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 short list of the best follows, in geographic [south to north, then east] order.

Downtown

Tenement Museum Shop, 103 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. Highly eclectic.

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

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

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

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 books and vinyl LPs.

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.

Printed Matter, Inc., 195 10^th Avenue, NY, NY. Artist books 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.

New Museum, 235 Bowery, opposite Prince Street, NY, NY.

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.

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.

Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers, at four locations, NY, NY. Show a student ID and get a discount.

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.

Uptown

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

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. Half price flood sale currently on.

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

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 on Madison Avenue has closed, but offers items online. Limited editions, 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.

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.

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.

Desert Island, 540 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY. Books, graphic novels, comics, prints, novelties.

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. Art, architecture, design, criticism, gifts, café. Photo above from NY Art Book Fair.