10 Best Seattle Book Stores

Liz Pearce - Love, love, love this place. Beautiful store, excellent selection, helpful staff, and a great little cafe to boot. You can get lost for hours browsing. A Seattle institution - I take all my out-of-town visitors here.

Brooklyn Benjestorf - I love this neighborhood book store so much. They have amazingly knowledgable, friendly, and helpful staff and their selection of books is amazing. I love the big open air design of the shop and (pre-COVID) would sometimes stop by just to peruse the stacks and hang out. With social distancing restrictions I've been pre-ordering online and make a point to place an order every month or so (even when I have plenty of unread books on my shelf) because I never ever want to see this place close down.

Mikaila McLane - One of my favorite places in the city. I can spend hours here browsing for books and enjoying coffee from the cafe in the back. A rainy day off work is well spent here.

recommended by Katherine Tully, Nate Gowdy, Kristen Cole

Amy Posner Wolff - I love having a local book store walking distance from home. Customer service is excellent. If they don't have your book request in stock, they will order is and text you as soon as it arrives. They also have great games and gifts.

Shauna Swerland Youssefnia - They have a great collection and awesome cards. Laurie is passionate about her business and has fabulous taste. Amazing customer service.

recommended by Piper Casey

Shannon Garbaccio - I recommend 3rd Place Books. We go to the one in Ravenna or Lake Forest Park. They have a combo of new and used books. They also buy books. The staff is extremely knowledgeable and helpful if you are looking for suggestions. They also will special order anything you need. If they don't have something in one store, they do several transfers weekly from their other stores. They also have really cute curated gifts. It is a local business very much worth supporting!

Daniel Yu - Charming local bookstore with a wide selection of new and used books, rare finds, and unique selections, as well as a section of locally-published PNW works.

Maddie Gavigan Martin - If I could be here all day, I would. It's difficult to visit and not leave with a stack of books. The staff are helpful and will order books for pick-up even if they don't stock it. Nothing better than a coffee treat at the cafe and a stack of fresh books from this local bookstore!

recommended by Katherine Tully

Robin Wehl Martin - This is a new bookstore on 15th Avenue East that just opened. I live really close to it, and so I just stumbled in because I was excited about a new business in my neighborhood, especially in a time when everything seems like it's closing. It's really whimsical the way that it's organized by topic. For example, if you're feeling like a book about antiracism or xenophobia, or whatever. I bought a bunch of books based on the owners recommendations and I loved them all. They have books for kids and adults — everyone.

Rebekah Bastian - I love my neighborhood woman-owned bookstore. Fun fact, if you ever want to order my book, Blaze Your Own Trail, from there, and make a note that you want it signed, they'll call me to run over there and sign it for you! :)

recommended by Katherine Tully

Kari O'Driscoll - James is super connected to community and determined to offer a variety of titles in his tiny shop. When my book came out, he offered to help me with a book launch and ordered a bunch of copies to sell.

Becky Voboril - We buy all our books here! In person or online, they have a great selection, prices are right, and the staff is always so friendly. Perfect neighborhood book shop.

Michelle Fox - This place is my jam. Whenever I'm in West Seattle, they get a visit. Great energy, lots of selection, and right in line with the feeling of perusing oodles of books on shelves in a nook of a shop.

Travis Ritter - One of Seattle’s newest record shops opened in Lake City in January 2020, just in time for a pandemic! Despite that, this wonderful store persevered (thanks to servicing online orders with curbside pick-up and a very loyal customer base of Seattle rock legends). Today, they’re still going strong. Though it is relatively small, the shop is well-stocked with all kinds of hot new LP titles from all the indie rock heavy hitters, as well as an abundance of reissues culled from obscurity and a great used LP section and walls lined with rarities. On top of that, they have a few shelves of books, zines and more, curated by one of the co-owners who has an extensive resume in the publishing world. No matter what you’re looking for, it’s impossible to leave this shop empty handed.