• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Where Do You Shop For Fortean Books?

The Truth

Fresh Blood
Joined
Dec 12, 2014
Messages
8
Location
The Midwest
Apart from Amazon, I was blessed with a discount at a used bookstore I worked at that had an excellent metaphysics section with books of Fortean interests. I have since moved to the east coast and am unsure where to shop for our kind of books. All the used bookstores I've gone to have been sorely lacking. Is there any shop on the east coast that specializes in these kind of books? I'm talking the full gamut of UFOs, ghosts, cryptozoology, and other fringe subjects.

In general, maybe this could be a suggestion thread for anyone looking for bookstores with a good Fortean selection in their area.
 
Can only offer advice on East coast of Ireland.

Chapters, Parnell Street, Dublin. New, discounted and second hand books.

Hodges-Figgis, Dawson Street, Dublin. New and occasionally discounted books.

Oxfam and other charity stores are always worth a look. Oxfam has a book/cd/vid store on Parliament Street, Dublin.
 
Apart from Amazon, I was blessed with a discount at a used bookstore I worked at that had an excellent metaphysics section with books of Fortean interests. I have since moved to the east coast and am unsure where to shop for our kind of books. All the used bookstores I've gone to have been sorely lacking. Is there any shop on the east coast that specializes in these kind of books? I'm talking the full gamut of UFOs, ghosts, cryptozoology, and other fringe subjects. ...

If you're wanting suggestions for where to physically visit and browse, you should mention where on the east coast you're located.
 
If you're wanting suggestions for where to physically visit and browse, you should mention where on the east coast you're located.
And indeed the east coast of where, for example I’m pretty sure Whitby would have some books on vampires.

I was impressed with the selection of Fortean books in Foyles in London on a recent visit.
 
And indeed the east coast of where, for example I’m pretty sure Whitby would have some books on vampires.
I was impressed with the selection of Fortean books in Foyles in London on a recent visit.

I'm pretty sure it's the east coast of the USA that's involved here.
 
Well, we all have our favorite books. In those, there is a bibliography, with several titles you want to hunt down. Which library has them is a bit irrelevant.
Of course, this has a problem of fossilizing thoughts. General Fortean books are important to avoid this, but the titles more than bookstores in my case--there is scarce material I'm able to buy in Brazil on the subject.
I'm fond of D.[ouglas] Scott Rogo's The Haunted Universe. The second edition of Unexplained! by Jerome Clark is also good (the third edition removed a lot of the more strange material on UFOs).
Stan Gooch's Creatures from Inner Space, re-published as The Origins of Psychic Phenomena is also worth mentioning. I have about a dozen "general" books on my wishlist, and half a dozen waiting to be read on my shelves.

I'm afraid of search engines, and review sites. It's common to end with several titles added to my wishlist after visits. I don't even want to think of what would happen to my suffering wallet if I met a well stocked bookstore.
 
Well, we all have our favorite books. In those, there is a bibliography, with several titles you want to hunt down. Which library has them is a bit irrelevant.
Of course, this has a problem of fossilizing thoughts. General Fortean books are important to avoid this, but the titles more than bookstores in my case--there is scarce material I'm able to buy in Brazil on the subject.
I'm fond of D.[ouglas] Scott Rogo's The Haunted Universe. The second edition of Unexplained! by Jerome Clark is also good (the third edition removed a lot of the more strange material on UFOs).
Stan Gooch's Creatures from Inner Space, re-published as The Origins of Psychic Phenomena is also worth mentioning. I have about a dozen "general" books on my wishlist, and half a dozen waiting to be read on my shelves.

I'm afraid of search engines, and review sites. It's common to end with several titles added to my wishlist after visits. I don't even want to think of what would happen to my suffering wallet if I met a well stocked bookstore.
The OP was asking where to buy books not for book recommendations although I’m sure they were welcome!
 
The OP was asking where to buy books not for book recommendations although I’m sure they were welcome!
I should have added that it is trivial to look for used book stores using a search engine, of course. If you find one, you can ask for the address of other ones to patrons or the owners.
One of these days I wanted to buy a rare book (published in Wisconsin, USA), so I looked for bookstores and sent e-mails to the ones with addresses. I think I contacted about half the bookstores on that state, and from the calls of bookshop owners looking for the title I wanted, this made a copy of the book appear on AbeBooks--not from one of the sellers I contacted, but another one from the same state. A little searching pays off.
 
I was impressed with the selection of Fortean books in Foyles in London on a recent visit.
I was in London at the end of last month and visited the bookshops on the Charing Cross road – I came away similarly impressed.
 
Usually on Amazon, the rest i find in charity shops mostly, I am unsure if our library is still open, i may have to find out and check them out if they are
 
It's Amazon for me as our local bookshops only hold a small section on what they term 'Spirituality' oddly always filled with Bibles, tarot and Angel cards.
However, once a year a group in town as a way of fundraising, hold a second hand book sale in which 1000s of books that get donated get put up for sale. $1 of softcovers, $2 for hardcovers. There's always a bounty of excellent titles to be found which surprises me considering the elderly folk from whom most of the books are donated from.
 
Last edited:
This place is 'the daddy' for Forteana in London:

http://theatlantisbookshop.com

This is where I bought all my Fortean/magic books back in the day. I remember buying a book there, which one I cannot recall but very likely to be about Crowley or The Golden Dawn, and on reading it found a reference to the shop itself. I hadn’t appreciated how long the shop had been there prior to then.

From memory it became a shadow of its former self, in the nineties I believe, but a recent podcast included an interview with the current owners who appear to have brought it back to its former glory!

Amazing to think that you can stand in a place and browse like Crowley et al did in those far off times.
 
OK, so to not say I don't visit bookstores...

These are photos of some large used bookstores in my state capital (Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil):

Beco dos Livros
beco dos livros.jpg

Martins Livreiro
Martins Livreiro.jpg

Sebo Café Riachuelo
Sebo Café Riachuelo.jpg

Sadly, they are mostly out of Parapsychology and Forteana titles (I know this very well, being mining them throughout the years; Beco dos Livros, particularly, no longer carries Ufology books (the owner deems them to be "out of fashion now").

Sometimes I get used books authored by Carl Jung from them, but these never stay on shelves for long; most of the time I go there, none are available.

An advice: many large used physical bookstores also selling books on internet, only have a small fraction of their inventory online. They only include the most popular titles; the other ones go straight to their shelves. It often happens that heirs sell private libraries when the owners die; the more valuable titles are listed online, and again, the others go to the shelves.

Due to my uncommon, here, interests, I am forced to buy mostly online, since most of the books I buy are Fortean, and there are not many titles available in Brazil (I think I have most of them anyway), translated or natively written.

Our closest equivalent to Fortean Times, the Mundo Estranho <Strange World> magazine, ceased publication in Aug 2018, at issue #212. Infinite internet free articles (and Facebook groups) on the subject killed most specialized Brazilian magazines.
 
I'm lucky enough to have a Half-Price Books near me. They always have some unusual titles, as well as the standard occult stuff. It's where I picked up my copy of The Principia Discordia.
 
I'm lucky enough to have a Half-Price Books near me. They always have some unusual titles, as well as the standard occult stuff. It's where I picked up my copy of The Principia Discordia.

Half-Price Books is good.

I've had the best luck with the second (or third or more) hand offerings from Goodwill, rummage sales and library sales.
 
Careful, Ulalume. That's how I got hooked on the America's Test Kitchen books. Found a great one for $1 at my local library. I now own 6 of them...at not nearly as nice a price. :D (Totally worth it, by the way, I can read those like I read non-fiction books)
 
Bookcase in Carlisle has (I think) 4 tall bookcases of Fortean-related books and numerous knee-high stacks too.

EDIT TO ADD in fact, they have loads of books on almost every subject and is the best bookshop I have ever visited.
 
Apart from Amazon, I was blessed with a discount at a used bookstore I worked at that had an excellent metaphysics section with books of Fortean interests. I have since moved to the east coast and am unsure where to shop for our kind of books. All the used bookstores I've gone to have been sorely lacking. Is there any shop on the east coast that specializes in these kind of books? I'm talking the full gamut of UFOs, ghosts, cryptozoology, and other fringe subjects.

In general, maybe this could be a suggestion thread for anyone looking for bookstores with a good Fortean selection in their area.
OK.... Very belated response, for which I apologise, but when I lived in Falmouth Cornwall, on the main street there was an intriguing little second hand bookshop.... If you were to stand facing Trago Mills and The Pirate pub (should any of them still be there) it would be behind you on the left hand side of the street. I remember seeing some very old Cowley books on display..... But that was about 20 years ago when I was still a slip of a lad.... And Helen.... I still love you today xxx
 
OK.... Very belated response, for which I apologise, but when I lived in Falmouth Cornwall, on the main street there was an intriguing little second hand bookshop.... If you were to stand facing Trago Mills and The Pirate pub (should any of them still be there) it would be behind you on the left hand side of the street. I remember seeing some very old Cowley books on display..... But that was about 20 years ago when I was still a slip of a lad.... And Helen.... I still love you today xxx
Argh.... Crowley sorry..... Any goodwill I have built up recently has just evaporated
 
It's getting easier to buy directly from authors :D
 
Abbey Books in Paisley used to be great for Fortean books- I got a lovely two-volume set of the Golden Bough there once. Last time I was in, 3 weeks ago, they didn't have a single one. Hopefully that just means they've sold out til they get more in!
 
Back
Top