Pacific Northwest Travel Vlog
Hello! Last month I visited Washington and Oregon for the very first time, and what can I say! I simply fell in love with the area. There was so much culture and nature - it made it hard to leave. I do have some lingering thoughts of moving to the Seattle area… We’ll see what happens!
It wouldn’t be a vacation from me if I didn’t visit any bookstores. There were a lot of incredible indie bookstores in the area, and I definitely didn’t visit them all. Here’s all the bookstores I visited and my thoughts on them!
———
Golden Age Collectibles
Pike Place Market 1501, Pike St #401, Seattle, WA
Known as the World’s Oldest Comic Shop, this store is a must for comic collectors. They have vintage and modern comics and fan forward goods like figurines, collectibles, and even movie scripts! How I determine a good comic shop is how large their graphic novel and manga section is in comparison to single issue comics. They had a nice blend of all forms of sequential narratives so it passes the mark for me!
Kinokuniya Bookstore
525 S Weller St (aka Uwajimaya Village), Seattle, WA
This is technically the only chain bookstore on the list, but I thought it was worth including since there’s only a handful of them in the US. The store focuses on Asian books and stationary, with a special interest in Japanese made products. I mainly came because there was a limited time promotion for one of my favorite manga series. However, since it was near the end of the promo, options were limited. I surprisingly wasn’t too impressed with their stationary section either. The trip to the store was saved when I found one remaining copy of a Kickstarter funded anthology series that I was looking for.
Powell’s Books
1005 W Burnside St, Portland, OR
Powell’s is the world’s largest indie bookstore, and it was definitely an adventure! There are several floors to the store, with “rooms” of specific categories of books. I mainly stayed in the Yellow Room, which featured genre fiction and graphic novels. Going through all the rooms is definitely a day trip on its own. I would recommend not going on a weekend - it was so incredibly busy when we went I was instantly overwhelmed and it made me not want to explore too much! Powell’s is also lower on my list too because of accessibility concerns. Since it’s an older store, shelves are very cramped together and extremely tall. I had to ask someone for help reaching a book since there was no step stool in sight. I can’t imagine someone using an assisted device coming to Powell’s :(
Last Word Books
501 4th Ave E, Olympia, WA
If you want a crunchy (non-derogatory) used bookstore, I highly recommend this one! I can imagine myself taking an afternoon and comfortably relaxing in one of their easy chairs, reading a zine their press had made. There’s lots of hidden corners to the store, and it was fun searching for a great deal there!
BLMF Literary Saloon*
1501 Pike Pl #322, Seattle, WA
*My personal favorite!
This was the best of both worlds for me: great selections with great prices! BLMF Literary Saloon (which I just learned means, “Books Like a Motherfucker”) is a used bookstore deep below Pike Place. They had a mixture of newer books to hard to find editions. You can easily get lost in there! There were stacks upon stacks of books to peruse. Some of the stacks were, I swear, as tall as me, which added a fun, surprise element of danger. They had a large and dedicated section for horror, which not all stores have. I even found a republished edition of one of the first comic strips ever made, “Krazy and Ignatz”. I’ve been searching for a copy for so long, and I’m glad to have found it here!
Left Bank Books
92 Pike St Unit B, Seattle, WA
A two storey leftist leaning bookstore near the market - what a treat! I loved how community focused it is! They feature a mix of mainstream, indie, and self published books. If you’re a zine lover like I am, you will love the store. It is a small but mighty. The shelves are absolutely packed with books. I could’ve easily spent a couple hours there.
Lamplight Books
1514 Pike Pl #14, Seattle, WA
Oh look! Another used and vintage bookstore at Pike Place! Lamplight felt like a classic used bookstore to me with tall shelves and the lovely scent of aging paper. They did have a section for horror, which I will give them props for that, but unfortunately no graphic novels. I didn’t find a book to take home this time from Lamplight, but I think it’s worth another trip in the future.
Pine Books
1501 Pike Pl Apt 432, Seattle, WA
Now, I’m a firm believer that indie bookstores should always have a shop pet. Out of the entire list, this was the only shop to have one! Colby is a King Charles Cavalier older dog who likes to sleep in the shop’s viewing window made especially for Colby. Pine Books felt like a modern indie bookstore with a strong design aesthetic and a focus on new releases. One unique thing about the shop that sets them apart is that they have shelves dedicated to book award winners, such as the Booker Prize and other international prizes.
———
Thanks for reading!
