New York's Best Bookstore

A mystery bookshop that’s both cozy and hardboiled.

Reviews:

• “Best Bookstore”
• “Best Mystery Book Store Anywhere”
• “The real deal.”
• “They steer you to the best reading, just your style”
• “Excellent book store specializing in mysteries”

Tips: The shop is always on the lookout for first print editions of American and British mystery novels. If you have a large collection for sale, they’ll come to you.

Partners & Crime or email Partners & Crime

Literary aesthetes hit this chic downtown bookstore for their fix of art, design, pop culture and more.

Reviews:

• “So glad Taschen’s in town!”

Tips: Don’t see the Taschen title you want? The staff can order it for you, and even have it shipped to your home.

Taschen

An easy-access resource for books of any stripe, with impressive children’s, business and bestseller sections.

Reviews:

• “Best Book Franchise Ever”
• “Some Stores are More Equal”

Barnes & Noble

The institution New York bibliophiles love to hate and hate to love.

Reviews:

• “awful, overrated book store with lousy service”
• “Dirty place, cheap price”
• “Check Strand online website before your visit if you have a book or author in mind”
• “Strand Books”
• “Love the selection and prefer the Fulton Street location”

Tips: Can’t brave the Strand megalith? Try the Annex on Fulton Street, a more airy space housing mostly new books, remainders and reviewers’ copies.

Strand Bookstore

Small used book store in the West Village specializes in rarities including modern first edition prints and signed copies.

Left Bank Books or email Left Bank Books

New and used books on the political, the personal and everything in between.

Tips: The store hosts daily readings, workshops and events

Bluestockings

Like borrowing a book from a friend’s familiar and cluttered apartment.

Three Lives & Co.

Offers first rare editions from fiction and literature; modern firsts; British and continental literature; Americana; science and philosophy; and poetry.

Reviews:

• “Great book store”
• “Wonderful Books and Customer Service "

B & B Rare Books, Ltd or email B & B Rare Books, Ltd

Soho’s preferred not-for-profit bookshop supports a good cause, and it’s an escape from the crazed shopping elsewhere in the neighborhood.

Reviews:

• “Cozy”
• “The best bookstore in NYC!”
• “Shhhhhh!”
• “Housing Works Used Book Cafe”

Tips: Keep up your browsing stamina with Housing Works’ full menu of soups, quiche and knishes.

Housing Works Used Book Cafe

If your ex walked off with your only copy of Lacan’s “Ecrits,” there’s only one place to go.

Reviews:

• “Saved my life”

Tips: It’s not what you wear, but what you read. No celeb bios here, so the unknowing passerby looking for the latest Britney memoir will come up empty-handed and get a snicker and an eyeroll. Service can be snarky; Be warned.

St. Mark’s Bookshop

A big-city chain of bookstores that retains its neighborhood feel.

Tips: Find out where other stores in the chain are.

Shakespeare & Co.—Greenwich Village

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