The Bookery & Dark Star Books near Dayton, OH (A Bookstore Review)

I travel regularly for work and so, being the book junkie that I am, I naturally seek out bookstores in the area I'll be visiting--especially used or independent stores. On a recent trip to the Dayton, OH area, I found two great stores you should definitely check out. Both had amazing selections of pulp paperbacks that I couldn't resist.

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The Bookery

The Bookery is really three stores occupying several storefronts in nearby Fairborn. On one side of the street sits Bookery Gaming which sells board games, collectible card games, and the like. Attached to this shop is a large room full of used books, predominantly genre paperbacks. They have a large selection of scifi, fantasy, mystery, and horror alongside your typical used book fare. Across the street is Bookery Comics & Collectibles which features comic books and associated paraphernalia, including some vintage (and expensive) comics.

I didn't have time to browse the large cases of comic back issues in the second shop as my time was short, but I had a good time digging through the paperbacks and picked up some Fritz Leiber whom I rarely see on the shelf in stores.

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Dark Star Books

I was staying in the quaint little town of Yellow Springs at a beautiful newly renovated hotel called The Mills Park Hotel. While on an early morning walk for some coffee I found Dark Star Books down the street from the hotel. This shop is jam-packed with great stuff. Near the entrance is a connoisseur's selection of graphic novels which I noticed included many indy titles. Dark Star also had a fantastic scifi & fantasy paperpack section wherein I found even more Leiber. Dayton, OH is paydirt for genre fiction book hunting!

The store also has a good selection of occult books if that's your bag. I had an interesting conversation with the proprietor about the difficultly of finding Aleister Crowley books. I've been looking for a physical copy of Moonchild for awhile.

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All in all I scored eight Fritz Leiber paperbacks, including the first six books of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. I've read the first volume already (it is great!); when I get a bit further in I'll post a review here.