7 Unique Bookstores to Explore in NYC

Serving as a general interest bookstore, Rizzoli’s is sure to have anything and everything that you could ever want! Recognize the beautiful interior? Rizzoli’s has been featured in Manhattan (1979), Falling in Love (1984), True Story (2015), and tv shows like Seinfeld.

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Considered “The Undisputed King of the City’s Independent Bookstores” by the New York Times, the Strand Bookstore is a family-owned bookstore carries over 2.5 million used, new, and rare books. So if you can’t find it here, it probably doesn’t exist.

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Bluestockings, located on the Lower East Side, is a collectively-owned and volunteer-supported bookstore that also houses a fair trade cafe and is a known activist center. Originally opened as a feminist bookstore, Bluestockings has tons of titles and events tilted towards social justice related topics.

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Owned by Otto Penzler, the Mysterious Bookshop is a bookstore and publisher that focuses on mystery fiction. Their inventory consists at of new and rare volumes of detective, crime, and spy fiction, along with thrillers and other mystery fiction subgenres. They have the largest collection of Sherlock Holmes titles in the world and are also one of the oldest mystery bookstores in the world.

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With locations on Fulton Street and Flatbush Avenue, Greenlight Bookstore lies in the heart of Brooklyn and has a community-based business model. For every $100 spent in the store, $68 stays in the community. Cool huh?

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Get Flatbush Avenue directions here.

Located in the Payne Whitney mansion, Albertine is the only bookstore in New York with books dedicated to just French and English with more than 14,000 titles from French-speaking countries. But this is not the only unique thing about Albertine’s; they have a hand-painted mural of constellations, stars, and planets on their ceiling!

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Book Culture, located on the Upper West side, aims at enriching New York City’s history and reputation for being a home to writers, publishers, editors, and bookstores. Be sure to check our their “Blind Date With A Book” section! Luckily, they have three locations at 536 West 112th Street, 2915 Broadway, and 450 Columbus Avenue.

Get West 112th Street directions here.
Get Broadway Street directions here.
Get Columbus Avenue directions here.