Renaissance Book Shop

I am so glad that Renaissance has a home! Scoff at the owner if you must, but let me tell you: In 1978, I bought a beautiful book published in 1899 called «Our Islands & Their People». I was poor back then & could only afford 1 book in the set of 2, which Mr. John sold me. 30 years later (no lie) I walk into the store for the 1^st time since then, walked over to a shelf & pulled out the 2^nd book to complete the set. I just walked over like I knew where it was! Mr. John said «I used to have the other book to this set, but sold it a long time ago». Now how is that for a man who knows his inventory!!! I know the store looked like a paper bomb went off, but that guy knew his books! We had a good laugh about the fact that it was me who bought the 1^st book! I loved that store & also found some neat 1930’s Nancy Drew books.

The bookshop on Plankinton has indeed moved to the Shops at Grand Avenue, with a large glass enclosed store on the ground level that is directly next to Applebee’s. Neatly organized and prices are clearly marked on the books, I was able to pick up some light reading (two novels) for under $ 10. A bargain!
They have a sign in the window that they now accept credit cards.

This isn’t really to review the Renaissance Book location on N. Plankinton Avenue (on the Milwaukee River). I’m posting here to let you know that the location is closed.
However. they’ve had have a great store at Mitchell Airport for quite some time,
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More to the point if you’re looking for used books in Downtown Milwaukee, the owners of Renaissance, according to Milwaukee Business Journal, have opened a new small bookstore at the The Shops of Grand Avenue, listed on the Mall’s website as simply as «The Bookshop» (414) 271‑6850. I think it’s on the lower level, near 3^rd & Wisconsin entrance. Having used bookstores available at a shopping mall & an airport is great.

As of today, currently closed by order of the city. When I knocked during regular hours a guy came to the door and offered to look for anything I wanted though, so they’re trying to stay accessible.

The store is CLOSED! We took a trip there last week and was shocked to see that the front door had a «CONDEMNED» sign on it. Still tons of books lying in disarray all over the place.
Sad.

It’s so hard to rate Renaissance Books. The selection is 5+ stars, depending on your interests. Vintage medical texts? Science tomes from the 70’s? Tons of classic lit? They have all that and and more spread out over several floors. As a lover of classics, I always find a turn of the century edition of something I’ve never heard of for a few dollars. I think there are a lot of gems here if you know what you like and don’t mind a scavenger hunt.
The store itself? One star is generous. It looks like someone will be filming an episode of «Hoarders» here soon. Boxes of crap stacked everywhere, impassible aisles and just plain dirt abound. The last time I ventured into the (very scary) basement a rat ran in front of my feet.
I love a used bookstore — but there’s no reason for the complete and total chaos at Renaissance. One only had to visit the now defunct Downtown Books to see that a used bookstore could have a huge selection and be organized and clean.
Still, there’s a complete set of Balzacs collected works calling my name, and Renaissance is the only place that will have it. A necessary evil for bibliophiles, I guess.

Vast number of books housed in the biggest wreck of a bookstore I’ve seen — the shelves were once somewhat organized, but have been completely overwhelmed by books dumped all along the floor. Has nice views of the river out the back through the windows on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors, along with a couple of scary plush chairs set up for reading — sometime around 1982.
Browsing here is like going on a mission. If you want shopping to be pleasant, try Downtown Books instead.

I can respect that a lot of people think highly of Renaissance. There is absolutely no question that they have a huge, huge, huge selection of books.
But.
Built inside what feels like a rat’s maze of feels-​like-​they-​might-​be-​condemned-​any-​day-​now buildings on the river’s edge, Renaissance breathes a last whiff of life into some buildings that have seen better days. Ooh, did I say whiff. There’s a vaguely foul odor that I’ve typically attributed to the proximity to the river, but makes it somewhat unpleasant. The buildings themselves look potentially unstable. Inside, the floors are ancient, uneven, sagging, and unrepaired. It feels vaguely dangerous to venture inside.
That might be fine, since it seems likely that the arrangement allows them inexpensive rent.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book store is about the same. There are shelves, tall shelves, everywhere. They are filled with books. Many books. Feels like billions of books. So many books that they’re piled on the floors, piled in boxes, making already narrow aisles narrower. The light is highly variable, many aisles are dimly lit. It looks like their attempts to keep up with the incoming batches of books gave up the ghost a few decades ago when they ran out of shelf space (I don’t know if that’s actually the case, just trying to describe the feeling I get). The place is dusty (bad for allergies), disorganized, the employees are typically just sitting around (not like they could be shelving books, etc).
I guess I can see why some people like the place, because if you were just coming to browse and buy, you could probably find many interesting things. However, when I’m going to shop for books, I am almost always looking for specific books, and if not, then I am looking for specific authors. Renaissance makes this a nightmare, and at this point, I’m only visiting every few years, usually when I’ve failed to find something at Downtown Books over on Wisconsin, which is smaller but extremely well done.

I was delighted to find the General Mitchell Airport shop when I was in Milwaukee last fall. Great selection, reasonable prices and the clerk at the register was friendly and helpful with my purchases. I wish more airports opened their doors to locally owned used book stores.

I would give it a lower rating if it didn’t have such a damn amazing selection. The place is dusty, disorganized, chaotic, dimly lit, floors are sagging, shelves leaning, the whole bit. The owner is a jerk and you will not receive terribly attentive service from anyone here. The building is a blight on this whole block in Downtown Milwaukee.
So this book store is a trash heap, right? It would be, except that it has a mind-​bogglingly large number of books. God bless you if you go in there looking for something specific. Forget it. Just set aside an afternoon, and enter this realm. I guarantee you will discover some great finds.