Best Bookstores in Texas

Looking for bookstores in Texas? We’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ve collected information about brick-and-mortar bookstores in Texas, from university bookstores to adult and Christian bookstores and the ones that sell and buy new and used books and college bookstores specializing in textbooks. Tune in!

Texas College Bookstores

Let’s start with the college bookstores in Texas state. CollegeStats.org states that Texas is home to more than a dozen community colleges and 96 private four-year and graduate universities in Texas. Also, there are six state university systems, including

The University of Houston
The University of North Texas
The University of Texas
Texas A&M University
Texas State University
Texas Tech University

Each of these systems has a list of universities to choose from.

Just like in the previous article about the best bookstores in Virginia, in this one, we’ll start with covering a few college bookstores in Texas. For a complete list of campus bookstores, you can check the BookScouter campus bookstores Texas page.

Texas College Bookstores Operated by Follett

Fifty-nine of Texas college and university bookstores are operated by Follett Higher Education Group. We’ve already mentioned the company in the article about Virginia bookstores, so just to remind you: it’s the largest campus store operator in North America, with 1,200+ local bookstores and 1,700 eFollett online stores nationwide. In Texas, these college bookstores offer textbooks and all sorts of school supplies and merchandise.

The online bookstores operated by Follett look pretty much the same; they also have the same functionality regarding the purchase, rent, and buyback of used textbooks, be it the Texas State University bookstore, Texas Tech bookstore, MSU Texas bookstore, or the University of Texas Dallas bookstore.

To find course materials online on the Texas Wesleyan University bookstore Textbooks page, enter a student ID or search them by course:

If you’re a student at the University of Texas El Paso, you can visit their campus bookstore at the following address: The University of Texas at El Paso University Bookstore, 2201 Sun Bowl DR, El Paso, TX US 79902-2043 in person, or also check the store’s website and after choosing the courses, choose the textbooks you need:

If you see that the course materials haven’t yet been determined for your course online on the Texas Woman’s University bookstore website, you can visit the bookstore in person at the following address: Texas Woman’s University, 304 Administration Dr., Denton, TX 76204, phone: 940-898-2000.

If you want to sell your textbooks from the previous semesters to the bookstore operated by Follett, you should check the bottom of the website and click “Sell Your Textbooks.” The University of Texas San Antonio bookstore, as well as all the other bookstores in the chain, has the same rules regarding the buyback program:

You should check the working hours first. College bookstores operated by Follett usually accept books in very good condition with all pages present, without any signs of water (or any other) damage, stains, highlights, etc. They also usually offer up to 50% of the book’s original price. However, keep in mind that if the store reaches our limit on a particular title for the next term, they may not buy it. Alternatively, they can do it despite the title being a current edition because there’s a demand.

Texas College Bookstores Operated by Barnes & Noble College

Many Texas college and university bookstores are operated by Barnes & Noble College, another large US college bookstore operator (1,400+ physical and digital stores for higher education and K-12 schools). In Texas, they manage 112 schools, including 69 high-ed bookstores. This explains the same bookstore website interface across the network: for instance, if you want to find the book for your Clothing/Textiles (CT) course in the Texas Southern University bookstore, you choose the term and the course and see what’s required (for instance, Fabric of Cultures):

The same thing applies to other university and college bookstores of the network: the University of North Texas official bookstore, the South Texas College of Law bookstore, and the South Texas College bookstore, etc.—they all have the same structure:

So, you can check the required Torts: Cases, Problems, and Exercises textbook for the summer course and compare its price offering with what’s offered in other places. For instance, you can use BooksRun.

BooksRun

BooksRun lets you buy, rent, and sell books online at great prices. It works with both textbooks and all sorts of used books. As a student, you can use it to your best advantage. Here’s how: college bookstores sell new books that are very expensive. They also sell used textbooks, but there’s no guarantee they’ll have what you need at the best price. With BooksRun, you can shop from Texas or pretty much from anywhere in the US and find the book you need by its ISBN, title, or author. You can compare textbook prices in your college bookstore with the ones offered on BooksRun. You can also sell your used textbooks way more profitably. Besides, you can use BooksRun to shop for other books.

Brick-and-Mortar Bookstores in Texas

If selling and buying books online isn’t your thing, we’ll then proceed to several brick-and-mortar stores in major Texas cities. We’ve intentionally omitted such well-known chains as Half Price Books and Barnes and Noble; instead, we decided to focus on local independent stores. All of them sell used books. Some of them accept used books as buyback, and some of them accept donations. Nonetheless, you can check the longer list on the Lone Star Literary Life website.

Bookstores in Austin, Texas

603 N. Lamar
Austin, TX 78703

If you’re looking for a bookstore in Austin, Texas, here is our recommendation: BookPeople. It’s one of the oldest independent bookstores in Texas—it opened in 1970—it offers a huge selection of books. There’re two floors with books, a coffee shop, and shelves with book recommendation cards written by the staff members. While the bookstore doesn’t seem to buy used books, they accept donations. If you live in Austen, you definitely know about this bookstore. If you’re new to the town, we recommend visiting it for the atmosphere.

Here’re other suggestions for those looking for “used bookstores near me” in Austen:

Bookstores in Houston,Texas

3116 Houston Avenue
Houston, Texas 77009

Among all the bookstores in Houston, we decided to recommend Kaboom Books—”Houston’s Least Eponymous Used Bookstore.” You can find it on the eastern edge of Woodland Heights, immediately above Downtown Houston. This is exactly the place where you need to go “If you are tired of looking for books by sitting in your underwear, hunched over your keyboard, watching type trickle down the screen, come by and have a browse.” Before this store, the owners had several bookstores in New Orleans for more than thirty years. This one serves the same purpose: to be of use to the people who live in Houston neighborhoods. They have 84 different sections with about 100,000 books in the bookstore (mostly fiction, art, history, and social and physical sciences. They also “buy and trade books,” so you can contact them directly about your used book collection.

Here’re our other recommended used bookstore places in Houston:

Bookstores in Dallas, Texas

200 N. Locust
Denton, TX 76201

When in Dallas, visit Recycled Books. “Denton’s Book and Record Store Since 1983” is a peculiar place; for one thing, it’s located in an old Opera House, and for another, it uses the entire two floors and every single spot to house books. Recycled has “a constantly-changing collection of around half a million books in great condition, most of which are priced at half or below their original cover price.” You can find everything from mystery and sci-fi to psychology and cookbooks. They also list their books on Amazon, eBay, AbeBooks, and Discogs. The bookstore also sells records and CDs. If you have used books you want to sell, you can contact the store. They generally prefer “gently used books and scratch-free records, CDs, Blu-Rays, and DVDs.” They don’t accept textbooks, encyclopedias, book club editions, ex-library discards, Time-Life books, Harlequin Romances, Reader’s Digest editions, or magazines. If you have an extensive collection, Recycled also offers estate liquidation services in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Call them for more information if this is your case.

Also, check these used bookstore places in Dallas:

Bookstores San Antonio, Texas

306 Pearl Parkway, Ste. 106
San Antonio, TX 78215

What about a bookstore in San Antonio? We recommend The Twig Book Shop, one of the oldest bookstores in the city. “Currently located at the former Pearl Brewery on the Museum Reach of the Riverwalk, The Twig provides newly released books for children and adults as well as award-winning classics.” You can buy books by visiting the store in person; you can also buy hardcovers, paperbacks, and electronic books on their website. While they don’t have a buyback policy, they accept donations and “welcome and appreciate your physical and/or virtual patronage.”

More used bookstore places in San Antonio you may like:

Bookstores in Lubbock, Texas

513 Broadway Street
Lubbock, TX 79401

When in Lubbock, visit Wild Lark Bookshop and Publisher, “Downtown Lubbock’s Independent Bookshop & Publisher.” It’s a small indie bookstore, an indie publisher that supports “authors as artists,” and a place where free community and cultural events take place. Founded and run by Brianne van Reenen, who had a career in marketing for 15 years until she went to Scotland to discover her ancestral past. Now it’s a place where authors can come and get support and where everyone can find something unique and inspiring despite the size of the store. You can also check their online collection on Bookshop. Wild Lark doesn’t have a buyback program, but we recommend checking their Instagram page and visiting the store on the corner of Broadway Street & Ave E in person.

More bookstores in Lubbock, Texas:

Final Thoughts

While this is far from the complete list of local college and independent bookstores in Texas, we hope you’ll find it helpful as a student or a book lover. In one article, we can only cover some of the possible used bookstores, indie, and university bookstores in Texas state, but you can use this information as a starting point in your search. We’ll get back with more bookstores in other states!

Best Bookstores in Texas

Texas College Bookstores

Texas College Bookstores Operated by Follett