This may well be our favorite Twin Cities book shop, which we visited for the first time during our recent Minnesota trip!
James & Mary Laurie, Booksellers – 250 3rd Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN
We spent an entirely wonderful day here!
Their hours are 11-6 Monday through Saturday and by appointment. Free parking available in a small lot on one side of the store (limited number of spaces), but also a big parking ramp nearby.
We found a nice space in the lot at opening time, around 11am.
With an inventory of over 120,000 books, our day was well occupied!
Here’s me, wondering where to start…
This beautiful and large street-level shop also houses more than 30,000 classical and jazz vinyl records, and a gallery of old prints and maps.
To say we were excited about the book selection here is an understatement, especially since there were many nice examples of our favorite specialty, decorated American trade bindings. But of course there were thousands of interesting books in all genres, and they were in beautiful condition. The shop is well organized and easy to browse, with pleasant surprises at every turn.
Here are just a few samples of some of the beautiful decorated bindings we found here:
James & Mary Laurie Booksellers was founded in 1969 (they were located for twenty years on the Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis before moving to this location). We did not have the pleasure of meeting Mary, but Jim is a super guy, and was wonderful to us during our visit.
Here I am with Jim Laurie. He’s a tall one!
After hours of perusing and purchasing books, we broke away for a little pick-me-up at Dunn Brothers Coffee, just around the corner.
Great smile, great coffee!
When we returned to the book shop, we were invited to descend to their warehouse area, where many more books are stored. Come on along!
Here were many more thousands of books, stacked to the ceiling. Good thing we had that coffee!!
We found several wonderful books down here as well, and added them to our purchases.
Can’t say enough good things about this book store — make sure you pay them a visit if you are ever in Minneapolis!
In the evening, we met my sister Karen and her husband Gene in Spring Park for a sunset cruise on her daughter and son-in-law’s boat.
The weather was perfect for a quiet evening on Lake Minnetonka
Perfect ending of another Minnesota-beautiful day.
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