Bookstores in New Orleans
New Orleans, LA has 25 bookstores on the map. That's 25 bookshops mapped around New Orleans, each with its own shelves and specialties. The used sections are where the real bargains hide. Give yourself an hour minimum — bookshops are the one errand that always takes longer than planned.
This guide covers every bookstore we could verify in and around New Orleans (within about 40 km), built from OpenStreetMap's community-maintained data. Names you'll run into include Garden District Bookstore and Maple Street Book Shop, plus Community Book Center. If a bookshop's missing from New Orleans's list, it probably just hasn't been mapped yet.
The New Orleans bookstore lineup
25 mapped within about 40 km:
Garden District Bookstore
Bookstore
Garden District Bookstore is Bookstore.
Maple Street Book Shop
Bookstore
Maple Street Book Shop is Bookstore.
Community Book Center
Bookstore
Community Book Center is Bookstore on 2523 Bayou Road. Community Book Center also notes on the map: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
2523 Bayou Road
Phone: +1 504 9487323
Beckham's Book Shop
Bookstore
Beckham's Book Shop — Bookstore on 228 Decatur St. Also worth knowing about Beckham's Book Shop: the map lists its hours as Mo-Su 10:00-17:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
228 Decatur St
Hours: Mo-Su 10:00-17:00
Phone: +1 504-522-9875
Frenchmen Street Art & Books
Bookstore
Frenchmen Street Art & Books is Bookstore on 600 Frenchmen Street.
600 Frenchmen Street
Beth's Books
Bookstore
Beth's Books — Bookstore.
Octavia Books
Bookstore
Octavia Books is Bookstore on 501 Octavia Street, New Orleans. Octavia Books also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 10:00-18:00; Su 10:00-17:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
501 Octavia Street, New Orleans, 70115
Hours: Mo-Sa 10:00-18:00; Su 10:00-17:00
Phone: +1-504-899-7323
More Fun Comics
Bookstore
More Fun Comics is Bookstore on Oak Street.
Oak Street, 70118
Blue Cypress Books
Bookstore
Blue Cypress Books is Bookstore on 8123 Oak Street, New Orleans. Blue Cypress Books also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-We 10:00-17:30; Th-Fr 10:00-20:00; Sa 10:00-17:00; Su 11:00-16:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
8123 Oak Street, New Orleans, 70118
Hours: Mo-We 10:00-17:30; Th-Fr 10:00-20:00; Sa 10:00-17:00; Su 11:00-16:00
Phone: +1 504-352-0096
Crescent City Books
Bookstore
Crescent City Books is Bookstore on 124 Baronne Street.
124 Baronne Street, 70112
Faulkner House Books
Bookstore
Faulkner House Books — Bookstore on 624 Pirate Alley. Also worth knowing about Faulkner House Books: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
624 Pirate Alley
Phone: +1-504-524-2940
Librairie Bookshop
Bookstore
Librairie Bookshop is Bookstore on 823 Chartres Street.
823 Chartres Street
Arcadian Books & Art Prints
Bookstore
Arcadian Books & Art Prints — Bookstore on 714 Orleans Avenue.
714 Orleans Avenue
Kitchen Witch Cookbooks
Bookstore
Kitchen Witch Cookbooks is Bookstore on 1452 North Broad Street.
1452 North Broad Street
Baldwin & Co. Coffee & Bookstore
Bookstore
Baldwin & Co. Coffee & Bookstore — Bookstore on 1030 Elysian Fields Avenue. Also worth knowing about Baldwin & Co. Coffee & Bookstore: the map lists its hours as Mo-Su 07:00-18:00.
1030 Elysian Fields Avenue
Hours: Mo-Su 07:00-18:00
UNO Bookstore
Bookstore
UNO Bookstore — Bookstore.
Dauphine Street Books
Bookstore
Dauphine Street Books — Bookstore on 818 Chartres St.
818 Chartres St, 70112
Barnes & Noble
Bookstore
Barnes & Noble — Bookstore.
Libreria Cristiana Jireh
Bookstore
Libreria Cristiana Jireh is Bookstore. Libreria Cristiana Jireh also notes on the map: a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
Phone: +1-504-466-4035
Heroes Center Comics
Bookstore
Heroes Center Comics — Bookstore on 5928 West Metairie Avenue.
5928 West Metairie Avenue
Barnes & Noble
Bookstore
Barnes & Noble — Bookstore, found on 1200 South Clearview Parkway in Elmwood. Also worth knowing about Barnes & Noble: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 09:00-20:00; Su 10:00-19:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip.
1200 South Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, 70123
Hours: Mo-Sa 09:00-20:00; Su 10:00-19:00
Phone: +1-504-946-7114
Good News Book Store
Bookstore
Good News Book Store is Bookstore.
Crescent City Comics
Bookstore
Crescent City Comics is Bookstore on 3135 Calhoun Street, New Orleans. Crescent City Comics also notes on the map: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 11:00-19:00; Su 12:00-18:00; a phone number is listed — worth a call before a special trip; it has a website with more detail.
3135 Calhoun Street, New Orleans, 70125
Hours: Mo-Sa 11:00-19:00; Su 12:00-18:00
Phone: +1-504-309-2223
Barnes & Noble
Bookstore
Barnes & Noble — Bookstore. Also worth knowing about Barnes & Noble: the map lists its hours as Mo-Sa 09:00-22:00; Su 10:00-21:00.
Hours: Mo-Sa 09:00-22:00; Su 10:00-21:00
Pauline Books & Media
Bookstore
Pauline Books & Media — Bookstore.
What the map tells us about bookstores in New Orleans
7 of the 25 list their opening hours on the map, which is genuinely useful — bookshops keep civilised hours, so the listed ones are usually reliable.
6 have websites listed. Worth a look for events — readings and signings get announced there first.
The New Orleans bookstore crawl
The efficient New Orleans bookstore crawl strings these together: Garden District Bookstore, Maple Street Book Shop, Community Book Center on 2523 Bayou Road, Beckham's Book Shop on 228 Decatur St, Frenchmen Street Art & Books on 600 Frenchmen Street, Beth's Books, Octavia Books on 501 Octavia Street, and More Fun Comics on Oak Street — 25 stops, one logical order. 17 more are listed below.
Bookstore tips for New Orleans
A few things worth knowing before you work through New Orleans's bookstores:
- Ask the booksellers at Garden District Bookstore. A good bookseller lives for the question 'what should I read next?' Give them three books you loved and watch them work.
- Don't skip the small press section at Maple Street Book Shop. The weird, wonderful stuff lives here. Small presses take the risks the big publishers won't.
- Poetry lives in bookshops. Poetry barely exists online as a browsing experience. The poetry shelf in a real shop is a different world.
- Buy the signed copy. Signed stock costs the same as unsigned and only goes up in charm. Ask at the till; shops often have signed copies behind the counter.
Good to know
We searched about 40 km around New Orleans — that covers the town itself plus the surrounding communities you'd reasonably drive to. Listings come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by local volunteers, so a brand-new bookstore in New Orleans can take a while to appear. Spotted a closure among the 25, or a bookstore we missed entirely? The map is the source of truth here — one OpenStreetMap edit corrects it for everyone.
We don't list prices — they change constantly and vary by edition. What we list is the where: real shops, verified by real mappers, in alphabetical order with no favourites.
If you run one of the 25 listed here and something's wrong — a closure, a move, new hours — the fix is the same: update the shop on OpenStreetMap and the correction flows through to this page on the next daily refresh.
Bookstore listings for New Orleans: 25 mapped from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Photos from Wikimedia Commons contributors; individual photo credits appear in captions. Listing data was last refreshed automatically — verify hours before visiting.