Monkeywrench Books

This is a collectively run bookstore. It’s great to support the community by buying books!

I love Monkeywrench Books and have been a faithful customer and volunteer for five years. I suppose this makes my review a little biased, but hey, I’m trying to be transparent about it. Monkeywrench offers a solid, though small, selection of radical books and literature. The store’s volunteers are committed and they’re always thinking about how to improve and how to become stronger as a project and collective. The store also hosts speakers, movies, and performers that you won’t see or hear anywhere else in Austin. It has been a transformative space for folks and I hope that more people will be interested in visiting and/​or joining the store as volunteers!

This is a fantastic little radical bookstore with exceptionally friendly staff. The selection is not huge but it’s high quality, dense in carefully curated information. It was all I could do not to blow all my money on books on queer issues, writing by women of color, cookbooks, books on indigenous issues… there’s even a small zine section!
Come for the books, stay for the donuts and community organizing.

I love this place, can’t wait to go back when I have more time to sit and look through everything. Enormously helpful staff, too.

Austin is a college town and Monkeywrench Books is the exact kind of thing you would expect to find in a such a liberal environment.
I love the spirit of these kinds of bookstores because they are pro-​information which may seem obvious (duh, a bookstore) and may seem easy to obtain in an information superhighway world but in reality such can still be controlled by forces greater than us. Having said that the selection is definitely left leaning so be prepared if you have certain political expectations. Nonetheless Monkeywrench carries independently distributed zines and books that are more difficult to find so that’s neat.
Monkeywrench is operated by all volunteers which is really cool. They are open to allowing people to organize and gather here or show films (with left/​progressive views). They also sell fair trade coffee and vegan snacks. They have free wi-​fi and a few chairs.
Monkeywrench also has a bookshelf dedicated to selling books where the proceeds go for the Inside Books project which is an Austin based organization that donates books to prisoners in Texas prisons. The books on the Inside Books project shelf are there because their topics were such that the Texas prison system wouldn’t allow them to be donated to the prisoners. By selling these books Monkeywrench is able to still support the cause indirectly.
If you like Monkeywrench and its cause you can donate monthly to keep it going.

I stopped by here to check out the books, only to realize that they sell some of the most amazing vegan donuts I’ve ever had — and at the bargain price of $ 1.75 each! Outstanding!
I had just finished off a slice of chocolate cake at Mother’s Café so I only got one donut (which I soon regretted!). I got the maple-​glazed donut with candied pecans and it was absolutely phenomenal. I shared it with my non-​vegan friends and they were all really impressed with it.
Oh, and the books were also nice. :)

I love the events they have at monkey wrench books! plus they have great books, and good material to read that isn’t for sale.
I’m glad this bookstore is here. It makes the world a little bit better.

What an awesome place! I’ve know about it for a longtime and finally dropped in and was immediately smitten. So much good reading, such a good vibe, I volunteered as soon as I found out I could. You’ll be seeing me there :)

I just don’t trust any other bookstore! Go to Monkeywrench for the unfiltered truth.
They seriously know what really happens.
Killer book place

One has to really wonder about Austin in that it can support such a strange and funky anarcho-​leftist vegan queer trans coop bookstore.
I like it.
Bought a couple of books that I wouldn’t /​couldn’t find anywhere else — on transqueer disability.
Amazing.

Love it! Read, Lounge, Learn!

Find zines, look through interesting books, buy a patch, find out about upcoming events. The volunteers tend to be very friendly.

If you need a book about leftist ideas, feminism, social justice, anarchism, or environmental ethics this is the place for you. The volunteers are extremely helpful and nice.
This is also a great community space with interesting meet-​ups and talks.
Stop by and support this awesome co-​op!

Yes, yes, yes and yes.
Learn.
DO!

Definitely fun to stop in and browse. I came for the vegan cookbooks and didn’t really find too many that I couldn’t find at the big chains (there were some though!), but the people were nice as was the vibe.

Every time I step into Monkeywrench it looks different. The first time it was because my sister wanted to volunteer at the bookstore. The second time I barely recognized it. Things were pushed all around and furniture set up for a massive screening of a movie about abortion. For a bookstore focused on mostly liberal issues, this place with have what your looking for. People are always milling about, stopping in to chat with the volunteers. Every once and a while I attend a community event here… and the events are always packed. North Loop area loves its community bookstore… and I think its a pretty unique concept too!

Monkeywrench books is a really great community space as well as bookstore. They have an excellent selection of indie magazines. I’m not going to lie, it’s not the best place to go looking for a specific book because the selection is small. But if you are interested in anarchism, politics, feminism, race, etc you will definitely find a new interesting book to read. They also host community events for free all the time, so if you need a space for your meeting/​viewing/​whatever keep them in mind. The store is a not-​for-​profit collective that is entirely volunteer run, so your money is going back to the austin community when you make a purchase.