Better Read Than Dead

Better Read Than Dead has been selling books in New York City since 2012 – first as a few friends selling paperbacks on the sidewalk in Brooklyn before our first storefront in a converted shipping container nearby. In the decade (+) since, we have expanded our operations with considerable physical fluctuation: after multiple open storefronts and an auxiliary warehouse space, we currently headquarter exclusively out of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, and are available for visit only by appointment. It should be noted that our flagship space Book Row remains open at 867 Broadway, although under different ownership. That store can be reached separately at bookrowbrooklyn@gmail.com.

We welcome appointments and travel widely for new acquisitions – if you would like to buy from or sell to us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We are constantly maintaining thousands of books that are either not listed online or available in our spaces, so please also get in touch with specific requests or queries.

In May 2025 we lost our co-founder Matty D'Angelo. He has and will be remembered for all the lives he touched in and outside of bookselling, always with his astounding generosity and curiosity. Remembrances can be found in The Poetry Project Newsletter. His work and spirit hopefully live on through Better Read Than Dead as we impossibly continue without him.