BookShopWorld

John K. King Used and Rare Books
901 W. Lafayette Blvd, Detroit, MI 48226

With over 1 million books in stock, John K. King is likely the top bookstore in the American Midwest. Its massive selection splits between a main warehouse, a rare book building, and another storefront in the suburbs. The store’s sheer magnitude (and high foot-traffic) means it’s better suited for browsing, and the diverse selection rewards knowledgeable book-buyers with time to kill.

John K. King has earned its share of accolades; CNN listed it as one of the ‘world’s coolest bookstores’ in 2015, and a banner over the entrance repeats similar praise from Business Insider. This attention is a double-edged sword. Media acclaim often rewards unique venues over quality buys, and any traveling bookbuyer knows the bitterness of an overhyped store. But John K. King fulfills expectations with a deep collection of rare books and an overstuffed warehouse of cheap buys. This review will mostly focus on the warehouse, but one can easily evaluate the rare books collection from King’s website and by making an in-person appointment.

There is a lot working in John K. King’s favor. The downtown store outlasted Detroit’s decline and bankruptcy (which eliminated all its used-book competition). Now, with a resurgent city, prices remain cheap, and the 4-floor shop has become something of a destination for local Michiganders. While prices are low, the selection sometimes verges on quantity over quality. King has no qualms about taking in damaged books or volumes scrawled over with heavy marginalia. Although these books are discounted appropriately, it is always disappointing to come across a longed-for copy which doesn’t quite meet your reading standards.

That being said, selection has improved considerably since COVID, which throttled Detroit’s downtown and slowed the replenishment of King’s stock. The store is the 4th largest in the world, and its deep selection is perfect for cognoscenti. This is because John K. King suffers from what I sometimes call the ‘sophomore effect.’ Bookstores in proximity to college campuses carry the classics, but their more adventurous/trendier offerings in academic subjects are picked clean by nearby students. In philosophy, a store might carry loads of Santayana or Kierkegaard, but you’ll be lucky to find Hegel or Heidegger, and someone like Deleuze is impossible to track down. Yet this dearth is limited; stores battling the ‘sophomore effect’ will have loads of high-quality but obscurer academic work which these undergraduates might not yet know. John K. King is overflowing with specialized academic volumes, with the largest Lit Crit section I’ve ever seen, and dozens of shelves for history, politics, and religion. If you know your stuff, King could be one of the best-value bookstore in the country. I’ve found books there I’ve never seen anywhere else (such as Darconville’s Cat for just $8).

A historic bookstore and one of Detroit’s prize sites, John K. King is more than worthwhile if you’re in town. It’s not perfect—for instance, books which uneasily fall between genres can be near-impossible to track down. At the same time though, the store has a loyal staff which is extremely helpful and more than happy to search for you while you browse other topics. In a time when used bookstores seem increasingly embattled, John K. King is cheering proof that stores can ride out troubling economic environments and serve tentpole roles in their local communities.

RECENT BUYS:
Stop-time, by Frank Conroy ($6.50)
The Phenomenon of Life, by Hans Jonas ($4)
The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, by Jurgen Habermas ($15)
Narrative Situations in the Novel, by Franz Stanzel ($6)
The Political Philosophy of Hobbes, by Leo Strauss ($5.95)