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Labyrinth Books
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
2 reviews for Labyrinth Books
One of the truly great bookstores I have known.
University presses, lots of new titles, art books, kids' books, cookbooks and a great selection of bargains - on the carts and downstairs. All tucked into a tiny store that somehow manages to be very well organized, especially given how much they have on hand. OK, so I'm a little biased, because I worked here for a little while. But the staff is amazing too.
And the store is located, ever so conveniently, right next to a nice coffee shop and the Yale library (if something you've recalled isn't arriving and you need it now, check here).
Please, don't waste your time at the shamefully bad Yale/Barnes and Noble "bookstore" - which functions more as a Target. If you like books, walk around the block and you'll find what you're looking for.
Before anyone reads my review further, they ought to know one thing: I worked as a bookseller in New Haven for something like fifteen years. So I have all kinds of biases. Plus I'm really snotty to begin with. So.
The first time I walked into Labyrinth's New Haven location, I looked closely at the fiction section, and it brought tears to my eyes. I wanted to work there so badly; they had achieved the fiction section I so desperately wanted to have at the store where I worked (where I was not given the opportunity to build categories in quite the way I wanted).
Labyrinth is not a general bookstore -- they make a point of not having certain categories, like self-help (thank god), but it is one of the finest examples of what it is, which is an academic and trade bookstore. Current and classic scholarly works are available here along with an exquisite selection of literary fiction, a small but respectable children's book section, and a really small but also respectable cookbook section.
I know many of the staff personally and they are among the best book people I've ever known, extremely knowledgeable in their fields.
The bargain books downstairs are all from Great Jones (a name that might ring bells for some readers) and are often great, great deals. The art selection in particular is noteworthy.
They have the Jenny the Cat books from New York Review Books (god bless you, Maya).
The location is great. People who remember 290 York Street as Book Haven, the bookstore from hell, should please visit Labyrinth and be (if they know what's good for them) very pleasantly surprised. Labyrinth kept the old Book Haven phone number, but that is ALL they inherited... this is an amazing, amazing place.
(And if you're looking for Library of America editions or Loebs, just get your ass over there. They've got it.)