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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.