Karen Wickliff Books

This place is awesome! The women who own it are very friendly and helpful. This place has exactly what you are looking for and with several different copies. Love this book store! Know that they do not take cards.

I remember spending hours at Karen Wickliffe’s Books when I was new to town and right down the street from its former location at Hudson and High. Hours of browsing, moving and shifting stacks, blowing off dust, sifting through boxes, and perching on rickety chairs to scan an interesting title.
Now, I don’t have nearly as much time as I used to. Now that the new location is not-​so-​new (and the shelves are much as they were at the old shop), it’s tougher to find interesting gems. That’s me, though. If you love the thrill of the hunt when it comes to books, or taking the time to scour the shelves, this is the place for you. Great to hang out for a few hours if you have the time.

Went here one day, while visiting my sister for my nieces first birthday. I happened to wander into it while checking out the Farmer’s Market. There are piles of books, some still in boxes. I would help a lot if somebody straightened these books a little better or they moved to a bigger building. I know the 21^st century and new technology is making books obsolete, but this place is like a maze of books especially if you are looking for something or want to feel in Alice in a «Wonderland» of books.

Lots of old books stuffed everywhere. On the floor, on shelves, all over the place. The books are somewhat unique, but are also much more expensive then comparable book stores.

This place is Melvil Dewey’s – he of the decimal system – idea of absolute hell. It is a place that entropy has finally got order itself on its hands and knees ready to execute the coup de grace. It is a place that spurns the corporate cleanliness and shopability for stacks on the floor and musty book smells. In short: it’s my kind of place.
Karen has loads of books. In three rooms they are stack against bookshelves, faced on the bookshelves, and lie on top of the shelving units. She has closets filled with books. There are boxes of them, stacks, hardcover, soft. Her register is less a checkout and more of a fort made of books, as if she had to chisel the space out of ‘Mount Books’ like railroad men had to chisel tunnels in the old days. This just so she has a cubby to enact transactions.
To be fair, there is a rhyme and reason to the place, there is orginazition. I would call it a ‘controlled chaos.’ It has well marked sections: philosophy, fiction, biography, Yadda-​Yadda just like any bookstore. You’ll find where you need to go if you are jonesing a certain genre. A used book haven, its not the place to go if you specifically need a title. No this is for the hidden gem, to find the surprise novel you never knew you wanted, to buy the ancient textbook, or to hunt for the hard to find. I found a funny old self help book for Newlyweds to help them cope with anxiety, (yep that anxiety.) With chapters such as «how to change positions,» it will make a great gag gift. Karen Wickliff is for the reader that like surprises.
She also has a case with collector-​wanted literature. Kind of like the defunct Apocrypha Books that was once across the street.
The atmosphere is low key. With its quiet room, hardwood floors and low lighting it makes me think of a secret library at Hogworth; as if I’d see a short, bespectacled Brit finding a secret spell in Wickliff’s weak-​spined stacks.
As for me, I am on the hunt. Will Karen have the poetry book I am searching for? I went to the section and read each title carefully. Auden, Blake, Coleridge.. . Milton, Nash, Plath. Shoot! No O’Hera anything. The search continues.
I could spend days here.

The miserly reviews for this store are a disgrace. This is one of the best used bookstores I’ve been to, and the fact that it’s in Columbus, rather than a very large city, makes it all the more of a gem.
First, the selection is top notch. Karen’s selection abilties are stunning for topics (or languages!) that she doesn’t know if excellent. There are extensive sections on topics as diverse as Chinese literature and evolution.
Second, the organization is absolutely satisfactory to me. There are many specific sections catering to very specific interests. Of course, used bookstores can never guarantee a specific book or edition, but by topic you can’t go wrong.
Lastly, and most stunningly, her selection of French, Spanish and especially German books is first rate and sizeable. What a rarity! The closest to this that I know of in the Midwest is Europa Books in Chicago, which has an expensive selection of new books. If you are looking for foreign language books, this is your only option in Columbus.
The prices are not rock bottom, but I’m sure you can find that elsewhere. What Karen provides is quality. Good work!

An awesome bookstore.
If you like old books and hours of literary exploration, this is your place.
But a warning, if you are expecting a polished, best selling heavy Barnes and Noble sort of establishment, well… don’t.
All of the books are used, and there are piles of literally thousands upon thousand of books. There are shelves too, but the bottoms are generally obstructed by the aforementioned piles. Which can be an issue, but if you’re the patient adventurous type, not a problem at all. You get to search for your treasures.
They have every kind of book imaginable, all relatively well organized into general sections. A great selection of foreign language books: the HUGE German section especially appeals to me, plus they even usually have a decent amount of Scandinavian titles, which I definitely don’t run across every day here in Central Ohio.
Additional warnings:
They close at 530, or earlier if the worker has to leave.
They do NOT accept cards. There is a Chase a couple blocks north, which I had to run to. Personal checks are okay though.

It seems like every time I come here, even if it is just to browse, I always buy books! It is a different bookstore every time I come here. That is a good thing, for sure. I hope this place is here for a long time. LOVE LOVE it and I’ll keep coming back again. Honestly it seems like it gets more interesting and fun to look around in here every time I stop by. K. Wickliff will be getting my money as long as she has a bookshop.

If you like books upon books… upon more books, then you’ll love this purveyor of knowledge.
Ms. Wickliff loves the written word, and her store shows that in abundance. Now, the place may seem a bit… disordered, but her inventory is like a treasure hunt. We found this place by chance, and I was very pleased. I love a nook like this, because no matter where you look, there something interesting peeking out at you.
One of the minor problems is that the place only takes checks or cash, but considering some of the finds I made, I wasn’t unhappy about my trip to the ATM. The store is listed on the ABE books site, and does do special and mail order.
BTW, just an example of the treasures that exist therein; I found a PILE of old «Amazing Stories» mags from 1932 – 33, in decent condition and wrapped for sale… The had to drag me out:)
The place could be a bit more organized, granted, but if you want a nice change from the old Half-​Price world, check out this little treasure trove when you swing down to Ohio’s state capital:)

If the smell of used books and the sight of stacks of books next to filled bookshelves makes you drool, you’ll love this place, and I do. If you like your bookstores bereft of character, there are plenty of chain store locations to visit. My first visit there I ended up buying three paperbacks, but I almost felt as if I should have been paying admission to the store too. Among other things, I found decades old issues of «Amazing Stories», arcane travel books and currently popular authors. It’s a bit out of my way, but I’ll be a regular at Karen’s.

Fantastic place. Just ahead of the also fantastic Acorn Bookship, probaby the best bookstore in Columbus.
(I do enjoy the Book Loft but, at the end of the day, it’s quantity over quality – a good, not great, store.)
There are so many gems hidden in this little shop: titles by classic authors that you never see anywhere else, first editions and printings by modern authors at great prices, finds in every single category.
It looks small at first, but it’s actually quite big, with packed shelved full of surprises.

Karen Wickliff, herself a comely older woman with silver hair, is actually the 800 pound gorilla of the Columbus used book scene. I have shopped at her store – previously further south on high street – since i was fourteen or so years old. She was there for my Kafka binge, religion hunger, history hankerings.
People who complain about the overflowing, messy quality of some areas of Wickliff’s have been maybe too sullied by the contemporary idea of a store as shiny showcase. This place belongs to the dying class of stores where enthusiasm and desire for the greatest breadth and depth of offerings have overwhelmed the square footage and superceded the goals of posh store design. K Wickliff’s invites time-​spending, immersion, and curiosity. Also, they are not averse to taking in tattered examples of worthy titles and paying a fair price. Compare this to Half Price Croo… uh, Books – where they will sniff at your jacketless first edition of William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience and rare, creased Allen Ginsberg poetry book (bearded and naked photos), then offer a pitiable sum with the explanation that if these rare classics were but in new shiny condition like the rest of the tripe on their shelves, they would pay more. Not so a at Karen W’s: She knows books deeply enough to understand when she’s holding one hot volume in her hands.
Wickliff’s offers a shopping experience that reflects maybe better than any other book store I’ve visited the deep, patient mind of learning from books.

My review of this place is colored slightly by a few negative experiences that I have had with the people working there. They’ve either been rude or exceptionally unhelpful each time I am in there.
The bookstore itself is admittedly overcrowded, which bothers me because I like to sit crosslegged on the ground and look at the book before I choose to get it or not.
I’ve found that a lot of books are quite overpriced, but the prices vary greatly.
The main thing when you’re shopping here that you have be is graceful. Knocking things over is acknowledged by dirty looks.
Ultimately this is a great place to go if you’re looking for some particularly old stuff, just be prepared for what awaits you.

I love piles of books. I think «the shelf» is a terrible invention. So Wickliff Books is pretty close to my ideal book store. I don’t care if every page in every book is blank. I would browse here for hours just on an aesthetic incentive.
Beyond that, you’ll find all the usual categories. I looked around the science section for awhile and found a lot of really inexpensive books I’d love to own. Darwin, Darwin and Religion, Religion and Faith, Faith and Science. That bled into philosophy, then over to fiction. As you walk in, there’s a display littered with a lot of disparate pamphlets and whatnots. One pamphlet was an illustrated work meant for children to understand about death. Another was about the geology of the Grand Canyon. They all were vintage and interesting. That’s where I’d suggest starting.

Karen Wickliff Books can be a confused mess of a place for the uninitiated. The front room is uncomfortably crowded as piles of books fill every open space around a small path to the main book room.
Once you are inside and have your bearings, the store is pleasant enough. There are still a few random unordered stacks of books (which is a pet peeve of mine), but by-​and-​large, the shelves do the work.
The selection is average but engrossing. The language section is especially impressive. Make sure you don’t miss the unassuming back hallway. Though it looks like an employees-​only area, it actually leads to a back room with most of the fiction.
Located across the street from Areopagitica Books in Clintonville, this store helps make for a fun used bookstore mini-​hop.