Austin book store each week.

This time it was from a place called A Thirsty Mind, located somewhere in Lakeway. I've never heard of this one. Has anyone else been there?, and where is it? I don't have much reason to be out that way, but this may give me a good reason to investigate it.

>19 WholeHouseLibrary: (re: A Thirsty Mind bookstore in Lakeway)

Well, it took awhile for me to get over their, but I browsed "A Thirsty Mind" today, mostly so I could report back to this group.

It's an independent, neighborhood bookseller with a wine bar. Almost exclusively new books with book related gifts, along with art and antiques, and wine by the glass or bottle. They have authors in every few weeks to push their books.

By keeping only one or two of any book on the shelf, they get a wide variety of books in a small shop while retaining a light, open feel. And they order books twice-a-week, so you can shoot them an email and get what you want pretty quickly.

A nice place, nice people, and wine and books aren't a bad mix, either.

O.

PS - how to get there:
Take Hwy 620 to Lakeway Blvd to 1200 Lakeway Dr. They're in the retail portion (back from the street) of the Lakeway Village Square.

Map to 'A Thirsty Mind' bookstore and wine bar, 1200 Lakeway Dr, Ste 16, Lakeway, TX 78734