Bay Area Booksellers
Independent Bookstores
If a good bookstore is a sign of a good neighborhood, then communities across the Bay Area can consider themselves blessed. Doomsday predictions about the death of bookstores abound, but there are scores of independent stores in the area - roughly 150 within a 50-mile radius of San Francisco. Here's a list of independent bookstores that belong to the nonprofit trade organization Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.
Bay Area Independent Bookstore Guide (SFGate)
Bay Area Independent Bookstore Guide (SFGate)
Pages Books on the Green
Your most local, independent bookseller, owned and operated by long-time local residents. Walking distance from Windsor High School, Pages Books on the Green is a literary anchor on the Town Green, nestled conveniently amid restaurants, coffee shops, and local favorite Powell's Sweet Shoppe. With a fine selection of fiction, non-fiction, cook books, home and garden, young adult and children's books, what the store does not have in stock they will gladly special-order for you, free of charge.
As Yelp reviewer Rhea B. notes: "Pages also has a nice selection of greeting cards and quirky gifts. The ladies behind the counter have always been helpful, and if you buy merchandise during the holiday season, they will gift-wrap it for free." |
Copperfield's Books
From author events, book clubs to book fairs, Copperfield’s has been committed to literature, education, and community. Copperfield’s has a reputation throughout Northern California for creating vibrant gathering places which offer cozy surroundings for booklovers.
Whatever your interests, Copperfield’s has always taken pride in having a unique mix of inventory that provides customers with a fun shopping experience. Each store is stocked with a broad selection of books, magazines, greeting cards, and unique gifts. The store in Santa Rosa also has a café. Petaluma has a used bookstore that provides access to thousands of antiquarian and out-of-print books. They also buy used books from their customers. |
Treehorn Books
Santa Rosa's largest used bookstore, Treehorn is conveniently located in Santa Rosa's downtown--a quiet refuge from the bustle of 4th Street. Stocked floor-to-celing with affordable as well as collectible fiction, non-fiction, history, philosophy, art, poetry, and children's literature.
Reviewer Jessica Quandt observes, "Have you ever been to the house of an eccentric acquaintance and spent hours marveling at his walls and walls of built-in bookcases, his exhaustive collection threatening to spill off the shelves? Treehorn Books is like that, except you’re actually allowed to take the books home with you." |
Book Passage
Book Passage has served the Bay Area for more than 30 years, providing the community with an array of author events, writing and language classes, and highly-respected annual conferences.
A New York Times-reporting bookstore, Book Passage offers a wide variety of books ranging from children’s literature to travel guides, from top-selling fiction to mystery novels, and they continue to work diligently with community and nonprofit organizations. Book Passage has two stores, one in Corte Madera and a second in the San Francisco Ferry Building. |
City Lights Booksellers & Publishers
City Lights is a landmark independent independent bookstore and publisher that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. Located in the heart of North Beach, and a single alley's walk away from Chinatown, City Lights is a landmark general bookstore, internationally known for its expert selection of books and for its commitment to free intellectual inquiry.
Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture's only "Literary Landmark." |
Green Apple Books
Founded in 1967, today Green Apple Books covers about 10 times its original 750 square feet and is perennially voted the best bookstore in the Bay Area by readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the SF Weekly, and various other papers, magazines, websites, etc. Over the years, as space became available, the store expanded--in 1996, Green Apple acquired Revolver Records, its neighbor for twenty years, thus adding new and used music to the mix.
The balance between new and used books has been fluid throughout the store’s history; Green Apple strives to adjust to an ever-changing marketplace by varying its product mix, section sizes, etc. without ever losing focus on what makes it a great bookstore: an excellent selection of quality books in all subject areas. |
Moe's Books
Since its inception back in the heyday of the Beatnik era, Moe's Books has managed to become more than just a great bookstore--it has achieved the rarified status of a beloved landmark institution as well. Situated just four blocks from the University of California campus, Moe's has managed to mirror the often turbulent and triumphant times that have come to epitomize all that is exciting and unique about Berkeley.
Moe's boasts hundreds of thousands of titles in an ever-changing stock. The store buys, sells, and trades books all day, every day, and is committed to paying fair prices for quality books. And Moe's is not just about selling books. It has a very active reading series with very interesting people constantly dropping by, and you are just as likely to find well-known authors in the audience as at the podium. |
Shakespeare & Co
Shakespeare & Co, located on Telegraph Ave, is an independent used and antiquarian bookstore with ties to the community since 1964. Part of the rich literary and political history that makes Berkeley so unique. An owner-operated bookstore flexible & open to the needs of customers both walk-in and on-line. Books range from the rare and antiquarian to the everyday, including vintage sci-fi and mystery paperback, metaphysics, novels and a wide-range of other subjects. Shakespeare & Co also has a wonderful children’s nook stocked with affordable children’s collectibles, non-fiction, early-readers, chapter books to young adults.
|
Kepler's Books
Founded in 1955, by peace activist Roy Kepler. For 60 years, Kepler's has been the intellectual and cultural hub for the Peninsula, known for its outstanding literary events, knowledgeable staff, broad selection of books and magazines, and for its deep ties to the community. Along with Cody’s in Berkeley and City Lights in San Francisco, Kepler’s led the paperback revolution in the San Francisco Bay Area in the '50s and '60s.
Today Kepler's is thriving once again and remains a household name in the daily lives of its fiercely loyal customers. A new management team is hard at work building a sustainable future for Kepler’s and continuing Roy Kepler’s original mission to open minds, deepen literacy, and promote critical thinking. |