Ithaca Bookshelf

Ithaca Bookshelf has been a pillar of intellectual life in this college town since 1975, when a group of Cornell graduate students pooled their savings to open a shop that could serve both the academic community and general readers. Over the decades the store expanded to fill three floors of a building on the pedestrian Commons, with the ground floor dedicated to new fiction and nonfiction, the second floor holding academic and scientific titles, and the basement offering a sprawling used book section with over forty thousand volumes. A cafe on the ground floor serves fair-trade coffee and vegan baked goods, reflecting the values of the community it serves. The rare books room on the second floor holds notable collections in natural history and early American literature. It remains collectively owned, with a staff of passionate readers who pride themselves on being able to recommend the right book for anyone who walks through the door.