The Ultimate Guide to Philadelphia-Area Bookstores

The Corrections

The bookshop landscape around here is always terraforming. Since the last time we updated this list, we’ve lost some (including the late, great Bookhaven in Fairmount) and gained some (welcome, Thrillerdelphia, et al.).

Recently, we’ve also enjoyed a wave of books written by bookshop peeps including Molly Russakoff of Molly’s Books and Records, Jeannine A. Cook of Harriett’s Books, and (coming in September) Rachel Pastan of Celia Bookshop in Swarthmore.

So here you go — just in time for Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 25th — our up-to-the-minute (fingers crossed) roundup of bookstores in Philly and beyond. And if you’re not seeing your favorite place to buy books, send me an email.

Philadelphia Bookstores

50 Watts Books

15 West Highland Avenue
Will Schofield’s handsome Chestnut Hill shop devotes its shelf-space to zines, vintage magazines, illustrated books and anything else that matches the proprietor’s spotless taste in terms of style and substance, no matter how niche.

American Grammar

2046 North Front Street
Maybe it’s more of a coffeeshop than a bookstore, but the minimalist vibes and smart curation at American Grammar are impeccable.

Another Corner

612 South 6th Street
This artsy little shop in Bella Vista promises books, magazines and “gear for hobbies.” Let their insta be your guide.

Barnes & Noble

1708 Chestnut Street
I know. Not an independent bookstore. Nonetheless, this link in the withering giant book chain is centrally located, sizable and well stocked. It’s also reliable host of free live readings and signings from up and down the best-sellers list — including lots of local authors.

Bauman Rare Books

1608 Walnut Street, suite 1000
Did you know Philadelphia has its own branch of this appointment-only rare-book consortium? In fact, Bauman got started here in 1982. Keep it in mind in case you one day become the sort of monied mondaine or deep-pocketed boulevardier who fancies a first-edition Kipling or a signed Voynich Manuscript. (After that, perhaps expect a heist.)

Big Blue Marble Bookstore

551 Carpenter Lane
With its diverse selection and frequent events, this Mount Airy bookshop is precisely what you want from a community-oriented lit space. Everybody loves the Big Blue Marble.

See Also: These Philly-Area Mobile Bookstores Bring Their Shelves to You

Binding Agents

908 Christian Street
Just off the Italian Market, “Philly’s only cookbook shop” fills its shelves with new tomes and old favorites aimed at pros and amateurs alike. Chefs and authors are always on the menu, and their book club doubles as a potluck.

Bindlestiff Books

4530 Baltimore Avenue
The volunteer-run Bindlestiff, not far from of Clark Park, is known for its charming atmosphere and many shelves stuffed with “new and discounted (but still new) books” in all categories.  A very West Philly book shop.

Black and Nobel

422 South Street
This South Street shop offers a selection of books centered on Black uplift, knowledge, and experiences — plus cookbooks, children’s books, Black Panther graphic novels, etc. Also: food, art, music, cosmetics, and other good stuff you don’t always find in a bookstore.

Book Corner

311 North 20th Street
Just north of the library’s main branch, the busy Book Corner lines its shelves with community donations (and Free Library overstock). Everything’s already pretty cheap, but seasonal sales can ignite a polite frenzy among gently ravenous readers lured in by the $2 hardcovers and $1 trade paperbacks. The selection is eclectic and always changing, plus they’ve got a super-friendly staff (including cats Chaucer and Pencil).

Booked

8511 Germantown Avenue
Chestnut Hill peeps are always beaming about Debra Gress Jansen’s tasteful, inviting shop on the Avenue.

Book Trader

7 North 2nd Street
Best secondhand bookshop in Philadelphia? Could be. Definitely the best thing about Old City. So much fiction. So much nonfiction. So much everything, arranged in a maze of shelves that will have you crouching and craning to take in every spine. It’s extremely difficult to leave the Book Trader without buying something.

Brickbat Books

709 South 4th Street
The beloved Queen Village spot is all killer and no filler, with a shrewd selection of books that range from the “popular but great” to “lost favorites” to “never heard of this, can’t live without it.” Keep an eye on Brickbat’s Instagram to see what new curiosities have crossed the threshold.

The Broken Spine

915 North 28th Street
This low-key charmer in the neighborhood of 27th and Poplar keeps its displays stacked with indie romance and romantasy. Guaranteed good vibes.

Cupid’s Bookshop

106 Grape Street
This colorful and inviting shop in Manayunk bills itself as “Philadelphia’s first brick-and-mortar all-romance bookstore,” which is a pretty charming pickup line. Cupid’s dance card is always packed with readings and signings.

Garland of Letters Bookstore

527 South Street
South Street is always in flux, but Garland of Letters just keeps on keepin’ on with its stock of New Age/old-wisdom books, incense sticks and life-size lion statue in the doorway.

Giovanni’s Room

345 South 12th Street
Named for a James Baldwin novel, this Gayborhood hub calls itself “the oldest, very best LGBTQ and feminist bookstore in the country.” Giovanni’s Room has achieved legendary status at this point.

Hakim’s Bookstore & Gift Shop

210 South 52nd Street
Philadelphia’s oldest Black-owned bookstore devotes its inventory to African American studies, history, children’s books, biographies and memoirs, philosophy, and more. The family-owned shop has been a community resource since the ’50s — as commemorated by the historical marker out front on 52nd Street.

Harriett’s Bookshop

258 East Girard Avenue
Jeannine Cook is one of the most celebrated figures in the Philly book scene thanks to her business acumen, community spirit, and globe-trotting adventures in art and literary circles. Both of her shops — Harriett’s in Fishtown, and Ida’s just across the bridge in Haddon Township — emphasize women and Black authors.

The Head & The Hand

2230 Frankford Avenue
This nonprofit Kensington/Fishtown bookstore is also a publisher “committed to serving as a launchpad for the next generation of local writers.” At press time, H&H claims to have helped more than a hundred local writers get printed in chapbooks, anthologies and stand-alone manuscript. H&H’s shelves are stocked with indie and small-press surprises, too. (Check out this interview with founder Nic Esposito.)

Head House Books

619 South 2nd Street
Open since 2005, Queen Village’s Head House Books offers a choice selection of new titles in a bright, inviting atmosphere. Head House’s readings calendar is often busy and full of surprises.

Hilltop Books

84 Bethlehem Pike Rear
All sales at this nonprofit shop benefit the Chestnut Hill Library. Most titles sell for a third of their retail price, and there’s a whole room dedicated to kids books.

House of Our Own Books

3920 Spruce Street
Founded in 1971, this Victorian house full of books (and ghosts) is a lovely place to get lost in thanks to its many rooms bursting with new and used titles in a variety of categories.

Iffy Books

404 South 20th Street
Gotta love this feisty little Rittenhouse Square-ish shop. Iffy has dedicated shelf space for zines, speculative fiction and eco/political non-fiction; but if you want to go deeper, check out their calendar for workshops and meetups centered around hacking, soldering and lock-picking. Iffy is the ideal mix of fun and not messing around.

Julia De Burgos Bookstore

North 5th Street
Nestled inside North Philly arts hub Taller Puertorriqueño, this shop stays stocked with English and Spanish-language books by Puerto Rican, Latine, and Latin American authors.

Kareemah’s Urban Books

6307 Woodland Avenue
A friendly, charming South Philly shop with its own roving book bus.

The Last Word Bookshop

20 South 40th Street
This beloved used bookstore offers a friendly, public radio-soundtracked respite from the hustle and bustle of 40th Street. It’s also an ideal “third place” meeting spot before grabbing dinner at New Delhi or seeing a movie at Cinemark. The Last Word is just big enough to while away an hour or so searching the shelves for hidden gems and forgotten favorites in the fiction, crime and sci-fi sections. (Pro tip: Don’t skip the bins by the door.) I love The Last Word.

Little Yenta Books

1910 East Passyunk Avenue
A smart and cute used bookshop tucked into the back of A Painted Lady Children’s Boutique.

Lot 49 Books

408 East Girard Avenue
Compact and curated, this cozy Fishtown shop offers new and used literary fiction, kids books and other good stuff, and their menagerie of independent publications is particularly noteworthy. (For example, I picked up a weird little self-published zine that purports to offer “instant photographic evidence” of Bigfoot, UFOs, etc. It’s ridiculous and I love it.)

Midsummer Books

1219 Frankford Avenue
This dreamy little Fishtown shop is all about the young’ns, stocking only kid stuff and YA.

Molly’s Books & Records

1010 South 9th Street
An Italian Market institution every bit as important as the butcher, the grocer, the spice merchant, etc. You could spend half your day flipping through the cookbooks, literary fiction, and vintage records at Molly’s.

Mostly Books Warehouse

529 Bainbridge Street
Nobody will say a boo if you spend an hour wandering the cluttered aisles of this old factory looking for exactly the right dusty old paperback to fit your mood. Upbeat, cool and mildly chaotic, Mostly Books has old-school South Street, odds-and-ends, love-of-the-game vibes.

Multiverse

8026 Germantown Avenue
Chestnut Hill’s spacious Multiverse isn’t just a bat signal to fans of comics Pokémon, manga, etc. It’s also an all-hands nerd alert to readers of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy book-books.

A Novel Idea on Passyunk

1726 East Passyunk Avenue
This smart, stylish South Philly bookshop has lots of new and interesting reads, but they’re extra cool for putting so many local authors and publishers on a pedestal. Keep an eye on their calendar for readings of the book and/or tarot variety.

Partners and Son

618 South 6th Street
Philly has no shortage of revered/underserved comic book sellers, but let’s give a shoutout to this Bella Vista gallery and shop that specializes in underground titles and in-store events featuring the likes of Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Box Brown, and Maria Bamford.

Philly AIDS Thrift

710 Street 5th Street
P.A.T. is only partly a bookshop, but the selection is somehow always worthwhile and affordable.

Thrillerdelphia

4203 Main Street
Owners Tina and Anthony Long (the same people who who wooed us with Cupid’s) dedicate every inch of shelf space in this buzzworthy Manayunk bookshop to new and used stacks of the scary stuff: horror, thrillers, true crime — anything that gets your blood pumping.

Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee and Books

5445 Germantown Avenue
This Germantown bookshop and community cultural hotspot — run by renowned author and Temple professor Marc Lamont Hill — has a very good slogan: “Cool People. Dope Books. Great Coffee.” Their calendar is often packed with some of the biggest names in books and media, and frequently hosts readings in off-site locations that can handle a crowd. (Note: Uncle Bobbie’s is moving to a bigger location in the neighborhood soon.)

Ulises

1525 North American Street, studio 104
A stylish, minimalist space in Olde Kensington dedicated to artists’ books and other independent art-related publications.

Wooden Shoe Books

704 South Street
A holdout from South Street’s wilder days, the Wooden Shoe has a rep for reading material with an activist/anarchist edge, including alternate histories, children’s books, banned books, zines, manifestos, you name it.

Suburban Pennsylvania Bookstores

The Archive

725 West 2nd Street, Lansdale
A bookish friend tipped me off to this Montgomery County literary oasis disguised as a warehouse. In addition to records, CDs, and other pop culture curiosities, the Archive apparently has an attic brimming with cheap books and “the best back-issue magazine selection in the region.” It’s also an auction house.

Baldwin’s Book Barn

865 Lenape Road, West Chester
This place is amazing — just room after room, floor after floor of books in every genre. They’ve got lots of signed and first-print stuff, but also tons of cheap, rare and/or weird stuff. No wonder we called the rustic Baldwin’s Book Barn The Best Reason to Ditch Your Kindle a few years back.

Bookish Notions

11 East State Street, Media
This bright and meticulous little bookshop in the middle of Media gives art gallery vibes. See where your gaze leads you. (I wandered into Bookish Notions last summer, and walked out with a whip smart recent translation of Master and Margarita that wasn’t even on my radar. Bewitching bookstores make it tough to leave empty-handed.)

Capricorn Books

605 West Ave, Jenkintown
Founded by a artsy couple (she’s a food photographer and recipe developer, he’s a musician and illustrator), this cozy book boutique gets bonus points for curation and presentation.

Cathy’s Half-Price Books

7 Manoa Shopping Center, 1305 West Chester Pike, Havertown
Let’s just quote the 2021 Best of Philly write-up in its entirety: “Most of the 60,000 or so gently used items at this 17-year-old stalwart are, indeed, half their original price or less. Then there are new reads and rare works — some with a Philly provenance — all stocked by bibliophilic owners Shannon and Cathy Rutherford.”

Commonplace Reader

49 South Main Street, Yardley
Big ol’ house full of bestsellers, literary prize-winners and kid stuff.

Doylestown Bookshop

16 South Main Street, Doylestown
A Bucks County institution, the reliably lovely Doylestown Bookshop — and its kid sister Lahaska Bookshop in Peddler’s Village — come highly recommended for their varied selection and community engagement. Let’s give ’em props for their robust Staff Picks section, too.

Farley’s Bookshop

44 South Main Street, New Hope
One of the crown jewels of New Hope, the bright and inviting family-owned Farley’s earns high marks for its reliable employee recommendations. This, I believe, is the highest praise one can bestow upon a bookshop.

Main Point Books

116 North Wayne Avenue, Wayne
If you’re on the hunt for new books on the Main Line, save extra time to stroll the aisles of this friendly shop in little Wayne’s totes adorbs downtown.

Mavey Books

8 Cricket Avenue, Ardmore
This “fully independent, BIPOC women-run bookstore and community space” in Ardmore offers a smartly curated selection and an events calendar that makes space for book clubs, screenings and first Friday celebrations.

Moore Books>

28 West Eagle Road, Havertown
Let the sloth in their logo be your guide to this small shop promising a “calm and inviting atmosphere.”

Narberth Bookshop

221 Haverford Avenue, Narberth
The community-oriented bookstore — “a lovingly curated, forward-thinking haven for voracious readers,” they say — offers new and used selections in a comfy environment.

Open Book Bookstore

7900 High School Road, Elkins Park
A small shop promising a “carefully curated” short list of titles. Sounds lovely.

Reads & Company

234 Bridge Street, Phoenixville
Your results may vary, but when I put out a call for bookstore suggestions in the greater Philadelphia radius, lots of people replied with recs for this handsome, thoughtfully stocked shop just across from the Colonial Theatre. Classic vibes.

Stacks Booksmith

201 Station Road, Quakertown
A well-liked used book nook in the Quakertown Farmers’ Market.

Wellington Square Bookshop

549 Wellington Square, Exton
In addition to all the new books, this Chester County shop and cafe has got cappuccino, cookies, little yarn cuties, “lots of nooks and crannies where you can curl up, relax and read.”

Suburban New Jersey Bookstores

The Bear and the Books

45 West Broad Street, Hopewell
People with kids sing the praises of this cute children’s bookstore in central Jersey.

The Cloak and Dagger

349 Nassau Street, Princeton
A Princeton spot devoted to mystery books. People who read that sort of thing swear by this place. Also: People who read that sort of thing are up to something.

Hooked on Books

3405 Pacific Avenue, Wildwood
Yeah, it’s way down the Shore, but this decades-old seasonal secondhand bookshop a couple blocks off the boardwalk is affordable, reliable, and hopelessly quirky.

Inkwood Books

106 Kings Highway, Haddonfield
A friendly neighborhood bookshop with lots of book clubs and talks on the calendar.

Kiss & Tale — A Romance Bookshop

688 Haddon Avenue, Collingswood
Brainy, fun and cute as a button.

Labyrinth Books

122 Nassau Street, Princeton
New, used or rare, this beloved bookshop in downtown Princeton has you covered. Busy events calendar, too.

Princeton Antiques

2917 Atlantic Avenue, Atlantic City
This Atlantic City bookstore which is not at all in Princeton has an inviting storefront full of bookcases and the words WE BUY THE OLD painted in big block letters over the entrance. They know a thing or two about the sale and acquisition of used books, especially of the leather-bound variety.

Second Time Books Inc

114 Creek Road, Mount Laurel Township
Plan a quick road trip to this friendly, out of the way used bookshop with a little bit of everything — and a whole lot of science fiction. It’s seriously impressive, just shelf after shelf of pulpy favorites from the ’50s to the present, all lined up neat, in decent condition and priced to move. I walked out from a recent visit with a short stack of hard to find favorites by A.E. van Vogt, Octavia Butler, John Wyndham, and the Strugatskys.

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