Beyond the Bestsellers: Reviewing the Lesser Known Bookstores in Tulsa
By Isabella Quintero
The smell of freshly inked paper flooding your senses, the brush of the pages against your fingertips as they fly from the back cover to the front. The book feels so right in your hand, the coffee sitting comfortably in your other, and you feel utterly at home. As you peruse the aisles of books at your disposal, all the genres you could think of, you don’t have a worry in the world. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that after reading that, you’re thinking of one of the most commonly known bookstores. Probably Barnes & Noble. Maybe even Books a Million.
You can find that same exact feeling in other, lesser known bookstores—sometimes even for a better price. It might even make you feel better buying books from a local bookstore than a mainstream one. What you probably didn't know is that a lot of local bookstores are more involved with their community. Small businesses tend to support smaller businesses.
As an avid reader whose favorite hobby is spending all my money on new books, I feel entitled to say that you should listen to me when talking books. I too have fallen victim to the big book corporations, resulting in all my money lost—money that could be supporting small businesses. You could just as easily drive over to a smaller bookshop, and invest your money in a positive outcome for better, more local causes.
Unfortunately there's not that many bookstores in Tulsa, but there's enough scattered around that they’re not too difficult to come across. In fact, I visited 6 bookstores in the area (and unfortunately spent a lot of money) and documented my experience and thoughts about each one. Because I just love lists so much, here's my list of bookstores I visited from most commonly known to least known:
Barnes & Noble (you should really know this one already):
Photo Credits: The New York Times.
As much as I hate to say it considering I want to bring light to smaller bookstores, I am a HUGE Barnes & Nobles girl. I love the feeling of walking through those doors and instantly seeing the tables full of books, each table a different theme—from memoirs to dark fantasy to greek mythology to even a #booktok section. You can find just about any book you wish for by scouring the aisles for it yourself, or just simply going up to the large desk in the middle of the store to ask a worker to look it up for you.
I like to think of Barnes & Nobles split into 4 parts.
The Bookstore:
This is where the books are (obviously). It hangs out in the middle of the store and then stretches out to the far right. The books are organized very neatly and are easy to find by genre and author's last name. Oftentimes popular books will be out on display on either the side of the shelves or on the little tables off to the middle of the store.
The Children’s Area:
This is the very adorable kids section. At the very far back of the store you can find a mixture of bright colors, little kids running around the tiny aisles of books. Some of them are sitting down and reading slowly, taking time to pronounce their words. It’s bright and playful, and full of life, inspiring a young generation of future readers.
Random Toys and Gifts:
This is possibly the most overwhelming part of the store. I'm sure at some point it looked really organized and welcoming but every time I've walked past it, it’s like walking through a war zone. However, I understand how difficult it may be for little kids that are bored in a land of big words they can’t read, finally finding something to play with.
Just to give you an idea, a picture to paint in your mind: toys, board games, sparkly journals and more are mixed up in every aisle, on the floor, even throughout the store.
The Coffee Shop:
Everyone knows about the Starbucks tucked away into the corner of Barnes & Nobles, since it's quite hard to miss. Just driving past the store you can see the stressed out students studying like their lives depend on it through the slightly tinted windows. From the inside, walking into the Starbucks with a backpack and some headphones, ready to get locked in and stay that way for hours is the best feeling.
Books a Million (the alternative to B&N):
Photo Credit: The Shoppes at Eastchase.
Books a Million (BAM) is a lot more similar to Barnes & Nobles than it is to any of the other bookstores listed. The book selection is quite similar, as well as the layout of the books displayed at the front of the store. The store is definitely smaller, given that there’s no big kids’ section, just a section where the children’s books are.
I’ve been going to Books a Million for years and I just recently found out that it has a cafe called Joe Muggs coffee just like B&N has Starbucks. I asked around and apparently it's a common mistake to miss the cafe in the store, since most just go for the books or the toys, which are so eye-catching front and center.
Fulton Street Books & Coffee:
Walking through the doors of Fulton Street Books & Coffee actually shocked me the most out of all of the bookstores that I visited. I was first met with the beautifully modern design of the interior— a chic industrial space perfect for a younger Tulsan audience. The wall of spread out books across from the front doors shocked me just as much, expecting to see a lot more books.
The coffee bar stretching through half of the store was an eye catcher for sure, as well as the expansive seating area just asking you to come take a seat and stay all day. I did in fact take a seat and wanted so badly to stay all day, especially with the delicious brown sugar matcha sitting comfortably in my hand, a book completely out of my comfort zone in the other.
My least favorite part of this shop was that it was more of a coffee shop than a bookstore, which I guess isn’t a bad thing, just not at all what I was expecting to find. I really did love the vibe of the store and I think the book selection made sense for the store as well, mostly stories about black lives and culture.
So basically, this is me telling you to pay this beautiful coffee shop a visit, maybe buy a book too, just don’t expect all of your favorite books to be there. You might even find me there because I will be going as much as possible just for that amazing brown sugar matcha.
Most importantly, Fulton’s is nestled in Tulsa’s historic Greenwood neighborhood, previously known as America's Black Wall Street. Although the selection of books is limited, many highlight the history of Black Tulsa and the Tulsa Race Massacre a century ago, as well as other marginalized experiences. The area is bustling with growth, but also pays homage to its history of struggle and success alike. Fulton clearly supports its community, with flyers for events and an incredibly welcoming vibe. Much better than a corporate giant.
Magic City Books:
I LOVED Magic City Books, it literally felt like magic walking into those doors and into the wonderland of books. The first thing I saw when I walked in was the tables in the middle featuring popular books, two of them on my (lengthy) to-read list (so of course I bought them). There was also a section highlighting local books which I thought was really great to give attention to lesser known local authors.
The shelves of books were filled to the brim with all kinds of genres and books, ranging from the classics, to memoirs, to fantasy, and of course, the cheesy little small town romances.
My favorite part of this store, off to the very back was a seating area with more tables highlighting certain books. The comfortable green chairs sitting in the open space away from the chaos of overcrowded aisles of books begging you to come take a seat and read the day away.
The seating area had more bookshelves within it as well, but these highlighted special books, as well as gave a code to scan with dates and times for book clubs, and the book they’ll be discussing that day. I love that idea so much because it just shows how involved with the community Magic City Books is, involving their customers in activities to talk about their favorite books with other members of the community.
The main bookshelves had mini shelves propped on the sides, pairing special books in theme with each other. One shelf featured holiday romances, another gritty christmas, one even displayed Taylor Swift kids books.
The kids book section didn’t range too far but enough to find comics, picture books, chapter books, and academic books. My favorite part of it was the beautiful Harry Potter chest with all of the books inside that I had to physically hold myself back from buying.
Behind the counter were a few books from Magic City’s most recent featured author to visit Tulsa, which further showed how passionate they are in advancing the city’s passion for reading. The register proudly beckoned shoppers to “learn how to fight Amazon,” and encouraged them to buy local instead.
Gardner’s Used Books:
Gardner’s Used Books is not just a bookstore, it's so much more than that. By simply walking around for 5 to 10 minutes, I found a wide variety of books, movies, magazines, cds, and records, all for really good prices. Some people might be immediately deterred from a used bookstore but honestly, doesn’t it sound better to get a relatively good quality book that's simply been more loved, for a better price than you would find at another bookstore?
I had a little bit of mixed feelings about this store. I think it also has to do with the fact that I went late in the day so it was basically closing, but it wasn’t as welcoming as I thought it was going to be. Actually my big welcome walking in was the huge statue of the Hulk painted in red and in Christmas decor—very unexpected.
Much like Barnes & Nobles, I would also split this store into parts as I found that there’s about an equal amount of each thing:
The Books:
I love classics, so seeing how many this store had was just so exciting for me. I found my favorite classic of all time, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and was happy to see what a good condition it was in. All of the books actually surprised me because it felt like I was checking out books from a library rather than buying used books.
Maybe that is basically the same thing but I wouldn't know from years of buying from Amazon and more well known bookstores—a habit I'm trying to break.
Displayed at the front were some more currently popular books, like Happy Place, Book Lovers, and People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, One of us is Lying by Karen M. McManus, Life’s too Short by Abby Jimenez, and a lot of Colleen Hoover books.
Comics:
I have a feeling that this store was initially meant to just sell comics. From the endless amounts of comics to the random statues of the Hulk and of Spiderman dressed in Christmas decor, I can’t imagine the owner wanted anything else.
Cinema central:
The movies actually made me stop and drop my jaw to the floor. While I struggled to pick it back up, my eyes scanned the endless movies stacked on shelves lining the wall. There were mostly movies I didn’t recognize, but the rom-com section was basically made for me. The first movie to catch my eye was my all time favorite: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
I almost bought it but then I remembered that I could just rent it again at home, which is really unfortunate for Gardners because of all of the movies they have and all of the people that are probably going to draw the same conclusion as me.
La la land:
The amount of music in this store was really mind blowing to me. Somewhere off to the back of this enormous store was the music section split into like three or so parts. Near the movies were boxes full of records, mostly of older artists but I found the occasional newer one. Farther back are the CD aisles and all the genres of music within. Unfortunately I did not find a single Taylor Swift CD but I did find the last Mariah Carey CD.
There was also a section to the back of the CDs with a big comfy looking chair, surrounded by music books; music biographies and books dedicated to songwriting and understanding music are stacked on the shelves in this little section tucked away from the rest of the store.
King Richard’s Forest:
The kid’s section in Gardner’s was sectioned off in the back of the store behind the classics, through the trees and into the forest. As cute as I thought the forest idea was for the children’s section, actually walking into it wasn’t as cute. I couldn’t tell if the emptiness and disorder of the room was due to the mess the kids make when they read in there, or the lack of kids that actually use it.
If I'm being completely honest, the kid section looked like it came straight out of a horror movie, the eerie quietness, the books scattered around like they'd been thrown around. Maybe it would be more lively had there actually been kids in there but my experience was kind of scary.
Although the decor and the smell of stale and used books was slightly off-putting, and despite the advances of streaming for books and music, I do appreciate the fact that Gardener’s provides this choice. They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and there’s plenty of weird little treasures hidden at Gardener’s. And less hidden, a few Hulks.
Peace Of Mind:
Peace of mind was probably my most interesting experience out of the 6 bookstores. It was a mixture of confusion and in awe from the second I stepped up the staircase into the bright and colorful bookstore.
The first thing I noticed when I walked in was how cluttered and cramped everything was. The owner even walked over to talk to me and joke about how they’ve resorted to putting clutter on any flat surface they could find. He actually talked to me a lot, occasionally following me around to point out something I might not have noticed, a smart tactic to get me to buy something. While I respect his methods, I did find that quite annoying and I think me leaving with empty hands might have possibly been out of spite.
Despite the slight annoyance, I didn’t fail to notice how beautifully structured the store itself is, and how well the decor compliments it. The books I found fit the aesthetic so well, most of them being classics, nonfiction, philosophy, and astrological books. A whole section dedicated to astrology and tarot cards, another for crystals, and another tucked into another room dedicated to incense.
The second I walked into the incense room I got major deja vu to every time I've ever walked into church. If you’ve ever been in a catholic church, that’s the smell i’m talking about. Honestly the entire store gave catholic church vibes, from the smell to the decor that looked like stained glass.
I thought the store was really cool, clutter and all. I liked the experience and I had fun reading about what crystals do. I didn’t find any books I wanted to take home with me, except for the Harry Potter series but I have to constantly remind myself that I can't buy a new one everywhere I go.
Final Thoughts:
The large and popular bookstore franchises are familiar, comfortable, and efficient. You don’t have to worry about not finding the right book, since they probably have it in their large catalog. The coffee is reliable (it’s Starbucks) and you always end up buying more than you planned. Nevertheless, this adventure through Tulsa’s bookstores showed me that my reading hobby shouldn’t be limited to these book giants. There’s so many interesting little nooks throughout the city to explore, and they have so many opportunities to connect with the Tulsa community, and to be exposed to something new. I hope you try out some of these places as well.
