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A Renaissance Book Shop
Category: Shopping Books, Mags, Music and Video Bookstores Bookstores [Edit]
834 N Plankinton AveMilwaukee, WI 53203
Neighborhoods: Westown, Downtown
(414) 271-6850
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 12 pm - 7 pm
Sat 12 pm - 5 pm
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
6 reviews for A Renaissance Book Shop
6 reviews in English
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Review from Dave S.
Milwaukee, WI
12/10/2007
I would give it a lower rating if it didn't have such a damn amazing selection. The place is dusty, disorganized, chaotic, dimly lit, floors are sagging, shelves leaning, the whole bit. The owner is a jerk and you will not receive terribly attentive service from anyone here. The building is a blight on this whole block in Downtown Milwaukee.
So this book store is a trash heap, right? It would be, except that it has a mind-bogglingly large number of books. God bless you if you go in there looking for something specific. Forget it. Just set aside an afternoon, and enter this realm. I guarantee you will discover some great finds. -
Review from Joanna T.
10/2/2011
It's so hard to rate Renaissance Books. The selection is 5+ stars, depending on your interests. Vintage medical texts? Science tomes from the 70's? Tons of classic lit? They have all that and and more spread out over several floors. As a lover of classics, I always find a turn of the century edition of something I've never heard of for a few dollars. I think there are a lot of gems here if you know what you like and don't mind a scavenger hunt.
The store itself? One star is generous. It looks like someone will be filming an episode of "Hoarders" here soon. Boxes of crap stacked everywhere, impassible aisles and just plain dirt abound. The last time I ventured into the (very scary) basement a rat ran in front of my feet.
I love a used bookstore - but there's no reason for the complete and total chaos at Renaissance. One only had to visit the now defunct Downtown Books to see that a used bookstore could have a huge selection and be organized and clean.
Still, there's a complete set of Balzacs collected works calling my name, and Renaissance is the only place that will have it. A necessary evil for bibliophiles, I guess. -
Review from Joe G.
Milwaukee, WI
3/28/2009
I can respect that a lot of people think highly of Renaissance. There is absolutely no question that they have a huge, huge, huge selection of books.
But.
Built inside what feels like a rat's maze of feels-like-they-might-be-condemned-any-day-now buildings on the river's edge, Renaissance breathes a last whiff of life into some buildings that have seen better days. Ooh, did I say whiff. There's a vaguely foul odor that I've typically attributed to the proximity to the river, but makes it somewhat unpleasant. The buildings themselves look potentially unstable. Inside, the floors are ancient, uneven, sagging, and unrepaired. It feels vaguely dangerous to venture inside.
That might be fine, since it seems likely that the arrangement allows them inexpensive rent.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book store is about the same. There are shelves, tall shelves, everywhere. They are filled with books. Many books. Feels like billions of books. So many books that they're piled on the floors, piled in boxes, making already narrow aisles narrower. The light is highly variable, many aisles are dimly lit. It looks like their attempts to keep up with the incoming batches of books gave up the ghost a few decades ago when they ran out of shelf space (I don't know if that's actually the case, just trying to describe the feeling I get). The place is dusty (bad for allergies), disorganized, the employees are typically just sitting around (not like they could be shelving books, etc).
I guess I can see why some people like the place, because if you were just coming to browse and buy, you could probably find many interesting things. However, when I'm going to shop for books, I am almost always looking for specific books, and if not, then I am looking for specific authors. Renaissance makes this a nightmare, and at this point, I'm only visiting every few years, usually when I've failed to find something at Downtown Books over on Wisconsin, which is smaller but extremely well done. -
Review from Maxx C.
Washington, DC
6/5/2010 1 photo
Vast number of books housed in the biggest wreck of a bookstore I've seen -- the shelves were once somewhat organized, but have been completely overwhelmed by books dumped all along the floor. Has nice views of the river out the back through the windows on the 2nd and 3rd floors, along with a couple of scary plush chairs set up for reading -- sometime around 1982.
Browsing here is like going on a mission. If you want shopping to be pleasant, try Downtown Books instead. -
Review from Dave P.
Indianapolis, IN
3/28/2011
Wow, the morons that leave feedback of bookstores are obviously non-intelligent people that have never been out of the house when it comes to frequenting antiquarian bookstores. Part of the atmosphere of attending these type of businesses: books on the floor, the building smelling musty, and dust everywhere, that is what it is all about. Visit more than one bookstore before you make moronic comments. Try visiting bookstores outside of the state that you live in.
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Review from Ken P.
Monterey, CA
2/5/2009
I was delighted to find the General Mitchell Airport shop when I was in Milwaukee last fall. Great selection, reasonable prices and the clerk at the register was friendly and helpful with my purchases. I wish more airports opened their doors to locally owned used book stores.
