Elliott Bay Book Company — Attraction in Seattle

Located in the heart of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, The Elliott Bay Book Company is a full service bookstore. They offer one of the region's best selection of new books, with over 150,000 titles, as well as a large collection of remainders. In addition, Elliott Bay presents an unparalleled schedule of author readings and events throughout the year.

Independently owned and founded by Walter Carr in 1973, at 109 Main Street in Pioneer Square, Elliott Bay shifted and expanded, adding an event space for author readings as well as Seattle’s first bookstore café, until 2010, when we relocated to the Capitol Hill neighborhood, adjacent to downtown Seattle. They brought with them the unique selection of books, original cedar shelves and there knowledgeable staff to ensure the same welcoming environment, customer service and selection. The reading events as well as the café have also remained a vital part of there business.

Part of the daily life of Elliott Bay for over five decades, they host an almost daily author reading series. While they have had the pleasure of hosting some of the world’s preeminent writers, from its inception, our reading series has sought to feature diverse, lesser known, new, famous, infamous and sometimes controversial writers. Cohosting events with other community partners has been fundamental to the series and helped to put writers and readers together throughout the Seattle area to ensure that new, interesting and diverse voices continue to be published and translated. A monthly list of there readings, with information on the month's authors and books, dates, times, and admission information, is always available on there website.

Four times a year they publish the Elliott Bay Booknotes, which include newly published titles that are hand selected and reviewed by the staff. This publication is available on there website. In store (and on website), you will find there Staff Recommendations. Books chosen and suggested from there team of booksellers who take pride in sharing their discoveries. They pride Themselfs on being a knowledgeable staff of booksellers who do there best to locate just the books you are seeking and in addition, they offer special order services, book group presentations, signed first editions, magazines and journals, cards and more.

Daily, they provide a space for our customers to browse, read, eat, drink and discover new and favorite writers. An independent bookstore in the best sense of the term (meaning we're truly interdependent with our community and our customers), more than anything, they are sustained by the support, curiosity, and enthusiasm for reading that you, there readers, constantly demonstrate to us. For that they are more than grateful. Please join them soon—whether it's a quick dash in for a particular book you already have in mind, or several pleasurable, mind-meandering hours of browsing.

Thank you for supporting this woman and queer owned business. May the force be with...

Obviously, March 2025 wasn't my first visit to the Elliot Bay Book Company since this is my ninth year working in the neighborhood. (My office is about four blocks away.) This is my favorite bookstore (after Portland's incomparable Powell's). I go there about once a month. I mostly visit the following sections: the staff recommendations (right inside the doors, where I sometimes spend more than a half hour), magazines, essays, music, science fiction, and the left half of the upstairs (history, psychology, biology, physics, math, etc.). I used to spend the most time upstairs, but lately it's the music section (all its subsections) where I linger the most. Currently, my mind is on a book on the history of Detroit techno, the Tolhurst book on goth, and the new edition of 'And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, which, when I was looking at on a music store's website I didn't realize was 900 pages. I'm trying to postpone going back for those three books, partly because the latter is, as you can guess, a doorstop, and it would take me too long to read while also trying to work through my reading backlog, which is about 30 books I'm reading at the same time. Last time I was there, I picked up a pre-order and the next Becky Chambers Wayfarers book (immediately after enjoying A Closed and Common Orbit so much because it asks [and attempts to answer] important questions for today and our newer "brave new" future). It's rare that I can get outta there with only two purchases, though. My first visit to the Elliot Bay Book Company was in the mid-90s during a visit to Seattle, probably around the time I was moving from a small college town in WA to Portland. The location was different, somewhere on 2nd or 3rd, I believe. It was smaller and jammed with books. What I remember best was a large map of the US at the entrance, with the states marked with what students supposedly thought about them. (Delaware was renamed Unaware.) I also remembered there wasn't enough time to check out the whole store even then. Today, Elliot Bay is a well-organized and even more fun bookstore to visit. (And it would be so even without its coffeeshop, which is an additional attraction.) If you're visiting Seattle, it's a must-see, even more so than the Jimi Hendrix statue in front of Blick, just around the corner from around the corner : ) or the two legendary Seattle food stops on either side of it. (There used to also be an Everyday Music right across the street, but sadly that's no more, along with several other Portland businesses, I've noticed, but there is still way more to check on this side of Capitol Hill right around Elliot Bay BC, so head on over and just wander around! (in and outside...

I have been shopping at this book store for eleven years. It has been my favorite book store to go to. I love the environment and the friendly staff. Yesterday I bought a journal and I was very excited because it seemed like a journal that was of a higher quality than usual. Last night I cracked the journal open and started writing in it with a 2b soft lead mechanical pencil, one that I use in practically every other journal and sketchbook that I have and have ever had. I wrote one sentence in this journal and my mechanical pencil punctured through the page three times. I wasn't writing hard it was simply the apex of the pencil sharpening and any time I would turn the pencil it punctured through. I tore the page out to inspect the paper and it felt like plastic paper. I also tore the page out because what I was writing was very personal even though it was just a sentence and I didn't want someone reading it. I went back to Elliot bay today to exchange the journal for something else and I was told that I could not return it because it was not in sellable condition. I feel like I was sold a journal that I can't write in without tearing it up. I feel like I was sold a bad product. The manager I spoke to, who was kind, told me to give the journal to someone else to write it. I pushed the journal back to her and told her to keep it and that I will never be shopping here again because I won't be. I NEVER write bad reviews. I usually just go on with my day when I have a bad experience. I have been buying sketchbooks for 11 years and have never had any issues with them EVER. I don't think it's unreasonable to want to return a product that you physically can't write on without tearing the product up. So I find it to be very unreasonable that I was sold a product that will just be destroyed while being used for its purpose. Again, I would like to say that the manager was nice. Something should be done about this. I'm not rich and flushing $30 down the drain because of a product that has flashy exterior but a poor quality interior is not okay with me. Now I would rather give my money to Amazon although I have been actively deciding to not give them my money by coming into your...