Last Word Books

Specialties

Used and New Books, Special Orders, Appraisals, Full-​Service Print Shop & Publishing House. We specialize in Fiction & Literature, Beats & Bohemia, Activism, Peace Studies, Political Science & Political Economy, Poetry, Cultural Studies, History, Science, Environment & Ecology, Natural Building, D.I.Y., Counterculture, Survivalism & Self-​Reliance, Gardening, Food, Children’s Books and a whole lot more.

Books are a gateway drug. It starts out innocently enough, reading C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, pretty soon you are reading harder stuff like Kerouac and Burroughs, the next thing you know you’re strung out on Bukowski and DeSade, worrying about the Patriot Act and Free Speech, and joining the ACLU. If books are your drug of choice, Last Word has your fix.

History

Established in 2002.

Opened in 2002 by four students at The Evergreen State College, Last Word Books is a second generation bookstore spawned with the assistance of Earthlight Books in Walla Walla, Washington. We have been proudly serving the wonderful readers of downtown Olympia and our customers around the globe via the worldwide web ever since. In 2009 we started a full-​service print shop and publishing house, Last Word Press, in the back room of the bookstore. We are dedicated to free speech and the unimpeded distribution of and access to information of all kinds, world peace, good food, clean water and air, and good books.

Meet the Business Owner

Sky C.

Business Owner

Sky Cosby grew up in the cluttered aisleways of his father’s bookstore, Earthlight Books, in Walla Walla, Washington. At 19, with the help of a few friends, he opened Last Word Books, a radical worker-​owned and collectively operated independent bookstore in downtown Olympia, Washington. He also operates Last Earth Distro, a survivalist-​based clandestine DIY and underground book provider with an online presence and a mobile unit, and is one of the print shop gofers for Last Word Press.