Nicola’s Books

One of the three main independent book stores in AA (along with Bookbound and Literati). The store is pretty big and has a good selection, but it feels a little less impersonal to me than Bookbound and Literati. It feels more like a Barnes & Noble to me. Don’t get me wrong, I like Nicola’s and I like Barnes — they have big selections and a lot of fun stuff. But it lacks all the personal book recommendations of some book stores that I really like, and the staff is a little impersonal and seem more like store employees than book lovers. And yeah that’s fine and everyone needs a job, but I guess I just prefer going to book stores where I can talk with the staff about books and they seem to have like encyclopedic knowledge of literature, and can turn me and others on to stuff really cool stuff I’ve never heard of. Though I do like Nicola’s, it stands a little below Bookbound and Literati for me.

I really believe in sticking with small local businesses. I have been purchasing my books from Nicola’s even when it was previously «Little Professor.»
The staff is always pleasant and more times then not they carry what you’re looking for.
The only problem I have run into, is purchasing books on their website. Recently, I purchased an in-​store pick-​up and paid immediately by credit card. I was charged accordingly, and even included a comment that my boyfriend would be picking it up same day. When he went to pick it up, he was lectured sourly on the way the internet ordering goes. With two confirmation emails I had forwarded him, the woman at the front desk told him a third email was required to make sure they had it in stock.
What is confusing is how their online system for in store pick-​up clearly let’s you know the item is in fact in stock. Because they hadn’t checked their system, my boyfriend was told that «Next time it would be easier for her to order over the phone.»
So what is the point of online ordering? Isn’t it supposed to be a easier way for this small business to serve loyal customers who may be stuck at work?

I love Nicola’s! Great selection, lots of room for shopping, events for kids and adults, visiting authors and lots of parking. Plus, I like the idea of supporting an independent bookstore.

Nicola’s is an Ann Arbor mainstay. Nestled in a really great strip mall, Nicola’s is a local book store that offers a nice selection of books. They have a little bit of everything (fiction, non fiction, travel, cooking, humor, literature, sci fi, etc). They also have a nice selection of magaazines and gifts. If they don’t have something you want, they are more than willing to order it for you.
One of the cool things about Nicola’s is that they bring in A LOT of authors for book signings and discussions.
They also have a rewards program… For every $ 125 you spend, you get a coupon (I can’t recall the amount). In addition, they send you a coupon on your birthday as well as any member of your family!
Overall, a great local shop to support!

This is a cool little book store. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful. Ask a question, and they will be able to help you quickly. I also loved the fireplace in the back where you can just sit, chill and read a book. Even on Black Friday, it wasn’t overly crowded, and the customer service was great!

I like this place. It has a much less snooty feel than Literati downtown, and it’s a lot bigger than it looks from the outside. Oh, and free coffee to boot!

I love Nicola’s for browsing. They offer discounts for local book clubs, and the staff are always prepared to help locate a book, order an item not stocked, and offer suggestions. One thing I wasn’t expecting – the gift area is quite nice. There are nice gift stores downtown, but it’s great to have another option for those times when I need a unique, inexpensive gift.

this is the only good bookstore left in ann arbor. personable, always have what i’m looking for, well organized, displays always fresh, go to place for a beautiful card and wrapping paper. kid friendly and host to visiting authors and poets. love it!

This isn’t very bookstoreish, but Nicola’s ALWAYS smells like fresh bagels! Barry’s is right next door, so everyone’s tummy is kept on the offensive. You know how in the film «Clueless» when Cher plots to woo a boy, so she bakes bread because she heard the scent drives boys mad with desire? Maybe libraries could start baking cookies to get more people to visit? Books and baked goods, this can only be a good thing.
That aside, I really dig their extensive magazine selection. They have a nice collection of books in all genre’s, hard and paperback. There are cool gifts for all the bookish peeps in your life. They also have special readings, for kids and for adults (with guest authors). Makes for a very nice community spot (with extra homey feeling due to pervasive bagel scent).
I don’t come around much anymore but when I do, I try to buy something. Nicola’s is the last bastion of independent booksellers in the area. They get major kudos for continuing to persevere in the wake of the web (although being in Ann Arbor helps more than a little).

The calenders in the window drew me in.
The store has a good selection of magazines, books, gifts and, most importantly, the most determined staff I’ve ever experienced. The man who waited on me wouldn’t let me leave without buying something. I did, but it made me laugh to see how far he was willing to go to get the sale! I asked him is he was married to the owner! He was so committed to customer service!
As I was leaving, he promised that any book I wanted, he can get. I’ll have to take him up on that bet one day!

Nicola’s Books lies off the beaten path on the way between Chicago and Detroit, a place I would be unlikely to visit on my own. A signing by Michigan paranormal fiction author Kim Harrison drew me in midweek after work, and I was smitten with the place like a teenage girl seeing a mussy-​haired Brit on the first day of chemistry class. My excitement bordered on finding out said Brit was my lab partner when I started thumbing through some of the hardcover fiction books up front while I waited for the signing to begin.
For one, it’s awfully hard to resist a bookstore with large posterboard printed book covers signed by authors I am fond of. Looking up and finding a number of historical fiction authors alongside spy thriller works was enough to make me feel right at home. I could have pitched a tent beside the fireplace in the back had the eager crowd not been in the way.
Nicola’s Books embodies some of the best in indie bookstores which Amazon nor the declining big-​books chains will be able to capture. The quirky atmosphere appeals to literary savants and newcomers, and the avant garde selection has enough breadth to cover popular books I might have missed and rare gems I wouldn’t know if not for the well-​informed, busy staff seeking them out. Reach out and touch a shelf, explore with your fingers, and soon enough the mystique of a foreign land or a familiar territory studded with a new landmark will open up. Local authors get their due and handwritten notes highlight some of the favourites of people who work there. The front is also taken up by an extensive sale books section.
I love how cozy this shop is. The cashier area is a large rectangle dead center, dividing up the sprawling shop into fiction and non-​fiction sections. Assistance is readily had, but no one presses you into finding something or interrupting idle wandering. I felt at any time, I could have asked a question or made a request, and found ample help.
Author signings can be a real bear. Nicola’s was organized, on time, and well-​advertised online and in the store. I was able to preorder my book and get a slip in line, paying on day of arrival. The staff was also doing overseas orders for interested fans unable to purchase the novel any time soon, which illustrates their commitment to keeping a fan base happy. Seats were set up, friendly audience members crammed in together, and we had a jolly time without any technical mishaps, unnecessary delays or a rush that would indicate it’s just another stop on the publicity bandwagon. Hats off to Nicola’s for going above and beyond.
This was my first time, but I will definitely return on my next trip to Ann Arbor. This is the sort of gem the community needs to thrive, and it gives back so much.

Judging from these other reviews, it seems that either I came in on an extreme off day, or that people’s expectations of service are a lot more relaxed than mine are.
I had lunch at Barry’s Bagels one day in early February, and had some extra time to kill so I ran into Nicola’s Books on a whim to try and find a couple books for a friend who had just had a baby. No one greeted me or asked me if I needed any help, but that’s fine. I’m a pretty self-​sufficient shopper, I don’t need to be coddled or have my hand held, so I didn’t think much of it. I found my first book on my own, more expensive than I was expecting to pay, but hey, I was already here, right? Might as well go ahead and buy it. Then I searched for the second book I wanted to give my friend for a little while before I finally gave up and found someone to help me. The book I wanted was not available in the store, so the salesperson ordered it for me. I was going home in the first week of March, so I asked if the book would be in by then. She reassured me that oh yes! The book would definitely be here before then, not to worry.
And then… that was it. I had not heard from Nicola’s Books since then. I kept meaning to drop in or call to check on my order, but as my trip came and went, and finals and projects in my classes began to loom in the near distance, it all became an afterthought. I ended up ordering the book again from another bookstore, which actually delivered the book within the promised time frame with no problem.
The best part is that a couple weeks ago, I received the first of three borderline rude voicemails that my book had arrived. In mid-​May. Three months after I had placed the order, and two and a half months after I was reassured it would be here.
Soooo needless to say, I probably won’t be looking to Nicola’s Books to help me out with my book purchases in the future.

Nicola’s has friendly staff and a good selection of books. Their personal touch of individual book recommendations is really cool. It’s like having a conversation with someone about a book before you buy it!
I will be checking them out for gifts this year! Right next to Barry’s Bagels too!

Really, this is a great little shop. The selection isn’t huge, but they have some unusual titles and a wide range of local books. Refreshingly, you can walk into Nicola’s and browse for hours without jazzed up employees barking «can I help you? can I help you?» every few minutes. It’s decidedly non-​corporate and independent, but this quality isn’t flaunted. The store is unique without trying.
Incidentally, Nicola’s houses one of the best magazine sections in the city. For every Cosmopolitan and Sports Illustrated, there are 20 magazines on every imaginable niche interest and subculture. It’s a fascinating and exhausting collection that occupies a very large section on one side of the store.
Perhaps not the hippest spot in town, Nicola’s nonetheless represents the true Ann Arbor aesthetic. The original Borders downtown on State St. used to have this feel, as did many of the shops that used to line Main and South University.
Great place.

The staff here are very helpful. When I’m based in Ann Arbor, I head to this mall despite the awkward ingress and egress for the pleasure supporting of two sterling local businesses located therein — Mast Shoes and Nicola’s Books. And I’ve been a customer from their Little Professor days.
I try to buy from here whenever I can. Pretty soon, stores like Nicola’s Books may be a thing of the past and we readers will be at at the tender mercies of Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It’s hard to say anything about poor Border’s, seeing how this local landmark company seems to in the deepest of trouble.
The magazine section in Nicola’s is really comprehensive and wonderful to browse in. You’ll find periodicals here you won’t see in other bookstores. There’s a superb children’s section covering classic children’s literature to more contemporary offerings.
I like the thoughtfully-​chosen card selection as well.
I’ve found unusual gifts here for the picky and hard-​to-​please person on my list.
It is a pleasure and I feel, a duty, to be on the side of the local David against the Goliath’s of Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

There is nothing as nice as a locally-​owned, non-​chain, clean bookstore. I love popping in to Nicola’s on a weekend morning to peruse the selection… especially the shelves belonging to employees and the featured works up front. I’ll shop Nicola’s over Borders any day!

Yep they rock for gift giving. The friendly staff and well organized store provided me with an easy shopping experience. I got all my book giving needs in this one store, in and out in under an hour to boot. Something for my mom, dad, James, nieces, nephew and even something for the brother in law. I even could have gotten something for my sister but I already spent my limit on her.
Solid store. So very helpful. I am happy indeed.

I really appreciate having this little bookstore right around the corner from my house — and in between my work and home, to boot! They are very helpful if I call ahead and am looking for something — they almost always usually have it in stock, and if they don’t, always offer to special order it for me.
Another bonus of this place — free gift wrapping on the spot! With multiple paper selections, really good gift wrappers (they must train their people to wrap well! It’s not an easy feat), and nice little bows. I’ve even called ahead and had them wrap a book up for me, since I was on a time crunch and clearly had procrastinated my gift shopping (bad Theresa, bad). Thanks for getting me out of that jam :-)
I need to get on their mailing list — I wonder if they send out coupons ever? That would be nice (especially given the amount of coupons I get for Borders each week — it’s hard to pass up 30 and 40 percent off coupons even though I know how important it is to shop local).

I’ve been coming to this shop since way, way back in the days it was a Little Professor affiliate. I’m not actually sure if Nicola herself was involved with the shop way back then, but it was one of the spots (along with the original Borders store #1) my mom and I would hang out for hours on a weekend.
The current Nicola’s is a fantastic place for a broad selection of books and magazines — their staff is also extraordinarily helpful, something you don’t often find at the big chains. Like many indie bookstores, Nicola’s has had to diversify a bit, and here there are all sorts of gift items and paper goods.
Everything seems to be selected with care, which makes this a really fantastic place to find gifts! Over the last few months along, I’ve found 3 or 4 presents that turned out the be juuust right!

Nicola’s Books at Westgate has a selection of new books that can give the chain bookstores a run for their money, but it is an independent bookstore.
They carry bestselling fiction and nonfiction, so it’s a good place to get your weekly read, if you want to buy from an independent bookstore, but don’t always want to read the academic fare over at Shaman Drum (another independent book seller).
The magazine section is pretty large, and I always seem to end up with a magazine as well as a book, because they have so many of them to choose from.
Nicola is the name of the owner. I think she’s the lady with the plummy accent.