Bookwise

Call Directions Website Contact the business

Bookwise HUGE inventory of used and rare books, fiction and non-fiction. Bookwise has relocated as of Nov. 2, 2020. We're just east of the FAU campus.

Bestsellers, mystery, romance, science fiction, classics, literature and literary criticism, history, psychology, self-help, cultural studies, new age, religion, philosophy, fitness and health, travel, business, economics, political science and law, biography, true crime, film, art, architecture, music, dance, hobbies, chess and games, collecting, sports, military history, science, math, nature, animals, children's, leather-bound books, collectibles and more. We are now at 145 NW 20th St in Boca, between Dixie Hwy and Boca Raton Blvd (NW 2nd Ave). NW 20th St is north of Glades Rd and south of Yamato Rd and Spanish River Blvd, but does not have its own exit on I-95. From the North, exit I-95 at Yamato or Spanish River, go east to Dixie, take a right (south), and then right at NW 20th St. Go over the railroad tracks; we're a couple hundred yards down on your right. From the South, exit I-95 at Glades and go east to Dixie, take a left (north) there and then left over the tracks on NW 20th St.; we’re on the right. There's always plenty of parking.

We rolled out seventy+ volumes from the Easton Press this morning, most from their lines of best books or best novels.  ...
10/24/2026

We rolled out seventy+ volumes from the Easton Press this morning, most from their lines of best books or best novels. Two nice Civil-War-themed trilogies as well: Bruce Catton’s “Army of the Potomac” and D. S. Freedman’s “Lee’s Lieutenants”(sets $125 each). Readers who usually favor literary fiction and don’t venture into military history may find Catton a revelation — he’s just such a fine writer.

10/19/2026

More books we're looking for, True Crime edition:

John Armstrong. Harvey and Lee, 2003.

Dan Carter. Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South, 1969.

John H. Davis. Mafia Kingfish, 1986.

R. B. Denson. Destiny in Dallas, 1964.

T. J. English. The Westies: Inside the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob, 1990.

Gerald R. Ford. Portrait of the Assassin, 1965.

Robert Graysmith. Zodiac, 1986. Unabomber, 1997. Zodiac Unmasked, 2002. Shooting Zodiac, 2021.

Penn Jones. Forgive My Grief (vols. 1-4), 1966-1974.

Elizabeth Kendall. The Phantom Prince, 1981 Madrona.

David S. Lifton. Best Evidence, 1980 (or later editions).

Eliot Ness. The Untouchables, 1957.

Quentin Reynolds. Courtroom, 1950.

E. Martin Schotz. History Will Not Absolve Us, 1997.

James St. James, Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland, 1999.

Hix C. Stuart, The Notorious Ashley Gang, 1928.

Philip Sugden, The Complete History of Jack the Ripper, 1994.

Tex Watson. Will You Die for Me?, 1978.

If you've got books -- on any subject -- that you'd like us to search for on your behalf, message me and let me know.

10/08/2026

Another round of books we’re looking for. Please message us if you’ve got copies that you’re prepared to let go.

NONFICTION

Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. Adventures in a Green World: The Story of David Fairchild and Barbara Lathrop, 1973.

C. L’Estrange Ewen, ed. Witch Hunting and Witch Trials: The Indictments For Witchcraft from the Records of 1373 Assizes held for the Home Circuit A. D. 1559-1736, 1929.

David Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, 1938. And most of his other books.

Raymund Fitzsimons. The Charles Dickens Show: An Account of His Public Readings 1858-1870 (U.S. title Garish Lights: The Public Reading Tours of Charles Dickens), 1970. Death and the Magician: The Mystery of Houdini, 1980.

Graham Greene. Journey Without Maps, 1936. Another Mexico (The Lawless Roads), 1939.

Alva Johnston. The Legendary Mizners, 1953.

Addison Mizner. The Many Mizners, 1932.

Frances Yates. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, 1964. The Art of Memory, 1966.

FICTION, POETRY, LIT

Robert Atwan, ed. Best American Essays 1986 (hardcover in dust jacket). Later installments may also be of interest.

Anne Carson. Any of her books. (See how we snuck this one in?)

Graham Greene, Brighton Rock, 1938. And most of his books, honestly.

C. L. R. James. Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In, 2001.

Patrick Modiano . Any of his books.

Gerald Murnane. Any of his books.

Christopher Nicholson. The Elephant Keeper, 2009. Winter, 2016. Among the Summer Snows, 2017.

Sylvia Plath. Any of her books.

Barbara Pym. Any of her books.

Thomas Pynchon. Any of his books.

W. D. Snodgrass. Heart’s Needle, 1959. Not for Specialists: New and Selected Poems, 2006.

Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash, 1992. And any earlier books, except U-Turn.

Richard Wilbur. Any of his books, including translations.

Can Xue. Any of her books.

And, as usual, most of Mikhail Bulgakov, James Hadley Chase, Samuel Delany, Philip Dick, Joan Didion, Dostoyevsky, Harlan Ellison, Vardis Fisher, Kristin Hannah, Robert Heinlein, Stephen King, Cormac McCarthy, Talbot Mundy, Dorothy Richardson, Kurt Vonnegut, Winifred Watson, and Dorothy Whipple.

Let us hear from you.

We’re hoping to reach the gentleman who dropped off nine plastic bags of books on Monday, Oct 5, before we opened, so th...
10/06/2026

We’re hoping to reach the gentleman who dropped off nine plastic bags of books on Monday, Oct 5, before we opened, so that we can return this Disney souvenir photo to its family. If any of our Facebook followers recognize anyone in the photo and can provide guidance, please message me. Or if you’re in touch with the family, invite them to do so. Thanks in advance!

This just in.  $15.50.
10/05/2026

This just in. $15.50.

10/01/2026

We’re looking for these books right now. Please message if you have one you’d be willing to let go.

Nikolai Berdyaev. Any of his works.

Sergei Bulgakov. Any of his works.

Alexander Caragonne. The Texas Rangers: Notes from an Architectural Underground, 1995.

Arthur S. Evans, Jr. & David Lee. Pearl City, Florida: A Black Community Remembers, 1990.

Bob Graham. Workdays: Finding Florida on the Job, 1978.

Paul Hoffman. To Drop a Dime, 1976.

Ricky Jay. Cards as Weapons, 1977.

Charles W. Pierce. Pioneer Life in South Florida, 1970.

Vladimir Solovyov. Any of his works.

Ray Sprigle. In the Land of Jim Crow, 1949.

Donald Wing. Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, etc. … 1641-1700 (3 vols), 1945-51. [AND] A Gallery of Ghosts: Books Published Between 1641-1700 Not Found in the Short-Title Catalogue, 1967.

At the more workaday level, we can also use clean copies of fiction by Camus, Matt Dinniman, Dostoyevsky, Kristin Hannah, Freida McFadden, George Orwell, Brandon Sanderson, and Kurt Vonnegut. Let us know what you’ve got!

09/07/2026

We’re open
Labor Day, Sept. 7.

08/15/2026

20% off all books in these overstocked sections: Cookbooks, Kids & Young Adults, Baseball, U.S. Civil War, Christianity.

Erle Stanley Gardner.We get requests for certain older mystery writers — Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers,...
08/08/2026

Erle Stanley Gardner.

We get requests for certain older mystery writers — Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers, Rex Stout, Josephine Tey, Arthur Upfield — all the time but only Agatha Christie is more requested than Erle Stanley Gardner — and we see his books much less often.

So you can imagine how pleased we were to take in TWO collections of his work in the same week. The first batch (pictured) was of fourteen titles in their fragile dust jackets (the books, alas, are reprints, not firsts — sorry, hi-end collectors). The second batch is twenty+ volumes of the two-in-one editions sold via mail order, issued without jackets.

Today, we think of Baldacci, Grisham, Sanford et al as bestseller machines, cranking out two books a year — but Gardner was there first. Not limited to the Perry Mason books for which he’s best known, he wrote another series with an honest D.A. central character and another based on a P.I. firm, publishing novels, short stories, and nonfiction under a dozen pen names and reviewing movie and tv scripts.

Executives at his hardcover publisher, William Morrow, and its paperback partner, Pocket Books realized at some point in the early-mid 1950s that Gardner — a smoker already in his sixties — accounted for a quarter of all the firms’ revenue and was not going to live forever. They began looking — even advertising — for other writers with the ingenuity and stamina to take up the ESG mantle.

They found one Evan Hunter, then building his literary reputation with books like “The Blackboard Jungle,” later filmed. Hunter proposed a series centered not on one central character but an ensemble cast working together in a never-named big city. Pocket Books liked the idea. His “Cop Hater” appeared as a paperback original in 1956 by “Ed McBain” — Hunter hoping to keep his crime-writing career and reputation separate from his literary one — and the 87th Precinct series was born. It never became the breadwinner that Perry Mason had been, but won critical acclaim, was widely imitated and admired (if not always acknowledged: lookin’ at you, Steven Bochco and Hill Street Blues), and ultimately ran to 55 books, the last appearing in 2005, the same year Hunter/McBain passed.

Pick up some Gardner while you can. And yes, we have some McBain in stock, too, for the moment — as with the other luminaries mentioned above, never as much as we’d like.

We’re open, Saturday, July 4, regular hours 10-6.  Declare a little independence from Giant Online Retailers; check out ...
07/04/2026

We’re open, Saturday, July 4, regular hours 10-6. Declare a little independence from Giant Online Retailers; check out the prime stuff available locally.

Address

145 NW 20th Street
Boca Raton, FL
33431

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm

Telephone

+15613476455

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Bookwise posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Bookwise:

Shortcuts

Share