#12: Aeon Bookstore

The Shop: Aeon Bookstore

Lower East Side, Manhattan: 151 East Broadway

Nestled in a basement storefront around the corner from Seward Park, Aeon Bookstore has an eclectic selection of used books focused on art, film, philosophy, and activism. The cashier was DJing retro Motown records and shelves are practically dripping with cool— my half an hour in this store had me wishing I knew enough about art or politics to browse some of the more highbrow volumes I found. Aeon’s selection feels curated for both content and aesthetics, not a single ugly cover in the whole store… except for the ones that were “so ugly that it’s pretty cool looking” (see below). Unfortunately, it does not appear to be wheelchair accessible.

What I got:

Everything that Rises Must Converge

Hard to pass up a pre-loved yet sturdy volume of Flannery O’Connor short stories for a mere $6! I’ve been a huge Flannery fan since my high school days in Georgia… I even road tripped with my mom to visit her house in Milledgeville. For the yet to be initiated, give her novel Wise Blood a shot, it’s one of my all time favorite novels for spooky weirdness. Check out her name on that cover… some typesetter was putting the “goth” back in southern gothic!