Island Books

Island Books is a local treasure. You can spend hours here, the aisles are cozy and thoughtfully curated (books and many other gifts!). There are personal, hand-written details about featured books shared by staff. And they will order any book for you and call you when it’s ready. Same price as Amazon (generally) and you can feel good about supporting a wonderful local business. I love this place.

I am personally not a reader but my wife absolutely loves them. We spent some time walking around the cute shop, played some chess, and had some fun with a working typewriter. The one thing I think was the coolest was the reviews by the staff. Throughout the store there are these tags that have a 1-3 sentence review along with the staff members' name. Highly recommend stopping by if you are in the area.

What I liked:

Went for breakfast to Homegrown next door, excellent sandwiches. After that we decided to walk into this local bookstore, after all, local bookstores are one of my favorite places to visit and to purchase books and magazines.

This place is bigger than it looks from outside, it goes deep and at the end of it they have a nice kid's area with a good selection of children's books and games. The bookstore has many old typewriters in display which are very fitting for the store and I left wondering if they would sell me one or a few of those.

The atmosphere is friendly and very welcoming, the book and magazine selection is great, as it is all the little gifts and stationary. We purchased a calendar, a magazine, a few stickers, and a book. Loved it.

Observations:
There was a person next to us or very close almost the entire time my wife and I browsed through the store, I am not sure if it was an employee but it felt uncomfortable, this person seemed to be monitoring us while pretending to be looking at something else - and maybe she was, I am not sure but I am just sharing our experience.

We'd be back, I am an avid reader and always try to get my books and magazines from local businesses. Also, don't forget the sandwiches next door, they are pretty good!

Cutest little bookstore on Mercer Island. Nicely curated collection of books - especially the fiction section. They also stock a lot of knick knacks - makes for a great place to get a gift! Each aisle of books has a cosy reading nook and I really loved that! The typewriters are also a very special touch :)

Great selection, knowledgeable and friendly staff. Nice gift wrapping. If they don't have it, they will get it. Prices are reasonable. Could use a little more parking but there is free parking available.

Very cute books store with great gift ideas too! The staff were very friendly and helpful!

The perfect neighborhood bookshop. I drive from Seattle just to do my book shopping here. The selection is fantastic, prices fair, service lovely, and atmosphere welcoming. What else could you want ?

One of the very best independent book stores around! Super friendly and helpful staff. Excellent selection of

I love this store! Fun knick knacks to buy plus a wonderfully curated book selection. Plus, friendly and knowledgeable staff. Brings back the excitement I always felt when I was a little kid going to the bookstore to buy a new book. Big chains don't do that for me and it is hard to find independent book stores nowadays. Go just to wander the aisles and smell the new book smell. Then buy that book that keeps drawing you back, find a quiet bench in the park across the street or near the water, and feel your stress melt away.

Fantastic book and gift store, and dog friendly to boot. Definitely check it out when in the area!

Great selection of books. Wonderful, friendly staff. I love this place.

I was not expecting to find this awesome place in Mercer.

On first sight what really got my attention was their exhibit window with lots of international female authors.

I love that the staff is diverse and the recommendations they make seem on point.

5/5 I would definitely be back to get more books 🤩

Such a fantastic long standing establishment. We loved going for story time and had great fun exploring all the fun things around the store.

I love to come here to buy gifts for my nieces and nephews. The kids section is fun and has a great selection of activity items outside of just reading books for kids. The store is stocked full of adult books as well and has an inviting atmosphere.

One of the best independent bookstores in Seattle. The staff is passionate about their work, super knowledgeable and always happy to assist you and recommend you the best authors. I get all my gifts there.

Vast selection crammed into a cozy deep store on Mercer Island. Staff are outstanding.

We have been coming to this ship for a long time. It is a great local bookstore with an excellent selection. I rate tlit 5 stars on the quality of the book selection. The one downside is that the staff always (everytime) seem really annoyed when I request help finding a selection and the staff are always haughty. It seems like a culture with the staff; I have never understood it, but just accept it.

Sooooo cozy in this local book store, spent an hour inside

I am so thankful for the expediency and care conveyed by the owner to make sure I received a book I just purchased from them directly. I haven’t been driving since June due to a serious accident and have needed a new perspective to make it through a slow healing process.

One of our favorite book stores hands down. Amazing atmosphere and great selection of books. Kids favorite activity is Saturday's story time!