Cannot recommend this place enough! The staff is amazing and kind, the selection is great and $2…read morefiction novels?! Cannot beat it. I've been to a few used book stores and this is genuinely my favorite. The membership pays for itself even if you just go once (but trust you'll be back!)

Worst customer service I've ever seen in a book store. The lady absolutely needs to lose her job…read morewith the way she treats customers. Go to any other book store and don't waste your time dealing with that rude lady who has obvious problems. Made a stupid yelp account specifically to tell people how bad it was as well.

I love this bookstore with the tucked away bar upstairs. The selection of books should cover…read morealmost every age and genre. I especially enjoyed the travel and wine centered books. The bar is quaint and cute. Not a vast menu, but it's not needed! Love the local select beers that are available although I opted for the gin cocktail. Very reasonably priced. It's very quiet during the day, quite a few there to read and work in a quiet space and it serves that purpose well. I've also visited in the evening before where a book club meeting was ending and a D&D campaign was beginning and it was quite lively, but still a great vibe. I've had 2 visits now with many more to come. Store workers were super friendly and greeting me upon entering and looking around. Bartender was friendly as well and seemed to enjoy engaging with the guests.

I stopped in to shop at Backwater Books when I was exploring Old Ellicott City with my husband and…read moresome of his relatives when they were in town. The store was a great surprise. It's larger than I thought it might be - two stories. While not the best stocked bookstore I've ever been to, Backwater offers more than just books. It has a bar upstairs and it's set up for live music as well. It has some great seating for opening a book to read a few pages to see if you want to take it home. The customer service was great as well. Folks in Ellicott City are lucky to have this amazing bookshop. I'll definitely be back in the future (hopefully for a shop, drink, and music next time)!

Love supporting local! The selection of books is pretty good and it's easy to find genres…read more Docking a star for the friendless of the girl behind the counter, but otherwise loved this spot and the location is very convenient as well! I picked up my latest book club read and will be back for sure.

Having just left a conversation about Spider-man with fellow teenager, Peter Parker, Mary Jane…read moreWatson, after reluctantly being made Homecoming Queen, is surprised to find her tempestuous best friend, Liz Allan, who deeply coveted that title, waiting for her in front of her home. "I decked Flash...He wouldn't shut up and, without even thinking, I balled up my fist and...Principal Gorbert chewed us out. Said we were a bunch of selfish brats. Said tonight was for everyone, and we ruined it." Moments later, with tears running down her eyes, Liz makes a startling confession. "I care about you so much. You're my best friend, my sister. I try to think of what my life would be like without you in it, and it makes me sick inside." Liz pauses. "Your popularity and success, it's all great. It's what you deserve. I should be happy for you, right? And, I mean, in a way, I am, but...I needed desperately to be Homecoming Queen. Not because I am trying to feel superior to anyone, or because I have it coming to me. I needed it so...so maybe I could stop feeling like...I hate you." Eventually, the panels of the fourth issue of Sean McKeever and Takeshi Miyazawa's Mary Jane: Homecoming miniseries end in complete silence--with the two lifelong friends each riding one of the adjacent swings Liz seized for them in elementary school, but the words that Liz spoke before are what spark the imagination and trigger empathy, regret, anger, and love. Sentences in the best-written novels, mysteries, fantasies, speculative histories, and gothic horror do that too; and there is no better place to discover new sequences of words that will linger in your memory than Queen Takes Book, located at 6955 Oakland Mills Road in Columbia, Maryland. There, the friendly service will welcome you as if to the sparking embers of a fireplace in which only your imaginations are lit.

An insta reel led me to Books for Life, and I'm so glad it did. Used bookstores are often…read moreoverwhelming. Books for life is not. It is organized in a very easy to identify way. I took my 12 year old, and she thought there was a small section appropriate for her, but for me... oh my gosh, I withheld because there were so many gems that I wanted to bring home but held back so that others could enjoy the selection, too. I'm talking hardcover, sprayed edges Onyx Storm for 10 dollars. How is that even possible??? Needless to say, we will absolutely be back, even with a 35 minute one way drive. Oh, it's in a totally nondescript warehouse space but is clearly branded. They also take trade ins, which I'm guessing is part of how they curate their selection. Lots on BOTM offerings. Go, just go. You will have zero regret, only new books.

My new favorite used book store. It's like the selection was catered specifically for me and my…read moredaughter. We will be back soon!

BLUF: Located inside the Columbia Mall, on the second floor, this is a sizable book store with…read morepuzzles and other paper goods. I passed by a store called BAM! and it conjured up visions of Emeril Lagasse but the only resemblance this store has to Emeril is that it sells cookbooks. Little did I know that BAM! Is short for Books-A-Million and this store has plenty of books, stationary, puzzles and other gifty items. Preferring to listen to audio books, I'm not one for physical books but this store had some lovely displays and vignettes that sucked me in. Although not as large as Barnes & Noble there is still a very healthy selection of well organized merchandise. There was something very nostalgic and cozy about browsing in this store. Overall, a nice experience.

I really like this bookstore. It's well organized and it smells good. Wasn't really in the market…read morefor a book tonight, but it was fun looking around. Friendly staff greets you on entry, but then everyone leaves you alone.

BLUF: Books, magazines, Paper Source products and a coffee bar…read more Visiting a Barnes and Noble takes me back to Saturday evenings in the late 90s. There was always something cozy about visiting B&N to sip coffee, flip through magazines and snicker at racy book covers. Now I visit B&N to shop their puzzles and to peruse the Paper Source collection. Yes, that's right, Paper Source is now sold at Barnes and Noble including one of my favorite brands - Rifle Paper Company. B&N also has one of the best brick-and-mortar puzzle collections around and in January they are buy one, get one 50%. On my recent visit to the Columbia Barnes & Noble I was poking around for a few things in particular and I found the staff to be very helpful. This particular store is located just outside the Mall in Columbia. It's detached from the main part of the mall but it's also not that far to walk between the mall and B&N.

Clean, well-organized Barnes & Noble with creative displays and easy-to-navigate sections…read more Everything felt thoughtfully put together, making it simple to find what I was looking for and fun to browse. Solid 4 stars.

Pretty solid book store. Very large and well stocked. Staff here were easily identifiable and ready…read moreto help. The cafe was a little pricey, but most book stores are.

With two tasks to complete, both were accomplished at this neat and expansive location. Before…read moresettling in to work at the cafe,I found a book to enjoy later. Of course I also picked up an extra book as well. The cafe serves Starbucks products, though limited. My Starbucks gift card is no good there . Spring temps are wild. I drank a tasty strawberry lemonade, felt chilly and warmed up with chai tea ($1 off after my book purchase). The plugs for laptop users are very limited here. Perhaps only one or two. Still I recommend this location.

Hooray for independent book stores…read more I was skeptical when I decided to come here. The photos I found online made the place look.. well a little on the rough side. Once I got there - it was spacious, clean, and modern. It is on the small side for a book store, but the selection of kids to young adult books was outstanding. They also have adult books, lots of toys and trinkets - and is a general pleasure to walk around. The staff was very friendly, and more than willing to answer the questions we had (including where to get lunch). I was disappointed that they didn't have a changing table (considering the large children's section) - but there is a family restroom across the street at E.W. Becks pub.

Cute store with a decent selection of new and a few used books. Pleasant environment and helpful…read morestaff. A nice find on Main St. across from Becks

I stopped in on a Saturday afternoon and immediately fell in love. Gramp's Attic Books is exactly…read morewhat I'd hoped - a well-curated bookstore with used books, many of which are in excellent condition. I thought the prices were reasonable, and it was fun to look at some of the incredible first editions he has in there.

Great selection if you can find him when he's open. The gentleman who owns/works there is very…read moreknowledgeable. Love this place

Quality bookstore!…read more This was the only store in the entire area that had the book I was looking for. I went to 6 other ones including Barnes and noble and this one was the one! Cashier was super helpful and nice even though my book didn't come up in the database. The entire collection in the store seemed super fancy and all hardcover and even the book I need was a lot fancier than the usual copies. It had a slide out hard cover and gold lettering. Didn't seem like the prices were high but they were having a 40% off all literature that day so I got a great deal! Definitely recommend.

No Yelp reviews of the Kelmscott in Book Row on 25th? Seriously !? Don't Yelpers read books anymore…read moreor care about affordable and amazing rare and used books, manuscripts, and collectibles? Has the entire freakin' world gone Kindle on me since I left the charming city that reads? 25th St was one of those places that initially scared me when I moved to the city from what had been up to that point a sheltered life in West Virginia and Williamstown, Mass. This was urban East Coast livin' in the late 1990s, and it took me a few months to screw up the courage to head down Charles St in search of used books and other delights that midtown B'more could offer. I'm so glad that I did. I am a better, more enlightened person for having done so by visiting unique and wonderful places like the Kelmscott and Royal Books. So go ahead! Live a little! Put your iPhone and Crackberry away for a nanosec' and see what several hundred years of paper, ink, leather, linen, and movable type are capable of producing. Once you open an old book with real Italian marbled paper lining its inside cover - let alone one printed on vellum - you will realize the limits of e-reading and e-mailing. These things have their essential places in the 21st century, but so, too, do rare, used, and artisinal books made from tree pulp and cotton.