Books

We like to read. Borders Books & Music got its start here, and the chain’s Store no. 1 on East Liberty still anchors the State Street area. The Little Professor Book Company is headquartered here, too; its onetime flagship store, now an independent called Nicola’s Books, is in Westgate Shopping Center.

The rest of Ann Arbor’s nonchain bookstores are specialists: Aunt Agatha’s, on Fourth Avenue, sells new and used mysteries, and Common Language, in Braun Court, serves Ann Arbor’s gay and lesbian readers. Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Falling Water, both on Main, showcase New Age and spiritually themed books in appropriately serene settings. State Street’s Shaman Drum has personal, knowledgeable service and a mix of popular and scholarly books.

For bargain prices and out-of-print treasures, bibliophiles on a budget head for used-book dealers David’s Books, on William, Dawn Treader, on East Liberty, and Kaleidoscope, on South State, where walls of books share space with vintage board games, posters, and other funky nostalgia. On Ann, Motte & Bailey has a fascinating inventory of history books. West Side Book Shop, on Liberty, has used books and a room full of early photographs of Native Americans by Edward S. Curtis.