Orlando has a booming bookstore community. Visiting a bookstore offers a unique experience: connecting over a book with a cashier, browsing the shelves for the perfect book, and asking the person next to you what they’d recommend. These spaces have built a community around reading that is important to support. When you buy from a local bookstore, you support literacy and share the love of literature. Luckily, the Orlando area offers many bookstores for you to explore. Here are four bookstores in Orlando that you need to visit.
- AUTHENTIC BOOKS
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Authentic Books is located right off Orange Avenue near the Mills District. Only 20 minutes from the University of Central Florida’s main campus, its convenient location makes it a great stop for UCF students looking for a good book. They are known for their “fill a tote” bundle, where you can buy a tote bag, a book, and three more items for a set price in-store. Your tote will fill quickly with the selection available in-store. From candles to classics, Authentic Books has everything a book lover could ever need.
@authenticbooks on Instagram Want to buy the full reading experience? Purchase Authentic Book’s monthly book box, where you can pick from three new book releases, receive a candle to match your book, enjoy snacks to nibble on while reading, relax with curated self-care items for your read, and listen to a playlist made to pair with your book picks.
Additionally, you can find community in the Authentic Book’s book club. Not interested in one of the month’s books? Create your own book club and host it at Authentic Books. On Sundays, they have one-hour time slots available for book clubs to meet at their store.
- THE NEW ROMANTICS
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The New Romantics is a romance bookstore in Winter Park, within walking distance of one of the area’s popular shopping centers. Women-owned and Latina-owned, the store celebrates women’s voices by offering exclusively romance novels.
@thenewromanticsbooks on Instagram They host various events such as book signings, author chats, book clubs, and bookish crafts. Book lovers have a lot to unite over at The New Romantics. To get updates for their events, you can follow the bookstore’s Instagram. You don’t want to miss all the exciting things they offer!
Want the newest romance books delivered right to your doorstep? The New Romantics offers a book box with a monthly romance new release, a bookmark, a signed bookplate, a sticker, a mini book, and a surprise bonus item, a convenient and cute option for readers unable to shop in-store.
- BRIGHT LIGHT
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Bright Light is a huge used bookstore located 25 minutes from UCF. Because the store sells used books, they are offered at a discounted, affordable rate. You can get lost in the bookstore’s many shelves, which house thousands of books in various genres. From the trendiest titles to niche hobby books, Bright Light has it all at prices you can’t beat.
@brightlightbooks on Instagram You can save even more money by donating an old book. Every book you give earns you credit you can put toward a new one, and there are so many to choose from.
Used bookstores have a reputation for poor selection, but Bright Light crushes this expectation with its sheer volume of books. It is a must-visit store.
- A SPIRAL CIRCLE BOOKSTORE
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A Spiral Circle Bookstore & More is known for its immense amount of self-help books, intuitive readings, crystals, jewelry, and apothecary brews.
@spiralcirclebookstore on Instagram It is definitely more than just a bookstore offering spiritual and psychic support alongside romance, history, classics, and self-help books. It’s Orlando’s oldest bookstore and has created a community that is worth getting involved in.
Support your reading addiction at these local bookstores before resorting to corporate chains like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Your money keeps their doors open, which proves especially relevant to the Central Florida reading community. In March, the Writer’s Block bookstore announced that it would be shutting down its Winter Garden location at the end of April. This is a sign to prevent this from happening to other beloved Orlando bookstores by shopping locally and helping companies that care.
Whether you take a bookstore tour and get involved with each store’s reading community or sign up for book boxes, there are so many ways to support the literary bonds that these stores have created. Start with these four bookstores, and contribute to the Orlando community in a meaningful way.