Book Stores in Seattle

[Maus]

Well, it is nearly time for my yearly vacation. My wife and I are heading out to Seattle this year (in June), and I will want to visit as many of the book stores that sell WWII books as I can. Does anyone know of any decent bookstores in the Seattle area that sell WWII books? (I tried talking my wife into going down to Portland to the huge Powell's bookstore, but she already nixed that idea).

Thanks.

Brian B.

[Todd Starkey]

Hello Brian,

I reside in Seattle and can suggest the following 2 bookstores which are located approx. 25 minutes and 45 minutes outside of Seattle. The bookstores are Comstock's in the city of Auburn (25min) and the other is the Tacoma Book Center located in Tacoma (45 min). Comstock's has been around for 30+ years and has extensive Military, Naval and Aviation sections as well as many back issues of military related magazines. The Tacoma Book Center also has large sections devoted to Military History.

Both stores carry rare or rarely seen World War 2 titles, with Comstock's having a section devoted to German military (mainly English titles) with those rare titles located on shelves behind the checkout counter (seen some of the extremly rare Ryton publications and Bender pubs last time I was in). Dave the owner is a great guy and I have been buying books from him since I was 14 (which makes both Dave and I older than both care to admit!) If you don't see what your looking for, just ask as they may have it behind the counter on shelves used to hold books listed on ABE website. Tacoma book center also keeps their rare books on a shelf behind the counter, with the rest on a large row divided by subject/era (civil war, ww1, ww2, etc).

There isn't any bookstores in Seattle proper anymore other than Barnes and Noble and Borders (both of which used to have sizeable military sections but have scaled back in last couple of years). I hope this information helps and if you have any questions about our "Sunny" city, please ask.
Cheers,
Todd

[Maus]

That is exactly the information I was looking for. Todd, thank you very much for you suggestions, and my wife and I are really looking forward to vising Seattle and the Seattle area. Thanks again Todd!!

Brian Burmeister

[Todd Starkey]

Hi Brian,

Glad information was of use. Should you have any further questions regarding Seattle just send me a PM and I'll try to answer them the best I can.

Best Regards,
Todd

[John P. Moore]

I have been to Comstocks in Auburn, WA too several times and agree with Todd's comments . It has an excellent selection and seems to specialize in first editions. However, you won't find any bargain prices there.

John

[Jason Pipes]

I believe there are a few Half Price Books located in the Seattle area. They are a chain book store but are the only used book store chain that I'm aware of and I have always had fantastic luck finding useful, hard to find, and/or rare books in their stores. If I am ever in a city with a HPB near by I always stop in, and I almost always find something interesting. They usually have a large military history section and since it consists of a large amount of used books you simply never know what will show up. Highly, highly recommended.

Here are the stores in Washington. Not knowing the area off hand at least a few appear to be in Seattle proper.

Bellevue, Crossroads
Everett, Everett Mall
Lynnwood, James Village
Redmond, Redmond/Town Center
Seattle, Capitol Hill
Seattle, University District
Tacoma, Rainier Place
Tukwila, Parkway Square