Favorite Bookstores for Philosophy
Where in the world should you buy philosophy books?
Sure, there’s the convenience of large online retailers, but there can be more to buying a book than just getting a good price on it.
Do you want books and reading to be a live part of your city’s culture or the places you visit? Do you want to live in a place where people are attending book-related events at a bookstore nearby? Do you want to pop into a charming little bookshop or two on your vacation? If so, then you have reasons to buy books from such stores.
Different bookstores may have different strengths. Of particular interest to readers of Daily Nous may be the bookstore that Jay Kennedy, a philosopher who recently retired from the University of Manchester, wrote to me about: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin.
Dr. Kennedy writes:
These days, institutions that support philosophy, however well known, deserve all the support we can give them—especially when they are also a treat and a pleasure.
Claiming to be the only bookstore devoted solely to philosophy, the Librairie philosophique J. Vrin stocks more than 10,000 titles and is surely the largest shop of its kind. It sits across from two sunny cafés on a quiet plaza near the Sorbonne in Paris. The extraordinary range of shops selling new, used, and rare books in the Latin Quarter has always made it one of the great places for browsing and book hunting, but the storied Librairie philosophique is a temple of philosophy.
Its sections cover ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy, as well as major subfields such as ethics, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, and world philosophy. It stocks recent scholarship and primary texts in their original languages, alongside any French translations. There are also separate sections devoted to used books in English, German, Latin, and ancient Greek.
It is surprising to see how much academic philosophy has become international while still reflecting distinctive national cultures. Surveying such a sumptuous range of books is a quick and enjoyable way to get a sense of what is happening across the now-global world of philosophy—and also to sample newer work in French philosophy.
If every philosopher visiting Paris made a point of patronizing the Librairie philosophique, we could help keep it going for the next generation.
Librarie Philosophique J. Vrin sounds amazing, but it’s not the only good bookstore to shop for philosophy books. Where else, anywhere in the world, should philosophy book buyers go? You tell us.
I will second Vrin, where I spent too much time and money as a student, but the nearby, largely second-hand store, Gibert, also has a large philosophy collection.
Livra in Austin. texas, has the best philosophy section I have seen outside of an academic library. The owner was a philosophy student. I could find books relevant to relatively niche topics in recent epistemology relevant to a book I am writing, but there are also many classics.
The Harvard Bookstore (no relation to the university, but next to it) used to be excellent, with (unsurprisingly) titles by Quine, plus Frege; I was disappointed in a return visit last Friday. Labyrinth in Princeton is pretty good, as is Grey Matter in New Haven, though restricted to used books.
Flash, Indeed. Back in the 80’s, when I lived in Cambridge, it was my favourite haunt.
The other Grey Matter, in Hadley, is definitely the best philosophy selection in Massachusetts these days.
better than Raven in Montague or Northampton?
Labyrinth still at least has some new philosophy books! Though interspersed with used. And yes, I also went to Harvard Bookstore not so long ago and was disappointed. The best used bookstore for philosophy in the Boston area certainly used to be Raven Used Books–I was a bit gutted when it closed.
Just fyi Raven moved rather than closing altogether: https://www.ravenusedbookstore.com. I visited them in their new place last summer, and it was still good—though not close enough for regular visits from Boston. Commonwealth Books in Boston is also worth a visit for used books. They aren’t as good as Raven was for analytical philosophy, but they have a better selection of philosophy in languages other than English than Raven did.
From 2000-2004, Raven (then in Amherst) was the best used bookstore for philosophy *in the entire USA*. This is a hill I will die
I think, though I’m not sure, that Raven in Northampton and the Raven in Cambridge (and now in Shelburne Falls) used to be owned by the same people.
In any case I’ve only been to the one in Northampton once many years ago. I’d be curious to know whether it’s any good for philosophy (or Greek and Latin) now.
The Raven in Amherst moved to Cambridge, and then back to western Mass, but even when it was in Amherst, it had a different owner than the Raven in Northampton. Last I checked, the Raven in Noho still exists.
The best used bookstore in the Boston area was McIntyre and Moore. But sadly that has been closed a very long time. Amazing bookstore. I went to the Harvard Bookstore yesterday. It is no longer a good place to get philosophy (but good for lots of other stuff).
McIntrye and Moore was great. RIP.
I love Grey Matter! Last time I went, I snagged Nozick’s Philosophical Explanations for $9.
The Word in Montreal, QC has lots of remarkable philosophy titles in English.
Great recommendation. Merci beaucoup!
Ah, you just beat me to it! Love The Word; always go back to check it out when I visit my family in Montreal.
While I was visiting the University of Tübingen, I discovered that the city contained several specialty bookstores dedicated entirely to philosophy. Apparently this is not all that unusual for German university towns!
If you find yourself – I won’t ask how – in Oxford, Mississippi, home of Ole Miss, Square Books is the place to get your philosophy books, or for that matter, any books. You ask: what was I doing in Oxford, Mississippi? Well, long ago, I was short listed for a philosopher job there … and, of course, they offered the job to the inside candidate (they always do). But the bookstore is fantastic … and it is not far from Rowan Oak, William Faulkner’s home.
Foyles in London is the best I’ve ever encountered.
Another European one for the list: Tropismes in Brussels.
For used philosophy books in Brussel: Het Ivoren Aapje & Pêle-Mêle.
And, it must be mentioned despite being remote even in peacetime: Piotrovskiy bookstore in Perm, Russia. It’s worth knowing about this place. The owners are intellectually serious people.
J. Vrin is a marvel. Our local Borders in Burlington used to boast a great selection, but alas, they went defunct. Crow Books in Burlington, VT has a very decent collection of used and new philosophy titles.
Skoob Books, in London (Bloomsbury), has an enormous selection of secondhand philosophy books.
I’d also add that Judd Two Books just up the road has a decent philosophy section that is well worth a visit.
And that if you’re in Bloomsbury, you might also take a wander along to Waterstones Gower Street that has a good philosophy section too.
Obviously Blackwells in Oxford (although it has gotten worse). My hometown Labyrinth Books in Princeton is also good (but also has gotten worse). The Strand in NYC, Powell’s in Portland, The Seminary Co-Op in Chicago.
I remember being pretty impressed by Powell’s in Chicago as well. Don’t know how it is these days, though.
Still pretty good!
But not as good as it once was. The Seminary Co-op is a shadow of its former self.
Powell’s Chicago > Powell’s Portland for *philosophy books* but not for books in general.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been in NYC, but I always found Book Culture (it used to be called something else, but I forget what) near Columbia (on 112th st) to have a much better collection of philosophy – both new and used – than The Strand. I can’t say if that’s still so, but it’s probably worth looking at.
Book Culture is still good for philosophy though not what it was in the 1990s when it was called Labyrinth. (The Labyrinth in Princeton is related. I don’t know the details, but Book Culture changed names when there was some kind of restructuring of the business. https://www.labyrinthbooks.com/who-we-are)
Whether or not Book Culture is better than the Strand for philosophy depends on the Strand. As a used book store, their stock waxes and wanes a lot.
Blackwells did get worse: I think the philosophy section has merged with topics such as religious studies and gender studies, and has become much smaller too. And they seem to display mostly popular self-help ‘philosophy’ books. But it remains a pleasure to browse for books in the Norrington Room and then have a coffee at the Caffe Nero upstairs!
I recommend Peeter’s in Leuven. Great philosophy section with titles in several languages.
My personal favorite was HP Willi Buchhandlung in Tuebingen. Sadly as I was Googling it to make sure I got the name right I saw that it closed last year. Bilingual is right that there are a lot of good bookstores in Tuebingen but that one was something special.
I will say that in my experience the baseline is that German bookstores have much better philosophy sections than do American ones. Most will at least have a shelf of the cheap Reclam editions that cover the big historical figures.
I’m so sad to hear that HP Willi is closed! It was one of my favorites, too.
The Seminary Co-op in Chicago is great!
J. Vrin is a wonderful store, though often prohibitively expensive. In Paris specifically, la Librairie de l’Avenue (Henri & Laurence Veyrier) at the flea market at Porte de Clignancourt is one of those delightful cacaphonies where you can find obscurities and rarities in French at great prices, though you really have to dig. On the other side of the Atlantic, the choice is without a doubt the Librairie Le Port de tête in Montreal.
A shoutout to the humble Black Squirrel Books in Ottawa, Ontario. These saints adopt many forgotten and lightly-used academic texts whose MSRP makes you think it must be a stash book with a brick of cocaine inside and re-price them at something reasonable. The amount of $50+ university press books that I’ve gotten from there for $20 or less…
Great idea! I can add Moe’s in Berkeley, with a great section of used philosophy books.
D.G. Wills Books in San Diego!
In Paris, Vrin is indeed best for new philosophy books (and is probably the best new philosophy bookstore I’ve been anywhere in the world), but I’ve always found Point du Jour best for used (and net probably spent more time there). Alas, it closed last year. If you are in Paris and only read English, you would have better luck at Gibert Joseph than either. As bilingual says, most respectable bookstores in Germany have at least some selection of new philosophy books, though at smaller bookstores it tends to be confined to pocket editions of Kant alongside a very particular selection of works translated out of English. I once bought a pocket edition of Fichte’s 1804 Wissenschaftslehre in a train station in a midsize town on a longish layover. The largest bookstores in every German city are going to have something of interest to most everyone, though whether or not they are in English is more of a question.
In the States, I am tempted to say that the best philosophy section I have seen is Powell’s, in Chicago’s Hyde Park area– which has a nice mix, about 2/3 used, 1/3 new. While Seminary is probably better for new philosophy so long as you’re in Chicago, Powell’s certainly has a larger & better selection overall. To me the closest second for breadth & quality in used philosophy is King Books, in Detroit, which is I believe probably the largest used bookstore overall in the country. It is certainly worth a day trip on its own. While you may not associate Detroit with academic philosophy, King seemed to have acquired the entirety of every Wayne State prof’s estate (you realise in the course of this that it really has quite an illustrious history as a department). Particularly enticing to me were $1 & $2 copies of old issues of Philosophical Studies and Synthese. Raven Used Books in Boston was great, but is now gone, and the best still in town is probably Brattle. The most Powell’s-Chicago-like store outside Chicago I think is Second Story Books in DC, which shares with Powell’s a very deep selection of interesting used academic works in philosophy that alas, also like Powell’s, are on account of the very competent staff priced exactly at prevailing market prices, so expect no steals.
As far as the best selection of new books is concerned, I would second the commentator who said Labyrinth in Princeton, which by dint of having a real section of new university-press books takes the cake by default. That said I’ve always flinched somewhat at their used prices. Most of the *really* big new bookstores, like The Strand (as someone cites below), have *some* philosophy, but it usually tends to be weighted toward popular political philosophy of a particular stripe. Not to sound prejudicial! Just, don’t expect to find Overfitting and Heuristics in Philosophy. If you are in NYC, I would recommend Book Culture (actually a spinoff of Labyrinth in Princeton) and the main McNally Jackson before The Strand, and to be honest I wouldn’t expect either to grossly interest someone who mainly reads in core analytic philosophy. Among the same lines there is *some* philosophy at the following impressive generalist bookstores: Powell’s in Portland, Elliott Bay in Seattle, Green Apple in San Francisco, The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles. Again I would expect these bookstores to only be worth a trip for those with fairly catholic interests, though.
In the smaller bookstore weight class, I would shout out Dove & Hudson in Albany, which in spite of being very small and not really in much of a traditional university town had a phenomenally rich & interesting selection. The owner tries to buy for philosophy in particular. I recall having picked up five or six Loebs alongside some weird secondary literature on Moore. Henderson Books in Bellingham, Washington is also quite good for a store of the size (college town).
I didn’t know that Dove & Hudson (conveniently located on Dove & Hudson streets, and so easy to find that way) was still going, as I thought the original owner had retired, but at least in the past it was really great, so I’m glad to hear it’s still going, if it is. When I’d go there the owner had a good eye for what was worth carying, only had good (physical) quality stuff, and priced it very reasonably. They also had a loyalty program for frequent shoppers.
(It seems that the original owner has sold it, but still works there, and the new owner is a former customer who loved the place, so I expect it’s still good. It’s worth a stop if you are in Albany!)
Dove&Hudson was fantastic. I still have some purple money from my last visit there in like 2023 or something.
I’m wondering if you are identical with me lol. I’ve been to all these places and have similar thoughts as you. I think Powell’s (Chicago) is clearly better than King’s in Detroit, but agree that it is definitely worth a spot. The owner of Raven (Amherst then Cambridge now Montague) recommended Dove*Hudson to me after I moved from Amherst to Syracuse because it was an easy hop off of I-90. It is great. Was just at Henderson’s last summer, and it is still going strong, though I was amused to see a few books still on the shelf from when I was an undergraduate there lol.
Agree with Green Apple Books in SF, if you’re near Golden Gate Park.
But if you’re closer to downtown (North Beach or Chinatown), then City Lights is still great as well as storied, having been founded by Larry Ferlinghetti. Make sure you visit Vesuvio Cafe next door, which is also part of ground-zero for the Beat Generation.
When I moved to Australia I was very sad at the book store options. But, in Melbourne the used book store Sainsbury Books, on Riversdale Road in the Camberwell neighborhood had a good, if not especially larger, selection of philosophy books, and had a fair amount of turn over, so new things appeared fairly regularly. Prices were also good.
I had a similar reaction to the lack of good second hand book stores here, though Carlston Second Hand books was worth a look back in the day. Oddly, there are some interesting used book stores in some of the country towns within an hour or two of Melbourne (e.g. Daylesford, Castlemaine).
In my neck of the woods I’ve found that Brunswick Second Hand Books (on Sydney Rd) reliably has a pretty good selection (maybe bc of its proximity to the Uni of Melbourne?), although it can vary (sometimes a number of excellent titles will come through but then the pickings can be not so great the next time). The secondhand bookstalls at the Queen Vic market can be good sometimes too. And like Howard I’ve often had more luck in regional secondhand bookshops (and I’ve never managed to get to it but Clunes has a big annual secondhand books festival which sounds very promising). But yes when I moved to Melbourne I was also disappointed by the lack of good options, especially for new philosophy books.
In NYC, the Strand and Book Culture are the best options for philosophy. The local chain McNally Jackson is good too, but not great.
In Boston, Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge is okay, but worse (and a smaller section) every year. For used books, I also recommend Brattle Book Shop and Commonwealth Books. They are hit or miss, but used bookstores always are. (If you have a car and a little time, Raven Books moved from Cambridge to Shelburne Falls in Massachusetts. It’s a day trip, but they are a good used bookstore with some newish remainders. They usually have a good selection for philosophy.)
In Pasadena, I was happily surprised by Book Alley, a used bookstore. It’s not very large, and I’ve only been once, but they had an eclectic selection of philosophy books in good condition.
Open Books in Chicago’s West Loop has a very solid selection.
If you are in South Bend, Erasmus (used books) is a real gem. It is the best bookstore for philosophy in Indiana.
And to add, since this might seem like faint praise, it is a very good used bookstore in general and has a very large used philosophy section, slightly smaller than (e.g.) Powell’s in Chicago but only by a smidge. The owner is super nice too.
Thank you for the suggestion! I am indeed not identical with you, because I’ve never been to Erasmus, but will be sure to check it out when I’m in the area some time.
I love bookstores so much that the primary way in which I can individuate myself from others is by them.
I came here to say this! Erasmus is one of my favorite places in South Bend, and the owner is a wonderful guy. I’ve been going there for years. Great for novels, poetry, and theology as well.
the greatest english-language bookstore for philosophy that i’ve ever seen was great expectations in evanston. it was a large store with case after case filled with academic books. maybe half the store was devoted to philosophy, extending even to full back issues of series like midwest and minnesota studies. the place was inhabited by fine cats too! i used to make regular runs from bloomington (which had its own excellent but much smaller philosophy bookstore, aurora i think, before it closed around 1990) to pick up books there and from powells in chicago. alas great expectations closed in 2001 after 52 years. after that i would have said that the #1 title went to blackwell’s in oxford, though i don’t know if that still stands. alas NYC bookstores have slim pickings for philosophy these days.
Yes, absolutely Great Expections is the best that ever was. In their heighday you could get any recently published philosophy book at Seminary Co-op and the entire backlist at Great Expectations.
I was impressed by the quality and variety of philosophy books at Kitazawa Bookstore near Tokyo’s Jimbocho station.
Powells in Portland, OR is honestly pretty decent for philosophy (and science, classics, and history), though it probably can’t compete with some of the more specialized stores folks are mentioning.
Not as good for philosophy, but close to my heart all the same for good books and even good philosophy, are Bart’s Books in Ojai, CA, and The Calico Cat in Ventura, CA. They would be worth a look for anyone passing through that area of CA.
Sadly, neither where I grew up nor where I live now have bookstores even that good, let alone some of the better philosophical bookstores people have mentioned. I have to mostly survive off of ebay, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
Klio in Zurich!
I have found unbelievable gems at very fair prices at Kaboom Books in Houston TX and at Fahrenheit’s Books in Denver CO.
I only went to Fahrenheit’s Books a couple of times when I lived in Denver, and that was many years ago, but I did find some good books there, too, in philosophy and some other areas (such as a copy of A.S. Makarenko’s book, _The Collective Family: A Handbook for Russian Parents_, which was really the book about bringing up kids in the Soviet Union, by the most influential pedagog of the Soviet Union. Fun stuff, for people interested in things like that, and hard to find almost anywhere, so it’s worth a look!)
Smith Family Bookstore in Eugene, OR has the largest collection I’ve seen of used recent analytic philosophy, it was stunning!
On this front I also like Second Story Books in DC/Rockville and Commonwealth Books in Boston.
There’s a potential for false dichotomy here: One can buy from small, independent bookstores with a physical presence in communities AND buy online inexpensively. Bookfinder.com has for decades shown search results including small independents, listed by price including shipping. One can optimize for price AND vendor considerations and often get a book carefully wrapped by some small town’s store that happens to have some 1950 volume on Logical Empiricism.
The best and most famous bookstore in Frankfurt is the Karl-Marx Buchhandlung in Bockenheim and its new marx&co. location in the Westend. Both very much worth exploring.
A few people have mentioned Blackwell in Oxford but it’s far worse than it used to be and it’s a while since it’s had anything i wanted to buy.
I always had a soft spot for Athenaeum in Amsterdam. It’s not the biggest selection but it’s consistently interesting and well chosen. I picked up Appiah’s new book there this morning.
Books Kinokuniya is very impressive for philosophy and in many other ways. The flagship store in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo has nine floors, several of which are dedicated to books in separate languages. Naturally the main floors host books in Japanese, but each of the higher levels include the same books in English, Chinese, Korean, German, French, etc.
Though Kinokuniya does not deal in used books, its selection of books on philosophy is quite impressive and boasts of a large number of academic books in philosophy even while the store mostly caters to general readers. It also has an extensive offering of writing instruments, paper, and stationary, which is typical of many Japanese stores
There is a department store chain in Japan which is also called “Kinokuniya”. But it has no relationship to Books Kinokuniya.
Raven formerly of Cambridge, now elsewhere in MA
Kaboom in Houston
Moe’s in Berkeley
Not a lot of options along the central coast of California, where the outdoors is the star attraction.
But if you find yourself in Santa Barbara, Chaucer’s Books is still alive and kicking. It still looked great and inviting when I saw it last year.
In San Luis Obispo, Phoenix Books is the main independent bookstore for new, used, and rare books. Sorta dusty and dingy, so not really a hangout place…
Chaucer’s is great. Browsing there, I picked up a book on induction and decided on the spot to use it to teach a class. But my favourite second hand book shop in Santa Barbara was always the Book Den, down near the Art Gallery and next to the Arts and Letters cafe.
It sounds like you’re very familiar with SB, Howard. Do you remember Earthling Bookshop? That closed in the late 1990s when I was still there…
https://www.independent.com/2009/02/12/uncertain-fate-independent-bookstores/
Absolutely!
I’m trying to remember where Earthling was. I seem to recall that it was in the same spot as Copeland’s Sporting Goods, up State Street from Gramophone Records. (I left in the 70s but used to make regular visits back home.)
I also remember a book store called El Tecolote. And there was a very good antique book store in the back section of El Paseo.
Thanks for the link, which brought back memories (e.g. Morning Glory records).
I forgot about Morning Glory. And today I learned it was started by a philosophy major!
https://www.independent.com/2008/08/05/morninglory-music-closes-after-38-years-santa-barbara/
In the UK, Foyles, but honourable mention for the Cinema bookshop and for Green Ink in Hay on Wye.
Ps I’ve only been there once, years ago, but City Lights in San Francisco had a pretty decent selection of philosophy books I recall…
Is שטיין ספרים in Jerusalem still doing it’s thing? There are many axes of excellence, but surely no other place does what they are doing quite as well.
A few smaller options, not in the same league as those already mentioned, but if you are in the area worth the stop.
Magus Books — Seattle, WA (used to be so much better)
Midtown Scholar –Harrisburg, PA
Symposium Books– Providence, RI
Orca– Olympia, WA (really cute, smallish philosophy section though)
Actually, I don’t know if Symposium is still good for philosophy–haven’t been there in a decade, but at the time it was a good place for weird remainders from normally expensive presses.
Any tips for Berlin (Germany)?
I’m realizing that all the places I want to mention have gone out of business:
-Newman Bookstore in DC
-Loome Theological Booksellers in Stillwater
-Bob Miller Bookroom in Toronto
I got lots of stuff from Bob’s when I was an undergrad. I think it lasted until the late teens.
Wasn’t there some excellent used book stores with strong philosophy sections in Berkeley?
I want to thank our host, Justin, for posted on this topic. It is reassuring to see so many people still care about physical books. I am just now finishing my fourth monograph, and am confident that you all have some place where you can buy it!
Some of my favourites (although none of them specialize solely in philosophy, they all have great philosophy sections):
John K. King Books (Detroit, MI – There’s apparently a John K. King North in Ferndale, but I haven’t been to that location, the old factory building right in the city is the one you’re looking for).
Attic Books (London, ON – My current haunt).
Seekers Books (Toronto, ON – Probably the best bookstore in the city of Toronto).
Book Bazaar (Ottawa, ON – A seriously underrated bookstore in Ottawa, with a great philosophy section).
When I was in Pittsburgh Caliban book shop had an excellent and frequently updated selection of used philosophy books. I want to second also Midtown Scholar in Harrisburg. Philadelphia has some good book stores, but none especially great for philosophy (best would probably be the Last Word).
In Minneapolis, The Book House near the west bank of the UMN campus has a large and well-curated philosophy section and some real gems in their antique and rare book room in the back. The stock is entirely secondhand so the prices are great, and the store itself is a fun labyrinth of rooms to explore. Of note– the ‘Metaphysics’ room is dedicated primarily to historic folklore (a new-to-me and entirely intriguing application of the term).
Quaboag (used) Book Shop in West Brookfield, MA has one of the best philosophy sections I have seen. At least as big as Grey Matter’s in Hadley, MA.