Where to Buy Books in Oklahoma City
We all have devices – desktop, laptop, tablet, e-readers, phone, watch (and maybe more). And if we want, we can read a book on any one of them. That’s a great convenience, a ready source of entertainment or information, and a way of amassing a stash of reading material without overloading the storage space in your house.
But sometimes we want a book. A physical book – with a cover, a binding, a spine, and pages made of paper. Of course, books can be bought online, but sometimes you would rather go to a bookstore. Maybe you want a book right now, not tomorrow. Maybe you want to get out of the house. Or maybe you want the serendipity of browsing through books you have never seen before and finding something that amazes you and makes you wonder how you managed without it.
We are fortunate in Oklahoma City to have a good selection of bookstores: a couple of chains and a surprising number of independent bookstores. Read on to find out more about all of them.
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Independent Bookstores
Bookish is nestled into the corner of N.W. 36th St. and Olie, and has been open for about one year. Their inventory consists of used books, but “used” hardly does justice to the variety and quality of their stock. Here you can find current, recent, and vintage books in a variety of genres: music, art, biography and memoir, history, sci-fi, fantasy, mysteries, fiction, etc. The children’s loft with comfy pillows is surrounded by a good selection of children’s books, with young adult materials also well represented. Events and activities include sing-alongs for kids (third Saturday at 10:15), live music, screenings, writers’ nights, and a translated fiction book club. The store is well supplied with furniture arranged for socializing or solitary pursuits. If you like, you can sit at a small desk against the wall with a giant ceramic cat staring at you. Caffeine and other sustenance are available from the Caboose Café in the middle of the store.
Commonplace Books has a cool, elegant look with large east-facing windows. The well-curated and varied selection is easy to browse, as many items are displayed on tables or facing outward on the shelves. There are a number of beautiful oversized books which are works of art in themselves. You can find books on theology and philosophy, education, lifestyle, science, essays, history, classics and modern fiction, and more. The children’s area has a basket of toys for kids to play with. Commonplace hosts a story time on Saturdays at 10:00 (with donuts). They also host author events and several book clubs, including adult read- alouds for people who enjoy listening while working on crafts or coloring. Comfortable and attractive seating includes a large emerald green velvet sofa. The attached cafe (a separate area accessible through a small passageway) has a clean, minimalist décor with abundant natural light, with indoor and outdoor seating. Both the store and the café have a calm, contemplative ambience.
The Floating Bookshop sits between two casual restaurants in a rainbow-painted wooden house in a seemingly obscure but easy-to-find part of downtown (9th St. near the railroad tracks). The store consists of one large and one small room. Books about Oklahoma City (fiction and nonfiction) and by Oklahoma authors are well represented. Subject matter includes history, poetry, science and nature, fiction, fantasy, folklore, Manga, graphic novels, and more. A section of books in Spanish includes works by Spanish language authors and works translated into Spanish from other languages. An interesting and varied collection of books on food, wine, cooking, and coffee is available. Children’s books are displayed on lower shelves at kids’ eye level to facilitate joint parent/kid browsing. In addition to books, the Floating Bookshop sells book bags, puzzles, coloring books, and some art supplies. It also provides a meeting space for four different book clubs. The large shelves are efficiently arranged to maximize book space.
Flora Bodega is not a bookstore, but they do sell some books. It is a natural foods co-op/grocery store in the Paseo area at 3020 N. Walker. In addition to their stock of locally sourced produce, meat, honey, cheese, milk, butter, nuts, and baked goods, they sell art on consignment and have a small eclectic selection of books for sale. These books rotate and move in and out of the store; what you find on one visit may be different from what you find the next. There is also a small stack of books offered for free. These are not dog-eared rejects; there are some interesting titles here. This store is well worth a visit for good books and good food.
Full Circle is the largest and oldest independent bookshop in Oklahoma City since it was founded in 1977. It occupies eight rooms on the first level of 50 Penn Place. Each room has its own personality with handsome and comfortable furniture skillfully arranged for reading, talking, and thinking; two of the rooms have working fireplaces. Two separate rooms are devoted to children’s books and materials for a range of ages. The spacious setting is echoed by the breadth of the collection, with good coverage of Oklahoma books and authors, history, classics and current fiction, religion, LGBTQIA+, crafts, nature, several shelves of graphic novels, a separate section for J.R.R. Tolkein, and a large collection of literary fiction. Full Circle has a small offering of magazines as well as current and back issues of the OU periodical World Literature Today. There is a children’s story time on Saturday mornings at 10:15, live music on weekend evenings, a Spanish conversation group, and numerous book signings. The store also sells book bags, mugs and cups, candles, and a pair of good luck socks with pictures of Mr. Rogers on them. An in-store café serves casual meals as well as snacks, wine and coffee, with indoor and outdoor seating. The atmosphere is relaxed and elegant; it is easy to feel at home here.
Literati Press occupies a four-room space in a vintage building in the Paseo area. Books are artfully displayed on shelves and tables; the general atmosphere is inviting. They have a small children’s space with a model train table and a puzzle table; children’s books are shelved throughout the store at kids’ eye level to facilitate browsing with a parent. Their large and varied collection includes sci fi, magical realism, manga, mystery, romance, classics, fiction, historical fiction, Oklahoma authors, and more. One shelf is labeled “Stories that resist classification,” another is “Short novels you can finish before your coffee gets cold.” As a working press, Literati has published a number of books. It hosts a writers’ co-op and several book clubs and provides a space and time for people who want to sit and draw. Other events include open mic poetry, writing workshops, and author events. Literati also sells book bags, post cards, puzzles, games, and art.
Second Story Books and Café is an LGBTGIA+-owned bookstore that has been in business for about 1 ½ years. They are located in a refurbished vintage building on Culbertson Drive near the Capitol and the OU Health Sciences Center. The store encompasses one large room divided into separate shelving and seating areas. They carry a good selection of classics, including all of Jane Austen and a large amount of Sherlock Holmes. In addition to sections on LBGTQIA+ authors and local authors, shelf labels include sci-fi, horror/gothic, young adult, and literary fiction. Mysteries are distinguished as cozy mysteries and mystery thrillers; the romance category is parsed into romance, romantasy, dark romance, and local romance authors. Story time for kids is every Sunday morning at 10:30, and on the last Monday of the month they host a sing-along and story time at 10:30. The café offers drinks and pastries. The shop sells book bags, puzzles, journals, and stationery, and hosts 14 book clubs. This is a bright and spacious interior with a quiet, leisurely feel.
Chain Bookstores
Barnes and Noble
Barnes and Noble is the largest bookstore chain in the U.S., with about 600 individual stores throughout the country. Two of those stores are in Oklahoma City. The one at 6100 N. May is probably familiar to most Cleveland neighbors.
Barnes and Noble’s extensive selection of mysteries, current fiction, children’s books, romance, history, and other popular genres is well known. The in-depth coverage of some of the subject areas may be less well known. For example, the section on sports (covering general aspects as well as biographical works on individual athletes) is subdivided into general sports, basketball, football, baseball/softball, soccer, golf, racquet sports, hockey, martial arts, boxing, wrestling, running, swimming, motorsports, horseracing, and team sports. The area devoted to cookbooks includes a section on international cookbooks, representing the following cuisines: Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Jewish, French, Italian, and Mexican. The seemingly endless Manga section has back-to-back shelves stretching for several yards. The foreign language reference section has dictionaries, phrasebooks, and/or grammars for Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish, including a labeled section for Bibles in Spanish.
The extensive children’s area has books for all ages, from puffy little books that squeak up to YA books and chapter book series. Sections on sports, cookbooks, hobbies and crafts, biography, history, science, and nature give young shoppers a lot to choose from.
The children’s section also offers an impressive array of toys, puzzles, and kits. Some are self-contained, and others are related to specific books. On a table display of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” the books are interspersed with jack-in-the-boxes from which Max (the main character) pops out. Not far away, a similar display features jack-in-the-boxes housing Peter Rabbit. Story time takes place on Sundays from 1:30-3:30.
The store carries music, films, and TV series on CDs and DVDs. The ample selection of magazines and periodicals has something for everyone, with titles covering technology, crafts and hobbies, cooking and wine, gardening, current events, lifestyle, entertainment, and more. On your way out, you can choose some Bissinger’s or Hammond’s chocolate to enjoy with your magazine. Barnes and Noble also has an in-store Starbuck’s café. Author events are listed on the website and on social media.
Half Price Books
Half Price Books acquires most of their inventory from individual customers selling their books; a small amount comes from distributors. You can find almost anything you want here – there are the expected collections of fiction and literature (some available as audio books or large print), mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, in addition to sections on gender studies, Native American studies, and African American studies. Part of the history section focuses on the U.S. Civil War, WWII, and military history. The food and wine area contains 24 subdivions, including appliances, food history, special diets, regional American cooking, seafood, beer/wines, holiday food, and more. The foreign language section offers dictionaries and other books in both common and less common languages. Six shelves are labeled “Libros en Español,” and include popular fiction, cooking, general interest and miscellaneous. The sign stating “Not all languages have their own placard” alerts the browser that some items will be recognizable only to the knowledgeable. Labeled shelves include both Mandarin and Cantonese, French, German, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Nepali, Norwegian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Urdu, Yiddish, Latin, and ASL.
The children’s area is extensive, with books for younger kids (coloring books, sticker books, pop-up and interactive, squeaky books, Mother Goose) and older ones. Kids’ nonfiction is divided into science/math, technology, space/astronomy, fossils, Native American, world religions/spirituality, etc. Toys, kits, puzzles, and board games are also available. In-store children’s programming is planned to start later in the year.
The area of collectibles and first editions includes several categories of mostly vintage items. The first of these is “ephemera,” which encompasses magazines, paperbacks, penny dreadfuls and dime novels. Another category is fiction/literature, followed by an area of signed copies and limited editions. Some books are displayed in a locked glass-front cabinet, with a few of them labeled “high end Bibles.” The collectible area also includes history, religion, science/nature, and cooking as well as children’s books.
In addition to books, media offerings include cassettes, CDs, DVDs, and vinyl.
Each of these bookstores is unique and has its own personality. But they are all similar in at least one way: the people who work there are friendly, helpful, and passionate about their books. And each of them is well worth a visit.