McNally Jackson Books Williamsburg

Visited for independent bookstore day. Nice independent bookstore with a well orangized, bright interior. Pleasing collection of books to choose from, if a little too top heavy on the unusual side. Interesting stationary as well. Disappointingly not accessible: an upstairs section up a steep stairway with no alternatives.

Loveeee this bookstore! Always I leave with 3-5 new books every time I enter. Well curated, great staff and all the good stuff it’s like they kept out the bad and only let in the good! I always stop in here each visit to the burg and so should you!

All the McNally Jackson stores are delightful, and this one is particularly warm. The children’s section has a mini-castle that’s sure to delight young readers, and two floors of a large variety of books will keep an adult happily engaged. A must visit for bibliophiles!

Love coming here, feels like another world away from the city. Large, open and has that new book smell. Has an upstairs and is very clean and quiet as well. Great choices for different genres.

McNally Jackson Books Layout/atmosphere *Two floors (first floor - nonfiction, fiction, magazines, graphic novels; second floor - nonfiction/arts & sciences) Purchased here: *Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky *Five Decembers by James Kestrel

The customer service in this bookshop is amazing! There’s a young man with a lot of tattoos, I think his name is Jules, who is incredibly helpful and always gives me the best book recommendations! It’s always a pleasure.

Hard to ignore how one-sided many sections feel - for ex, only came across books with opinions antagonistic of the Jewish people. I’m all for locally owned bookstores (especially this one and its great vibe), but hard to look past how/why it lacks a variety of opinions. Until that changes, I won’t be coming back.

Very rarely do I provide reviews. However, I noticed an ongoing theme at McNally Jackson book stores (Downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg) pushing what many would perceive as a one sided anti-semitic narrative on geopolitics. I checked the reviews to confirm if I was the only one identifying this. Lo and behold there seems to be a few others with a similar consensus. The store seems to unapologetically promote these views in their “most popular” section (sadly, I guess that sells these days?). It’s shame, because in the past I was proud to support this independent book store. I hope in the future they can move from showing favoritism with their political opinions front and center. Until then, I’ll have to provide my support elsewhere.