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Category: Bookstores [Edit]
Neighborhoods: Williamsburg - South Side, Williamsburg - North SideBedford Ave (L)
Mon-Sun. 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
in my warped mind, spoonbill and sugartown sounds like either a candy store, a coffee place or a sex shop.
none of the above.
great for browsing and great for buying. love the used books. cheeeep! like a bird, you know?
support your local bookseller.
I'm new to the neighhborhood and had high hopes for this place. My hopes were dashed a little today. After spending the better part of an hour perusing the poorly organized and woefully lacking fiction section, I came away with an admittedly cheap Anne Beattie book. I didn't really look at the art/design sections, but their used fiction was decidedly undernourished. Yes, there were some tables in the front and the back with a carefully curated hipster-friendly selection of fiction, but I expect more from a bookstore than this.
It gets three stars because it is a used bookstore, and it's close to me, and it's better than nothing.
Another Williamsburg establishment that I superficially want to dislike but that ends up being a harsh mirror for my true self.
The good: Decent selection of (mostly non-academic) art, design and literature periodicals. Skews a little more "serious" than e.g. St. Mark's Books, which stocks more mindless fashion and music titles. The only such titles at S&S have deeper pretensions.
Also good: The shelves near the front of the store on both sides and the table in the middle, all stocked with a rich and varied selection of art and design books by presses large and much smaller, with a few flashy continental philosophy and pop sociology volumes thrown in for good measure.
Good and bad: the space itself, which feels tatty and on the weekends is so mobbed with hipsters pretending to read that you might as well be at the library at SVA. On weekdays it's a different story: the light is nice and it can actually be pleasant to browse a bit.
Good and bad: the laidback, nerdy staff, who are the embodiment of clerical distance. They play great music (a steady stream of ultra-obscure, low-fi, dark electronics), and are frequently engaged in a spirited discussion about it with a patron or with each other. They'll take your money, and your questions, but they probably don't know the answer, especially if it's about fiction or poetry or any book that wasn't published by Sternberg or PAP in the last three months. .
Bad: the selection of fiction, poetry, history, really any non-visual arts/architecture-related books. There's a table in the back with the latest editions of trendy/essential fiction (Bolano, Perec, Nabokov, et al), but that's really it. The shelves dedicated to fiction are second-rate and carelessly organized.
Ultimately disturbing: The store's concept, honestly. Admittedly, I'm seduced by it, and I've spent a lot of time and money at S&S, lost in the fantasy that the volume in my hand will finally fill the void in my life. But at heart it's hard not to see it as a very rarified gift store, where the emphasis is on books that above all else look great, seem sophisticated, and will impress your friends. And they will! And it's a great bookstore. Just be prepared to ask yourself why you like it so much.
Excellent selection of new and used books, with very un-Williamsburg prices.
This place has been here since before most of the 'cool' kids moved in. It's always worth stopping by to check out their used selection, in addition to what they deem to be awesome - usually displayed on the front table.
It gets a bit crowded at times, but don't let that discourage you. Spend some time in here and you're bound to walk out with four or five titles you've been looking for ... usually at less than you thought.
This bookstore is awesome with its broad selection of art, architecture, music and culture books. I love the feeling of being a local anywhere I go and this bookstore does that.
If you want a bookstore with fiction and poetry and the like, go to Barnes and Noble. This place is great for the books you can't find (at least not easily) in big bookstores.
They also had a pretty sweet selection of old books for $5 each which is always a plus. And who doesn't love a 3 legged cat?
This place reminds me of the kind of bookstores you find in Boston- cool, old books and generally funky. This is not Border's by a longshot. But it is fun to browse here and buy a few books while you're at it.
New York doesn't have many good bookstores. There's a real dearth of anything that sells more than glossy magazines & best sellers, so I don't want to be too hard on S&S.
But seriously. They're the only game in Williamsburg, I know, but that's no reason to be lazy. I would love to see this shop work on stocking more fiction. Or some contemporary poetry. Or even arranging things in a way that makes some sense.
Please? You have no idea how much money I spend on books. It's sick. I would love to spend it here.
Great little finds in every nook and cranny.
I walked in a couple of weeks ago to browse and spent an hour lost in all kinds of books. One of my favorite things to do on the weekend.
AND..there are two store cats. One was curled up on a customer's lap as she thumbed through a selection of books...I have to say I was a tad jealous and wanted to give her the boot so I could pick up the kitty!
Books are nothing more than a record of death. Saying is inventing. Wrong, very rightly wrong. You invent nothing, you think you are inventing, you think you are escaping, and all you do is stammer out your lesson, the remnants of a pensum one day got by heart and long forgotten, life without tears, as it is wept.
Nothing to be done.
Do you want a nice selection of art books, pop culture books, poetry books, architecture books, photography/photographers books, and graphic design books? Well Spoonbill and Sugartown is your place! So much to choose from, so much to see. The first time I went there a few years back, I was in there for over two hours. A very fun store in the heart of Williamsburg. The prices are retail unfortunately.
The staff is helpful but they have to work on the attitudes a bit. One other downfall [unless they don't want you to sit and read] is that there isn't a place to relieve yourself from holding some of those heavy art and photography books you are flipping through.
Oh and to the employee that owns they Siberian Husky there: Huskies can indeed have a blue and a brown eye. It is called bi-eyed and it is a very popular trait within the breed. ;)
Beware of the cat, but not the cool selection of art books and magazines here.
This is a really hmmm... what's another work for funky? I don't want to be redundant.....! Well, let's just say the vibe is laid back, chill, artsy and eccentric. Hang out and find something you wouldn't expect like Japanese paper dolls or like an Italian book of poetry. (It's true though, there are no chairs...). Spoonbill inspires you to keep exploring because you never know what you'll discover. When I'm on Bedford, I always want to head here!
I rarely go to non-used bookstores, but I keep coming back here. Why? Well, it's open late and they don't care if I browse. I've killed time waiting for many a friend to get off the train by prowling the aisles of this small, well-stocked bookstore.
They *do* have used books on carts outside as well as tucked away in various spots inside, and I have bought some of those-- though they are almost always more expensive than I'd like. They have a nice used drama section, though-- there's almost always something I'd like to own in it.
The real highlight is the cats. I think there are two, but maybe there are more-- my favorite is a fat little tortoiseshell with something possibly wrong with his front legs. He kind of waddles when he walks and looks bowlegged. He's freaking adorable and (shh) is about 75% of the reason I come in here.
Cats, books... I mean, good stuff. I am intimidated by the too-hip rack of magazines in the front (are they magazines? Half of them don't have names. I don't know.) and some of the hipper merch, but basically...this place is solid.
fantastic bookstore to update on current art scene. They have wide range of monographs by modern artists, especially photographers.
they also have some vintage books, or used books on various philosophers and some very important art critics. Great book store to go to find out what you don't know about the world and get a little excited.
This place has the sweetest free bookmarks of all time.
My company was charming.
So begins the great book "Venus In Furs" by Leopold Von-Sacher Masoch. The genius who thus gave us the word masochism. Similar to Brandonism which I now give you, but I ask no condolence, I'm just a hopeless romantic. I only suggest that you not overlook the back wall and any nooks/crannies at Spoonbill & Sugartown.
It was here I found the first US printing of Venus in Furs, in very good condition for what is clearly a heavily fondled book (since 1947). It was like 12 bucks too.
If you ever want to buy me a present go ahead and check there. Great niche bookstore.
Awesome tiny neighborhood book store with an amazing selection and very helpful, friendly and attentive staff. Check out the store cats lounging about, those guys aren't feeling any pain, also be sure to peruse the sale books that are outside the store in both the front (street entrance) and back (mini mall entrance), I have found some dusty gems there.
Bookstore specializes in art books. They always play some silly music like 80s Depeche Mode. It's more of a bookstore to browse. It's organized and picky about what they sell, which is always a surprise and unpredictable, and that's why I like it. Again, it's very arty and there are better bookstores around the country, but it's my favorite on Bedford Avenue.
Typography books in the window, they know my heart.
so nice to see a bookstore that is not all about Oprah's book club or Tuscan style living.
Good assortment of books from McSweeney's too.
Not the perfect bookstore (whatever that is), but a damn fine addition to the neighborhood. S&S is a great place to go to discover something you didn't know you were looking for. Some other reviewers complained about price, which surprises me a bit because
(a) there's no competition in the neighborhood at all, thus demand is much greater than supply.
(b) The focus of this bookstore is not discounted books, but rather interesting books. If the area is going to have one book seller, wouldn't you rather have it this way? I would.
Snobbery was mentioned in previous reviews. I can understand where those reviewers are coming from, but I think that at S&S, it's more inattentiveness than snobbery. Definitely not the place to go if you like to have your hand held as you shop.
And I second Christine L.-- fat kitties are a definite pro.
Someone else already beat me to it-- it's not the selection; it's the price.
I've been inside of her a good number of times. Looked at a couple of things longingly. And every single time, I walked out empty handed. It's not to say that I'm that cheap (or at least I hope not), or that it's that expensive, it's really more of an unexpected pricing. I guess with a lot of independent bookstores and other viable options, you get used to intriguing books being marked off. And you get used to going to sleek mod looking bookstores for the books on art, design, and such. And, really, in the end, I just rationalize, "I bet I could get that elsewhere."
Fun to look through, yes. But nothing more than that.
P.S.:
They do have really delightful postcards.
how to save money for a vacation next spring or, how i left spoonbill and sugartown unhappy, yet itching to return:
so when i'm saving for a vacation, usually i'll leave the credit card at home and only bring enough cash with me for food and drink. i have a tiny notebook that i keep in my back pocket, so if i see something i would really like to have i'll simply write it down and decide later on if it's something i really need.
as it turns out, i needed a lot of books from this place. not just needed. if i'm being completely honest, the fate of the universe hangs in the balance of me bringing home several books they carry. they have quite a few art books that either contained works by, or were about several artists i like: tal r., francis picabia, and a newer favorite: (originally brought to my attention by a fantastic yelper) bas jan ader. sure, they didn't have his long out of print "implosion" but i haven't seen that *anywhere* for less than a couple of hundred dollars. still if i had seen it i may have had to run to an atm and mumbled something about vacations not being important.
on sunday there was a customer discussing art theory with a couple of people behind the counter. there were two manorexics in skinny jeans who really seemed to be wrestling with the idea of opening and looking at richard kern's latest photography book "looker." don't worry guys, that books doesn't contain any calories! it's mostly just women in their underwear.
the only real downside, and this is just something i'd prefer to avoid, is that the store is on bedford ave. otherwise it's got a lot going for it. nearby, on weekends, there are a lot of people selling used books on the sidewalks. some decent finds, too, like a history of electronic music.
all in all a place well worth returning to, just not when you're trying to save for a vacation.
PROS: KITTIES! FAT KITTIES! ART BOOKS! JOHN BALDESSARI! POSTCARDS! JOURNALS! VERB CAFE NEXT DOOR!
CONS: Prices. Snobby, if not pretentious, staff. No place to sit. Sometimes you end up with cat hair on your new John Baldessari book.
I love the kinds of books that this well-sized shop stocks. But for the life of me, I just don't like this bookstore. I'm much more prone to stop by twice a year to browse the main displays than I am to actually ever buy anything here, and I feel kind of bad about that.
Why don't I like this intelligent, independent used and new bookstore? It can't be their selection: They have great taste in art, design, and culture books. It might be because of their pricing: The prices are high, but then, some of the books are shorter runs or imports. And it might be because practically all they have are higher priced art and design books.
The shop's not overly precious or pretentious, but it doesn't leave much room for the general reader -- or Brooklyn designers and writers on a budget that precludes coffee table books or $20 pamphlets.
All that said, god love 'em. And more power to 'em.
I'm not incredibly interested in art and design, which accounts for the minus one star for this place. If I were: holy geez, this would be heavenly! Still, despite the fact that they're a little heavy on the art books and a little light on the novels and non-fiction, I do enjoy walking the creaky floorboards of this place every now and then.
While the new books are a little pricey, the novels on the back shelves are very reasonably priced for used books, and they actually have a good selection. The staff is very nice and chatty if they like the book you're buying!
"I've been to Sugartown, I shook the sugar down"
Yes, that's actually printed on their bookmarks. I love the selection in this bookstore. From art books to independent press titles, to the latest Cormac McCarthy book, this place has it all.
a great little bookstore. Filled to the brim with alternative press and non traditional pressed books from arts to music, fashion, and classics. This bookstore is a variable wellspring of out-of-print and rare books.
An excellent independent bookstore with a great selection of art, design, short run, and local publications. When I used to live in Williamsburg, I'd come by to buy and sell used books. I also admire their fancy blank book selection.
This is the store where i discovered Butt Magazine. Ahhh, Butt. Doesn't get any better than Butt.
Such a fantastic little bookstore! I'm in love with this place because they have SO many books that I've never seen anywhere else! They have classics too, but they really specialize in the obscure and harder to find stuff. The art/design section is fantastic and is the best part of the store.
My kind of bookstore.
So, admittedly, I was just killing time one day and FINALLY went in to this place after just looking at the door for years, and I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't struck dead by pretension and an art-house type vibe. :)
I thought the fiction section (my favorite) could have been a bit bigger, but I did appreciate the range of genres that they had. Also, I had never actually seen Sweet Action before (they had it), and I felt oh-so-hip by thumbing through it.
Good waste of an hour. And I don't often say that!
Coffee table book heaven! Architecture, photography, art, design, crazy 'zines and micellaneous selections that you might not understand completely, but look damn good when the visitors come.
Watch out - the cats are NOT fake!
Such a great bookstore. It is small but great for people who like to hunt for used books. My boyfriend and I have a difficult time finding decently-priced French books and this place always has a ton. You really have to hunt for them along the back wall and underneath the shelves, but it is well worth it.
I wouldn't go here if you are looking for a well-known penguin classics-type novel since their fiction section is mostly contemporary and used books. This place IS great for harder-to-find and small press novels, theory, art books, and magazines. A nice collection of notebooks too.
I really recommend this place for anyone who loves searching a little bit, definitely go back at least once a week.
i had one of those lazy, nothing-to-do saturdays last weekend and was wandering around my neighborhood. after seeing some unique books in the window, i decided to step into spoonbill and get out of the heat for a while. i was there for 2 hours....
i'm one of those pathetic types that could literally spend all day in barnes and noble (and yes, i try to hate the corporate-ness of it, but let's face it, if you like books you can't deny it). anyway, spoonbill has that quaint quirkiness of a neighborhood bookshop along with the eccentric compilation of an owner who will read anything. after rummaging through some funky local books (if you like local photography, go here!), i stumbled upon a few random cats who wander around, and then found the middle table full of randoms.
overall, the book store is sort of like this review--all over the place but still full of fun :)
In short: I love the art books, but where are the chairs?
The titles are aimed at contemporary arts lovers who aren't sure what they're looking for, especially those with a penchant for modernism. And for a shop that doesn't specialize in photography or visual arts, the variety and quality of both new and used art merch is impressive. But while the journal/magazine selection isn't bad, their selection on foreign titles and obscure art and fashion mags is getting a run for its cred by the Bedford deli next door to Blackbird and the lit mags are tragically shuffled into an isolated corner by the front door. For most fiction titles the street vendors are often a better deal and the humiliation of squeezing into a child's rocking chair to flip through prospective purchases might bother some. But the convenience of using a credit card or shopping on a rainy day and Williamsburg's lack of bookstores amongst the plethora of eateries and bodega bumps S&S up a notch.
It felt mediocre to me...
Maybe I am spoiled by San Francisco bookstores...
But I completely appreciated their chubby cat that would roll over every time I tried to step sideways.
there are few things more precious to me than a good bookstore and this place is that, my friend. on the tiny side, spoonbill is nonetheless packed full of literary goodies. they have an awesome selection of fantastic art books that will put both a dent in your coffee table and your wallet. they also have a really good array of magazines that are obscure, local, hard-to-find or held together with spit and tears (or all of these). wonderful selection of used books, vastly great piles of paperbacks and a handsome cat that lounges around. the prices are good, sometimes a bit steep on some of the used books, but you're supporting a rad local bookstore. which counts, damnit! a great place to get a gift for someone as well-tons of cute postcards, moleskine notebooks and novelty books for when you have to get something fast or for someone you really don't know very well. god, i love this place.
A nice little bookseller on Bedford Ave, this bookstore specializes in numerous old-looking paperbacks, books on art, books on film, and magazines that no one reads. The pricing is pretty decent; I was able to find the book on the Rauschenberg Combines show that the Met was selling for around thirty dollars cheaper. The people there aren't the friendliest, but I don't go there to socialize. Warning to those with pet allergies: they do have a few cats roaming around.
So glad this bookstore is in my hood. It's fantastic. Whether you're looking for a gift for yourself or someone else, or just some inspiration, you will find it X 1000. It's VERY difficult for me to leave there empty-handed.
It's not often these days that people name their stores so well (East Village Books is great, but the name is just so obvious), but Spoonbill & Sugartown takes the cake. It's also a very good store. It manages to simultaneously have that clean gallery/art bookstore feel and the musty creaky used bookstore feel. They have shelves of odd yet wonderful used books (a 1955 gilt-edged copy of a Benjamin Franklin essay on printers for $5, a great 70s paperback copy of Colette's essays for $6, used art catalogs), stacks of fresh new art mags, and all the art books you could want in one go. They also have great little notebooks and used postcards and handmade art cards.
Neighborhood: Flatiron
Category: Bookstores
Neighborhood: Cobble Hill
Category: Bookstores
Neighborhood: Williamsburg - South Side
Category: Cards & Stationery
Neighborhood: Greenwich Village
Category: Bookstores
Neighborhood: Williamsburg - South Side
Category: Coffee & Tea
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