Manhattan, briefly. Thirteen shops.
Thirteen indie bookstores across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens — smaller and more niche than the big three (Strand, Books Are Magic, McNally Jackson). This list is drawn from Katie Ward's guide, a photographer's love letter to her city's deep literary bench.
Manhattan 6 shops
Source · Katie Ward ↗Crime, thrillers, mystery. Floor-to-ceiling shelves in a dark-academia-meets-jigsaw-puzzle setting. Staff gives real recommendations whether you're an expert or a newcomer.
Rare editions, art books, indie press. No-frills East Village space built for unhurried browsing. Tompkins Square Park is a few blocks away if you want to read what you just bought.
Deeply devoted to New York's artistic and literary history, past and present. Events happen on the sidewalk out front. Usually an art exhibition on the walls inside.
The best children's bookstore in New York, full stop. Rare editions and special collections alongside the new stuff. Where you take kids when you want them to feel the full weight of what books can do.
The first Asian-American woman-owned bookstore in NYC, opened by Lucy Yu. Titles emphasizing Asian and immigrant writers. The building's original facade is preserved as tribute to its past life as a funeral supply store. Bar with cafe classics and craft beer.
Literally a hundred years old. Antiquarian, for real bibliophiles. Dark wood and green-shaded lamps — walking in feels like entering the heart of an old library. Janet Malcolm profiled it for The New Yorker in 2014.
Brooklyn + Queens 7 shops
Source · Katie Ward ↗Heady reads, small publishers, and a standout zine section. Airy, well-lit, with tables in the back for tea and pastries. Evening readings from NYC's indie presses. Ward notes this is one of her locals — they give her kids hot chocolate.
Woman- and queer-owned romance specialist. All subgenres — YA, paranormal, LGBTQ+, erotica, mystery, historical, romantasy, classics. The Brooklyn location is thoughtfully laid out for the sheer volume. Gorgeous space.
Used books near Maria Hernandez Park. A bar — wine, coffee, snacks. Deep cuts: translation, theory, poetry, things you won't find anywhere else. Fair prices for your own books if you're looking to rehome them.
A big, bright space under the Manhattan Bridge. Art, photo, small press, literature, architecture, design, subculture, and a huge children's section. Old pews for flipping through before you buy. One of the few licensed Jellycat vendors in the city.
For the page you have to read twice. Poetic, theoretical, thick with ideas. Tarot decks and occult texts alongside the literary stock. Something here you can't find elsewhere.
Community-first and political. Strong events calendar, especially for poets. Posters and ephemera from local and international artists alongside the books.
The first horror-devoted bookstore in NYC (brick-and-mortar opened 2024). Marketed at covens and Shelley-heads. The cafe menu tips hard into autumn — Vampire's Kiss, Mary Shelley, Eternal Pumpkin Spice Latte. Kid-friendly tiny chairs in the back.
This list is Katie Ward's, not mine.
I lived in Manhattan for two years and mostly orbited Strand, McNally Jackson, and a couple of neighborhood shops. The shops above — the smaller, more niche ones — are shops I learned from Katie Ward's piece. She's a photographer with a bookshelf worth photographing and an appreciation for the city's literary topography. Her descriptions do more with a paragraph than I could do with three.
Read the full Katie Ward post — photos of each shop, and her framing of "collecting books and reading books are two different hobbies" is worth the click by itself.