New York’s independent booksellers offer shelter from the storm of holiday shopping and plenty of eye candy in the form of photo books, illustrated books, prints and objects. DART’s list of NYC’s best follows, in geographic order [south to north, then east], with a few new entries this year recommended by subscribers.

Downtown

Tenement Museum Shop, 97 Orchard Street, NY, NY. Well chosen array of books about New York and New York-themed gifts.

Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen Street, NY, NY. Politics, feminism, gender-bending titles, café, and events.

The Drawing Center Bookstore, 35 Mercer Street, NY, NY. Small, highly eclectic.

Taschen Books, 107 Greene Street, NY, NY, (Below). Coffee table art, design, fashion, celebrity, and sex.

Clic Bookstor & Gallery, 255 Centre Street, NY, NY. Photography, art, fashion, and celebrities; author events.

Dashwood Books, 33 Bond Street, between Bowery and Lafayette, NY, NY (below). Photography, including rare editions; author events, Dashwood Books imprint.

Housing Works Bookstore Café, 126 Crosby Street, NY, NY. Used books, movies, music, special events.

Mercer Street Books & Records, 206 Mercer Street, NY, NY. Out-of-print art books and vinyl LPs.

New Museum, 235 Bowery, opposite Prince Street, NY, NY. Books, objects, gift items.

New this year, recommended by ICP Assoc. Librarian & Archivist Matthew Carson:
Mast Books, 66 Avenue A, NY, NY. Bright and clean neighborhood bookstore, with affordable used paperbacks along with high-priced out-of-print art books.

St. Marks Comics, 11 St. Marks Place, NY, NY. Flagship for current and vintage comics and toys. Locations downtown and in Brooklyn.

Three Lives & Co., 154 West 10^th Street, NY, NY. “A haven for people who read,” and a “neighborhood touchstone.”

Alabaster Bookshop, 122 4^th Avenue, NY, NY. Used and rare, well-chosen art, antiques, and photography.

Idlewild Books, 12 West 19^th Street, NY, NY. Specializing in travel guides, world literature, foreign language books, and language courses. Now also in Williamsburg.

Printed Matter, Inc., 195 10^th Avenue, NY, NY. Artist books, prints, and limited editions.

192 Books, 192 10^th Avenue at 21^st Street, NY, NY. Serious reading, art and photography, author events.

Bookmarc, 400 Bleecker Street, at 11^th Street, NY, NY. Coffeetable fashion, art, photography; author events.

St. Mark's Bookshop, 31 Third Avenue, between 8^th and 9^th Streets, NY, NY. Neighborhood bastion for literary and political journals, literature, art, design, and photography. Moving soon to a new location; get the East Village vibe while it still exists...

McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince Street, between Lafayette and Mulberry Streets, NY, NY. Literary bookstore, great magazine rack, café and Expresso Book Machine for print on demand titles; author events.

The Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway and 12^th Streets, NY, NY. “Eighteen miles of books” – all kinds, new, used, graphic novels, art, design, architecture, celebrities, and 1 buck items on the street; author events.

Housing Works Bookstore Café on Mercer Street.

Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers, at four locations, NY, NY. Old school, literary bookstore, specialists in textbook sell/buy/rent, with in-store access to academic textbook coordinators.

Forbidden Planet, 832 Broadway, at 13^th Street, NY, NY. One stop shopping for avatars and comics freaks.

Paul Smith Fifth Avenue, 108 Fifth Avenue, at 15^th Street, NY, NY. Unusual selection of contemporary, out-of-print, rare and limited editions, art, design, photography books, and gifts including special edition Leica camera cases.

Posman Books at Chelsea Market, 75 9^th Avenue, NY, NY. Newest of 3 locations, with special children’s section, gifts.

The Center for Book Arts, 28 W 27th Street, 3^rd Floor, NY, NY. Artists books and how-to DIY.

Aperture Book Store and Gallery, 547 West 27^th Street, 4^th Floor, NY, NY. Photography.

The Old Print Shop, 150 Lexington Avenue, between 28-29^th Streets, NY, NY. An art gallery and bookstore specializing in American graphic arts, antiquarian maps, atlases, and contemporary and modern artist books.

Uptown

MoMA Store, 11 West 53^rd Street, NY, NY. Art, design, photography, furnishing, gifts.

Penguin Classics at the New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue between 40-42^nd Streets. "Penguin orange" kiosks featuring deluxe paperback literature with fantastic cover art. Located adjacent to the Library Shop.

International Center of Photography Bookstore, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, NY, NY. Photography and gifts, author events.

The Store at Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle, NY, NY. Art, design, jewelry, furnishing, and books on these subjects.

The Phillips de Pury Company Shop, 450 Park Avenue, at 57^th Street, NY, NY, (Above). Prototypes, limited editions, and printed matter by established and emerging artists and publishers.

Argosy Book Store, 116 East 59^th Street, NY, NY. Rare and used books, prints, maps, and autographs. Flood sale currently on with books from basement 50% off.

Rizzoli Bookstore, 31 West 57^th Street, NY, NY. Art, design, fashion, celebrities, good reads and music, author events.

Ursus Books & Prints, 699 Madison Avenue, 3^rd Floor, NY, NY. Art books, rare items, prints.

Whitney Museum Bookstore, 945 Madison Avenue, NY, NY. Modern and contemporary American art, gifts.

Gagosian Shop, 976 Madison Avenue has re-opened. Limited editions, multiples, contemporary artists books, printed matter, objects, gifts.

Archivia Books, 993 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY. Architecture, art, design, decorative arts, gardens, interiors.

Crawford Doyle Booksellers, 1082 Madison Avenue, NY, NY. Biography, classics, history, literary fiction.

Westsider Rare & Used Books, 2246 Broadway, near 80th Street, NY, NY. Used, rare, and contemporary fiction, crime, pulp fiction, vinyl LPs, toys, novelties.

Logos Bookstore, 1575 York Ave, New York, NY, just recommended by Barbara Nessim.

Museum of the City of New York Store, Fifth Avenue at 103^rd Street, NY, NY. “All things New York City.” Books, photographic prints, gifts.

New this year, recommended by Jenn Steffey:

Book Culture on Broadway, 2915 Broadway at 114^th Street, NY, NY. Old school and forward-looking, catering to the academic community and everyone in the neighborhood. [Formerly Labyrinth Books.]

Word Up Community Bookshop, 2113 Amsterdam Avenue, NY, NY. A multi-language general-interest neighborhood bookshop and art space in Washington Heights; literary readings, music concerts, film screenings workshops etc. for kids and adults.

Brooklyn & Queens

Book Court, 163 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY. General bookstore, new releases, reading group and events.

powerHouse Arena, 37 Main Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY

Spoonbill & Sugartown, 218 Bedford Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY.

Word, 126 Franklin Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY. Books, gifts, stationery, kids’ stuff, events.

Greenlight Bookstore, 686 Fulton Street (at S. Portland), Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY.

Book Thug Nation, 100 N 3rd Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Used literary fiction, film, philosophy, graphic novels and more, and events.

Unnameable Books, 600 Vanderbilt Avenue between Dean & St. Mark's, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, NY. New, used, events.

Artbook@MoMA PS 1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46^th Avenue, Long Island City, NY (above). Art, architecture, design, criticism, gifts, café. Photo above from NY Art Book Fair.

Favored by artist and educator David Sandlin, who is hoping for a brick-and-mortar Nobrow NYC in the near future:
Desert Island, 540 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY. Books, graphic novels, comics, prints, novelties.

Along those lines, Liz Sales, a photographer, book artist, e-library specialist, and a bibliographic item herself, offered these on-line indie booksellers:
BookDummyPress.com
ConveyorEditions.com
BadlandsUnlimited.com