Everyone knows the best way to look smart without actually being smart is to carry around lots of books with impressive looking titles. And the quickest way to the heart of an intellectual (or pseudo-intellectual for that matter) is through the battered paperback that you keep in your messenger bag.
But where do you pick up said paperback? Or if you're in it for the long haul, a hardcover?
Clearly the best bookstore in Seattle is Elliott Bay Book Company. There's not really a contest, in my mind. But Pioneer Square can't always be on the itinerary of the Capitol Hillian. So I thought a nice rundown of the fine booksellers in the Broadway area might be a little helpful, just in case you're in a jam and need to find a copy of, oh, I don't know, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, or Life of Pi.
Directly on Broadway you have Baily/Coy books. Mostly new books, but they have a few used ones too, and they intersperse them with the new ones. Separate but equal doesn't apply here. This place is pretty nice, and the staff seems to know their stuff.
Just off Broadway on John is Twice Sold Tales. The draws here are clear: cheap used books, late night sales, and cats. And they are open super late on Friday nights, and you can get a quarter off the price then too.
On the other side of the 'Way just off Olive on Belmont sits the corporate behemoth that is Half Price Books. While I normally try and stay local, sometimes the prices here sway me to cross over to the dark side. The fiction section in the basement is not often beat, in my book. (pun probably intended)
I guess those are the big players. But don't forget The Spine and Crown on Pike, and the Occult bookstore over there as well. These are super little stores with great staff.
Broadway's bibliophiles will probably agree that it's impossible to pick a favorite bookstore. But if it weren't it would SO be Twice Sold Tales.
