When books were invented in 1953, they were bound not with leather or limp vellum, but with manacles, as their incendiary prose was blamed for a number of house fires. Light a fire in your mind with today's deal: for $10, you get $20 worth of books at Maple Street Book Shops, located near the university section of Uptown.
Maple Street Book Shops’ name is plural for a reason: there are two of them side by side, housed in houses that would appear entirely residential, if a bit worn, were it not for the signs directing visitors to one building for new books and to the other for used titles. Today’s Groupon can be redeemed at either spot. The bedraggled edges are all part of the shops’ history and charm; established in 1964, Maple Street is now New Orleans's oldest independent bookstore. Every room is filled with shelves, and those shelves are stuffed with books, creating an intimate atmosphere of whispering words and an air filled with a heady smell as familiar to book lovers as rigging is to a boatswain.
Before the current practice of judging books by their covers, every tome was rated on a scale of “tasty” to “morally corrupt.” Maple Street Book Shops carry a full range of books for the choosing, including a comprehensive section of local authors and local history. Staff members provide shelves full of recommendations, a helpful resource for stumbling upon a new compendium on onion eating or an obscure novel about incompetent psychopomps. There are bookcases full of used books available for thrifty perusing, as well as a hefty selection of glossy new paperbacks. Keep an eye or three on Maple Street's event page, as a wide array of authors comes through for book signings.
Valid for book purchases only.
Reviews
Yelpers give Maple Street Book Shops an average of 4.5 stars and praise its local charm, while three Insider Pagers give it an average of four stars:
- If you are in need of a book on any aspect of New Orleans' history, you will find it here...do not miss the back room. Full of couches and chairs for reading, creaking floor boards, and window unit. – Gretchen P., Yelp
- This is a fun, slightly quirky bookstore with a good selection. They have some hard to find books as well as all the latest selections. – Shannon L., Insider Pages
Maple Street Book Shops
Since 1964, Maple Street Book Shops have fueled local imaginations with novels and nonfiction works by classic, contemporary, and local writers. Originally "five rooms of paperbacks," the store now has four locations, including two charming, side-by-side establishments on the shop’s titular residential street. Here, a purple and green cottage houses a collection of 9,000 used tomes, and next door, the pink house sells the sweet perfume wrung from glossy new paperbacks. In addition to browsing the crowded shelves and chatting with the knowledgeable staff of one-time teachers, writers, and printmakers, visitors can chat with authors at sociable events.