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May 2024 by Barbara LaRue
Very interesting store. Found a few books.
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May 2024 by Stasha Moreno
King’s books is and will always be my favorite Tacoma bookstore. The owner is so nice, I miss seeing them and getting a friendly greeting every time I walked into the store. I love the community building that Kings books does, with readings, and book groups. I have always loved getting recommendations from the staff.The last few times I have been in the store, I haven’t received the same warm Tacoma welcome I have received since childhood. I miss the feeling of walking in and feeling instantly welcome. I miss the genuine Tacoma friendly-ness I used to receive here. I know Tacoma has changed, but I miss my friendly bookstore staff who said hello, left me alone to browse, but were always ready with recommendations if I needed any.
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May 2024 by Neetu
Such a fun store! The staff were super friendly and had really good recommendations. They offer a wide array of books and offer really good book clubs as well!
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April 2024 by nicole cox
What a cool little shop. Amazing puzzle selection. Lots of unique and obscure stuff. Great staff recommendations.
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April 2024 by Telurin
Nice shop! Wish I had more time to browse, will be back
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March 2024 by Joshua O.
Yay for King's Books, the best bookstore in Tacoma. They've got a very large and smart selection of new and used books, well organized but not OVERLY organized. There's idiosyncratic minds at work deciding which books get shelved in which sections, which means you're likely to find a title you didn't know you were looking for. I find exactly what I came for about 30% of the time, and leave with something excellent close to 100% of the time. Them's good odds! And used book prices are perfectly fair.
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March 2024 by Zenta Jones
Great place.
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March 2024 by aronoiiel
Hard to get to little parking. Selection wasnt as big as I remember from years ago lol. Thats on me though I swear this used to be in a bigger building. But the clerk was nice and there are some good treasures in there. Worth a look if you are near.
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March 2024 by Ruby F
❤️ I've never made it physically into the bookstore but have been following them on Instagram for years and finally got my first books from them ? Packaging was very secure! No damage to anything. Love supporting local bookstores ?
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February 2024 by Nathan Schroeder
I found this on a list of the 10 most beautiful bookstores in Washington and oh boy was I disappointed. This is a pretty basic small used bookstore. There’s really nothing special about it aside from the good diverse selection of books by minority authors and that’s the only thing saving this from being a one star review. While that section is prominent and well done the rest of the store is poor. Poor selection, poor layout, rickety shelves, and a surprisingly small space for a business that advertised “nearly a full city block of books.” It’s honestly a large bedroom of books or a rumpus room of books unless the city is in Lilliput.
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February 2024 by Alina Tuarsheva
A nice and cozy old-school book store, smells of library and history
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January 2024 by Jason M.
As much as I wanted to love this bookstore, the customer service was horrendously bad. It was a simple Saturday afternoon, and my daughter and I decided to take a stroll down St. Helens since the sun was out. We both like used bookstores, and she really likes vintage, so Kings Books with the attached vintage shop was an immediate find. We rolled into the store, and my daughter went to the vintage side and I went in to check out the bookstore. My lighthearted whimsical Saturday mood was quickly and harshly dashed by the unusually despondent and emotionally disassociated cashier. Sadly the cashier is the first person to "greet" you as you walk in, so my first interaction with the human component of the store was offensively horrid. I looked around, saw no distinct genre signs, and thought, hmm, let me ask the cashier as this was my first time at the store and there were a lot of books. I walked up and the cashier had this dead faced scowl with a cold penetrating stare that was reminiscent of what gave children nightmares from watching the overly CGI'd Polar Express. I brushed aside my initial gut check, as I'm not one to put anyone in a bad light upon my first interaction. I asked the cashier how the books were organized so I knew where to start. Wow, was this the wrong question to ask! She just looked at me like I was an idiot, and then very condescendingly with her signature dead stare said, "There are signs." Umm, okay, cool. So I said, "Oh, cool, I uh didn't see any at first. So this front section must be the 'featured' section." [Insert awkward pause akin to a dead punchline] Then she said, "Yeah." I was really getting somewhere here. Her personality was just bowling me over with rainbows. I thought wow, okay, I'll just be on my way and go look at the umm signs. Yikes. I proceed to peruse the books and find a Taoism book I like. I begrudgingly come back to the register as there is no other commerce based points of escape. Oh dear, again with the scowl. As I'm checking out, I ask about the signs [Insert internal cringe about saying anything] stating "Do Not Re-shelve the books yourself." As a laid my book down to purchase, I asked, "So how does this work, do I bring the book back once I've read it?" I was thinking with a shop full of used books, perhaps we pay an initial price and then can bring it back and receive a small discount or store credit for my next book. Once again, absolutely wrong question. The scowl became more pointed and intense, and she looked at me with what I can only describe as a "What are you stupid?" look and said, "Uh, this is a bookstore, we sell books." At this point, I was downright offended and put off by the whole ordeal. Asking basic questions is a grand offense, trying to checkout is a grand offense; I mean even walking through the door was seen as some vile act apparently. As we finalized the sale, my last ditch effort at bridging the gap between customer service specialist and cyborg anti-customer death unit, I noticed that she had been working on a Microsoft Surface laptop while waiting for customers to checkout. I said, "Oh cool, how do you like your Surface?" I'm a techie and I love my Surface, just saying. Well, you guessed it; absolute wrong question. She looked at me, looked at the laptop, looked back at me and said, "It's not a Surface." Well ya coulda fooled me Ms. Cyborg, cuz it sure has a damn uncanny resemblance to my laptop which is a, well, a, Surface! Needless to say I walked out in a combined state of pissed off and stunned. I have never experienced such an offensively pitiful display of garbage customer service in my life, and I've shopped in some pretty low class places in my time. For as much as the bookstore is one of the coolest I've been in, the cashier quite literally ruined the experience for me. I had to muster up every bit of "I can only control my response" self-talk to move on and salvage my S
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January 2024 by Katherine Albert
Went for a book signing and was glad to discover this gem of a local bookstore!
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December 2023 by Grace E.
Used to love this store but the customer service is awful! They would rather read their books or look at their phones than help people. My most recent experience was even worse than the last. I saw on their website they sell books for store credit which I have done once before and so I packed up 3 bags of books and brought them over there. But when I brought them in the lady very coldly told me "we are not accepting books until further notice" Classic Tacoma believing books will give you COVID - wash your hands and get over yourself like everyone else has. Wasted my time!! Please update your website clearly you are just sitting around doing nothing anyways.
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December 2023 by David Copeland
A wonderful local bookstore with a great selection of new and used books.
