KULTURAs Books

The best second hand (thus discounted) art, architecture, & photography books this town has to offer, if you are in way connected to or with or interested in the visual arts, this is a collection you have check. They do have a lot more categories, especially, a good place to re stock for your paperback fiction reading.Most fun, besides looking at great art books you also get to look and vintage, or at least really well selected second hand clothing, very nicely edited, as are the books, Great place to make a regular for your rounds around town, definitely one of my mine,

Posted 11/27/09 | Report Abuse

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Found Kulturas Books' new location in town last Sunday. They used to be down on Conn. Ave. at Dupont Circle. Then they disappeared for a few years to LA (my home town).They had two cool stores out there in Santa Monica/Venice by the way. Anyway they are back in DC on Wisconsin Ave. between Tenley and Friendship Heights.(There are also a bunch of good restaurants on their block and across the street...a Thai, two French, a Salvadoran/Mexican, you can make an afternoon or an evening of it). OK, so the new place reminds me alot of their old store at Dupont it is long and narrow, but (I think) has a better selection of books than before. My wife thought the new area of consignment clothing they call it "sort-of-vintage" was a great inovation/addition. She nabbed two jackets (one wool, the other suede) for about $65, not bad. I perused the art and photograpghy sections, picking up a Tina Modoti bio, and an Abrams oversized book on Jackson Pollock... then over to the poetry for a nice Black Sparrow edition of my homie Charles Bukowski, then down into the paperback fiction section (huge and double shelved) I dug out two Roberto Bolano titles, a David Foster Wallace and a set of Proust.(gift). A bunch of books, and I wanted more. but... next trip. It was all like visiting an old friend, you have your own memories of them but when you meet again they are pleasantly different. Great to have them back. Another bookstore in town!!!! and a good one!!!

Posted 11/27/09 | Report Abuse

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KULTURAs books is back in town. After 3 years in Los Angeles, they've reopened at 4918 Wisconsin Ave., NW. in Tenleytown, the old beautiful space where Good Eye used to be. They have come back with even greater stock than they used to have, ditto for their vintage clothing. It is a very fun place to visit, browse and shop. They are now called KULTURAs books + as they will be adding more items to their selection.

Posted 10/17/09 | Report Abuse

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Kulturas is one of those relaxed, funky little bookstores that you can wander into by accident and find yourself hanging out for an hour. The storefront is small and easy to miss, I actually walked past it dozens of times before I noticed it one day and went in. As others have noted, it is not the most well-organized bookstore. But they accept trades and will buy books which is definitely a plus. Many stores in Washington don't do that anymore. Kulturas has a particullary great art book selection and is a good place to pick up a first edition. They don't have many formula genres (romance, mysteries etc) so if that's your thing, try one of the other stores on Connecticut. Kulturas near lots of coffee shops and restaurants and would probably be a fun place to take a bookish date.

Posted 04/24/06 | Report Abuse

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I go to Kulturas all the time to buy used books. Things can be a bit hard to find since the shelves are absolutely packed (books are stacked on top of books that are shelved two rows deep!) but I've always found the selection to be well-organized. I especially enjoy the kids' section which always has many children's classics such as the Little House books and the more recent Harry Potter books on sale. This is a good place to go for mystery novels as well.

Posted 08/23/05 | Report Abuse

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Kulturas has an area for first editions, but mostly what they deal in is used books in general, both paper back and hard bound editions.

This is a small store and there is little rhyme or reason to the organization. Everything is in the proper section, but beyond that you're on your own. They attempt to keep it alphabetical, but it just isn't. That's fine, just take the time to browse and see what you come up with. I always look at places like this as an adventure.

Everything but the First Editions are 1/2 off the cover price, including the paperbacks (unless otherwise marked), but they occasionally have additional sales such as this week: Right now if you buy 3 mystery books, you get the 4th one free.

The staff is a bit indifferent for the most part. They aren't mean or anything, but you won't get a hearty welcome when you walk in their door. They might glance up from whatever book they happen to be reading but that's about it.

Still. It's just one of those places that's kinda cool to browse through once in awhile. You just never know what treasure you will uncover in that pile on the floor over there....

PROS: cheap books
CONS: You gotta hunt for what you want

Posted 06/20/05 | Report Abuse

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