The readers of this blog are exactly the folks always searching for a new, wonderful bookstore. So this seemed like the perfect place to establish a list of the country's top bookstores. I'll kick it off, perhaps adding as I think more about it. But I hope that commenters will share lots of ideas. If this gets going, I'll try to incorporate comments into the post for easy reading (perhaps organizing by state).
This is one crowdsourcing exercise that might actually make a difference in some of our lives!
Update: I have incorporated suggestions from commenters to facilitate reading.
Asheville, NC area:
Malaprops Bookstore
City Lights Bookstore (Sylva)
Birmingham area:
Alabama Booksmith (new and used)
Boston area:
Brattle Bookshop (used and antiquarian)
Brookline Booksmith
Harvard Bookstore (Cambridge)
Bryn Mawr Book Store (used)
Burlington VT area:
Flying Pig Bookstore (Shelburne)
Charlotte area:
Chicago area:
Barbara's Bookstore
Seminary Coop
Unabridged Bookstore
The Book Table
Denver area:
Hudson Valley/Catskills NY
Spotty Dog Books & Ale (Hudson)
Golden Note Book (Woodstock)
Iowa City
Lexington KY
Joseph-Beth Booksellers (three other locations including Cincinnati)
Lexington VA
Miami
Books & Books (multiple locations)
Minneapolis area:
New York area
Mysterious Bookshop
St. Marks Bookshop
The Strand
The Community Bookstore (Brooklyn)
Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn)
Oxford MS
Philadelphia area:
Joseph Fox Bookshop
A Children's Place Bookstore
Portland, OR area:
Raleigh-Durham area:
Regulator Bookshop
(Durham)Fly Leaf Books
2nd Edition
The Bookshop
The Internationalist
Richmond:
San Francisco area:
City Lights Booksellers
Green Apple Books
Moe's (used) (Berkeley)
Black Oak Books (used) (Berkeley)
Kepler's Books (Menlo Park)
Santa Barbara
Chaucer's Bookstore
The Book Den (used)
Seattle area:
Elliott Bay Book Company
Upper Case Books (Snohomish)
St. Louis area:
St. Petersburg
Vero Beach FL
Washington DC area:
Kramerbooks
Politics and Prose
Hooray for Books! (Children's) (Alexandria)
In Brooklyn, Community Books, and Greenlight Books. In the Chicago area, Book Table.
Posted by: Amy Widman | August 07, 2012 at 09:06 AM
Hooray for Books in Alexandria, Virginia and the the The Flying Pig in Shelburne, Vermont!
Posted by: Natalie Dias Lorenzi | August 07, 2012 at 05:11 PM
In Saint Louis you'll find two locations for Left Bank Books. See http://www.left-bank.com/
Posted by: Gene Basanta | August 07, 2012 at 05:21 PM
Uppercase Bookshop, Snohomish, WA 30 miles north of Seattle.
Posted by: L M | August 07, 2012 at 06:17 PM
Books & Co in Lexington, VA (corner of Jefferson and Nelson)
Posted by: Brian Clarke | August 07, 2012 at 07:20 PM
McNally Jackson, NYC
Posted by: hbw | August 07, 2012 at 11:53 PM
Full Circle Bookstore in Oklahoma City is a real gem.
Posted by: Alfred Brophy | August 08, 2012 at 11:51 AM
For the next few weeks there's the Chester County Book and Music Store in my hometown of West Chester. It has a fabulous collection -- for instance, I bought Betsy Blackmar's Manhattan for Rent there some years ago -- a great but specialized nineteenth century of NYC. Whenever I'm home I try to go there -- it's a real gem. Alas, I have just heard that they're closing.
Posted by: Alfred Brophy | August 09, 2012 at 09:57 AM
Don't miss Book People in Austin, TX. In Chicago, Women and Children First is a great one also.
Posted by: Jennifer Laurin | August 10, 2012 at 11:53 AM
The Book Barn in Niantic, CT is a fantastic used bookstore.
Posted by: Elanor | August 10, 2012 at 12:27 PM
Grolier Poetry Bookshop (Cambridge, MA): http://www.grolierpoetrybookshop.org. It's just around the corner from Harvard Bookstore.
Posted by: Dean C. Rowan | August 10, 2012 at 12:45 PM
In Cambridge, Schoenhof's is fantastic for foreign language books and the Grolier is an incredible store specializing in poetry. I believe that Book Culture (which used to be Labyrinth Books) remains the best scholarly book store in NYC. Labyrinth Books retains a store in Princeton, NJ. Posman's Books (with a couple of NYC locations) is also excellent, although with a very different emphasis. The Drama Book Shop in Manhattan has a comprehensive collection of works related to its name.
Posted by: Bernie Meyler | August 10, 2012 at 01:00 PM
For anyone who makes it to Boise, check out Trip Taylor Bookseller (used) and Hyde Park Books (new and used).
Posted by: Stephen R. Miller | August 10, 2012 at 01:44 PM
Talking Leaves in Buffalo. http://www.tleavesbooks.com/
Posted by: Jim Gardner | August 10, 2012 at 02:31 PM
Women and Children First in Chicago should also be on the list.
Posted by: Spencer Waller | August 10, 2012 at 03:14 PM
Raven Used Books (Cambridge, MA) is excellent (www.ravencambridge.com) -- they also have a Boston location that I've never been to, but which I suspect would be quite good as well.
Posted by: C | August 10, 2012 at 03:21 PM
Reading Reptile in Kansas City is fabulous for children's books.
Posted by: Joan Mahoney | August 11, 2012 at 06:32 AM
Raven Used Books in Cambridge, MA and Boston, MA, specializing in scholarly books
Posted by: Anon | August 11, 2012 at 09:49 AM
Warwicks in La Jolla, Ca. Has weekly authors come in to speak about their book.
Posted by: Orly Lobel | August 12, 2012 at 04:44 AM
Avol's Books, Madison, WI
Paul's Books, Madison, WI
Talking Leaves, Buffalo, NY
Full Circle, OKC, OK
Powell's, Portland, OR
Kepler's, Menlo Park, CA
Valley Book Shop, Amherst, MA (now only online, I think)
Posted by: Shubha Ghosh | August 12, 2012 at 09:58 AM