THENine independent bookstores worth finding in person.
PLACES TO WANDER · ISSUE 001If you're looking for the best independent bookstores in New York, Places to Wander's edited guide includes Three Lives & Company in West Village, Strand Book Store in Union Square and Albertine in Upper East Side. Explore the selected shops below, with neighborhood context, drawings and links to each shop's own website. The guide is edited, not numerically ranked.
Map: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, © OpenStreetMap contributors and GIS User Community. Selected streets and water; numbered points use the existing address matches. Use directions for your visit.
Browse the drawings. Open a shop for visiting details.
The window does some of the talking. Three Lives keeps its books close to the street, at the corner of Waverly Place and West 10th.
The person behind the counter read these before you did. Leave room for the conversation.
Worth a special trip forA corner shop at Waverly Place and West 10th where the window does some of the talking.
154 West 10th Street, New York, NY 10014
Founded by Ben Bass in 1927 with a cigar box for a till, the last of the forty-eight shops of Book Row, now eighteen miles of books in a building landmarked in 2019.
The Broadway sign is only the beginning. Strand brings new, used and rare books together at a scale that invites a little getting lost.
The neighboring shelf has been waiting longer than you have. Start with a subject you know and let it interrupt.
828 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
McNally Jackson’s SoHo shop puts a broad literary selection alongside books made to be looked at closely. At 134 Prince Street, a change of shelf can become a change of medium.
Art, photography, design and literature make neighbouring shelves worth a look.
Worth a special trip forA broad literary selection beside art, photography and design books made to be looked at closely.
134 Prince Street, New York, NY 10012
French and English share the shelves at Albertine, inside the Payne Whitney mansion. Books from across the French-speaking world give this Fifth Avenue room a much wider reach.
You do not need to cross an ocean to change the language of your afternoon.
Worth a special trip forFrench and English share the shelves inside the Payne Whitney mansion on Fifth Avenue.
972 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10075
A used bookshop run by volunteers since 1994, where all of the proceeds go to services for people living with HIV and AIDS. The Moth has told its stories here.
Used books, records and a café fill Housing Works’ Crosby Street bookstore. The changing selection makes a second visit a different proposition.
The book you take home funds the charity that runs the shop.
126 Crosby Street, New York, NY 10012
A bookshop puts someone else’s choices in front of you. Spend time with a subject outside your work. See what comes back with you.
Lucy Yu opened it in December 2021 and named it for her mother’s initials. After a fire in 2023 readers raised $369,000 and it reopened in January 2024.
At Yu & Me on Mulberry Street, Asian American and immigrant writers fill the reading list. The bookshop also has a café, bar and calendar of gatherings.
Immigrant writers, a café and a bar under one roof. Nobody here is only one thing.
44 Mulberry Street, New York, NY 10013
Opened in Fort Greene in October 2009 with money lent by the neighbourhood, and hosts the Brooklyn Indie Party.
The windows on Fulton Street give you a generous first look. Inside Greenlight, the reading continues through staff selections, book groups and author events.
A reading or a book group gives the next book some company.
686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
An intersectional feminist bookshop and café opened in 2018 in Crown Heights, owned by an Afro-Latine woman and veteran.
Coffee and feminist reading share a home at Café con Libros. One gives you a reason to pause; the other gives you something to sit with.
Begin with a book. Nothing after it is scheduled.
724 Prospect Place, Brooklyn, NY 11216
A used bookshop that is also a bar, in Bushwick, with a tiny imprint of its own.
A used-book shop, a bar and a small press: Molasses brings reading and making books into the same orbit.
A bar, a used bookshop and a press in the same orbit. Nobody has decided which is the front.
770 Hart Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Places to Wander's edited selection includes Three Lives & Company, Strand Book Store, McNally Jackson Books, Albertine, Housing Works Bookstore, Yu & Me Books, Greenlight Bookstore, Cafe con Libros and Molasses Books. The guide is not numerically ranked. Each entry explains why the shop is included and links to the shop's own website.
Albertine in Upper East Side. French and English share the shelves inside the Payne Whitney mansion on Fifth Avenue. The Detour is an editorial designation, not a ranking.
Yes. Strand Book Store (new, used and rare), Housing Works Bookstore (used) and Molasses Books (used). Used, antiquarian and rare books are not interchangeable labels; this guide uses each description only where the shop's entry supports it.
Housing Works Bookstore, Yu & Me Books and Cafe con Libros. Check current opening times with the shop before you travel.
Yes. The New York issue includes a map and shop index. Select a shop to open its entry, then use the shop's official link for visiting details. The illustrated map is an orientation aid, not a turn-by-turn route.
The Corporate Artist: The Art of Working Beautifully is Morgan Sage Norman’s book about bringing your creative self to everyday work. It explores how the roles we play, the conversations we have and the decisions we make can become creative practice.
Find your copy ↗Try Every Role Has a Medium (Your Craft) for a different way to look at what you do.
Or turn to Nothing Is Wasted and Rightsizing Importance. Begin with the title that catches you.
Looking for books about creativity at work? Visit the Reading Room.
Another city. Another way to look.