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Brown Book Shop
Category: Shopping Books, Mags, Music and Video Bookstores Bookstores [Edit]
1517 San Jacinto StHouston, TX 77002
Neighborhood: Downtown
(713) 652-3937
- Price Range:
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$$$
2 reviews for Brown Book Shop
2 reviews in English
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Review from Meredith N.
Houston, TX
8/2/2009
Don't pop into Brown Book Shop if you're looking to snatch up the latest Douglas Coupland (or other contemporary writer actually worth reading) - it's an almost purely technical bookstore. Catering to the engineers, electricians, oil workers, physicists, and other "left-brained" types operating out of Houston, Brown carries the latest copies of various manuals and books necessary for a staggeringly wide variety of technical fields.
"But Meredith," you say, because you know everything about me. "You have degrees in art and English. What do you know about anything involving these crazy little things called 'numbers?'"
The answer, of course, is diddly squat. However, Dad makes his living doing something or other with lasers and sensors and my brother is a mechanical engineer. I've always enjoyed accompanying them on their forays into the deep recesses of Brown. In spite of their emphasis on fields whose very basics render me a drooling wreck of a woman just by merely considering their existence, they do carry a small stock of books on writing, ESL, teaching, foreign languages, religion, health, history, and geography. It's not the most generous of selections, but enough to keep my interest while the members of my family with vocationally useful skills peruse the significantly grander options relating to their respective careers. Dad has been patronizing Brown since we moved here in 1992, and swears that he's never failed to find exactly what he's been looking for every time.
However, in spite of losing the intellectual aspect of the genetic lottery, I still hold an interest in how things work. They carry children's books on technical fields that actually make for pretty competent, easy-to-follow information on areas of study that generally rupture my brain bone. I get the feeling I could slowly crawl my way up the Brown inventory in an effort to understand exactly what those scary big words my dad and brother like to use actually mean, and it's a project I plan on initiating in the near future. There really is something available for every comprehension level, thankfully, though the prices are a bit steep as you'd expect from the subject matter. I guess because the publishers know they can get away with such cover prices.
Aesthetically, Brown is more or less the bookstore equivalent of a comfortable, beloved dive bar. This certainly works for me, though some may find it a little cramped and musty. It's not much to look at from the front, but it's a neat little gem of an independent shop that can satisfy even those of us who cringe at the thought of math beyond basic algebra.Listed in: #SLGT, With Special Guest Star: Dad
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Review from Tracey S.
12/29/2011 1 Check-in Here
After fifteen years of wanting to check out Brown Books, I finally made it up here! It did not disappoint--tons of technical books on three floors! They are well-staffed; I was asked if I needed any help twice.
They close at 6 pm.
Their books are a little overpriced so I deducted a star. However, if you're an engineer desperate to solve a problem before a deadline, then money is no object.
Brown Books sits on the corner of San Jacinto and Leeland. I parked in the parking spots in front of the store along Leeland. The store is wrapped around by a $10 pay parking lot. Watch out for the one-way streets.
