The Lantern

An extremely nice little bookstore in Georgetown. It has a very large and diverse selection of books, and the lady who runs the place was extremely kind. The books prices are surprisingly low. It is a real gem in the heart of Georgetown.

I love bookstores and they’re tragically a dying breed. My fiancé and I happened to be in Georgetown last week and we stumbled upon The Lantern. It’s a quaint bookstore located on the cobblestone streets off Wisconsin Ave. It’s a charity bookstores and I believe all (or most) of the proceeds go to charity.
My fiancé and I loved perusing the various books and ended up leaving with 3! They were very inexpensive — in all, it came out to be less than $ 20. The books aren’t as organized by section as you’d find at a chain bookstore like Barnes and Noble, but that’s part of the charm!
I definitely recommend The Lantern and would certainly love to visit again.

This is where I go when I just need a second to think. It’s always very quiet, the women who work here are as kind as can be. I never go here to find a specific book, but one step into this place and you’ll want to read everything in sight

So for those from Cambridge, the Lantern is part of the Bryn Mawr bookstore group, and while it’s not as large as its Huron Village counterpart, it is just as lovely. True, you don’t want to come to the Lantern looking for something specific; but, chances are, if you poke around at the Lantern, you’ll find something you like. Be sure you see the second floor, home of mysteries and fiction, and an eclectic mix of books on birds, horses, and gardening. Oh, and the ladies who work there are equally lovely.

I love The Lantern for lots of reasons. Prime, of course, is the wonderful selection of used books, from the inexpensive paperback novel to the antiquarian sets. The collection is well-​organized and the homey setting makes browsing comfortable. But I am also grateful for The Lantern because its sales all benefit Bryn Mawr College, my alma mater. By the way, the name comes from a longstanding BMC tradition of presenting each incoming student with a lantern. You can read about BMC traditions at
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Very charming row house used book shop with a friendly, helpful staff. I went in to find a present for a friend’s birthday party. I was walking from Georgetown to the party, so I needed a gift that would fit in my backpack and I needed to wrap it en route with wrapping paper that I had brought with me. I found exactly what I was looking for here (a coffee table book of Washington photographs), then the shop’s owner found a table in the back for me to use, as well as some scissors and tape.

This place is great — its a cozy rowhouse full of bookshelves from wall to wall. Big selection, very low prices, and it’s a not-​for-​profit that donates its proceeds to Bryn Mawr college. Once or twice a year they do a half-​off sale but the prices are reasonable enough already so you’ll just end up with twice the books instead.

An excellent browse-​worthy bookshop with nice staff. The stock is great AND neatly arranged (not always the case with charity shops)!
Especially good if you are looking for biographies, books in other languages, literature, reference, history, art, a little bit of everything. I left with five paperbacks, at $ 2 or $ 3 each.

This book store is another I will end up coming back to. They have a large selection of the books I collect and the prices are ok. The older woman who was working, told me they are a charity book store, and the proceeds go to scholarships for a local school. Because of this, they dont do store credit. While I dont mind not being able to use store credit for traded books, it certainly helps. If this is a major selling point for you, Book For America is a great charity book shop in DC with cheaper prices. Some of the books are decently priced, but others are wayyy over-​priced. The general feel of the book store is old and nostalgic. You are overwhelmed by the smell of old books and knowledge. Some of the older books have their covers detached or falling off, but are still pretty high in price. Everything is pretty well organized, and the 2 women who were working there were very nice and welcoming. Overall, if you have the time to look for the right books with decent prices, this place is for you.

The Lantern is a gem of a place. Creaky stairs, sighing shelves, and the scent of wisdom (read: book dust) set the stage for used book excellence.
It differs from many other Georgetown bookstores by focusing on everyday books rather than rare collector’s volumes. While I love staring at $ 1,000 rare books as much as the next person, I come to used bookstores to buy rather than browse. At The Lantern, I happily walked away with three books (a Ben Jonson anthology, Just So Stories, and McNamara’s In Retrospect). Each carried a respectable $ 6 pricetag.
I also received a tour from the lovely lady manning the front desk — and she didn’t even need to move from her chair to do so.
It’s the perfect place to lose one’s self for a few hours without breaking the bank.

Cute!

Perfect little charity bookstore raising money for Bryn Mawr College, and staffed by retired alumni of women’s colleges. Nice eclectic selection on two levels of a little rowhouse, pleasant inside, fair prices, frequent specials.

What a great little used book store. The hours are ridiculous (something like 11 – 4), but if you can catch them when they’re open, the prices are unbeatable. Most soft back fiction books are $ 2 – 3. The selection is somewhat limited (the entire store is housed within a teeny rowhouse and fiction only comprises two walls worth of space), but it is charming and cheap.

On a side street in Georgetown, there sits a quaint little house stocked with bookshelves, which are stuffed with the shop’s latest finds. Just as its name implies, this bookstore is a very bright source amongst these cobblestone streets.
As you enter, you’re greeted by a nice lady (or two) as you browse the very reasonably priced books they have. Once you walk upstairs, you get a more ‘homey’ feel. There is a chair, and a window that lets just enough light in for you to actually take a few moments from the busy day and just read.
I came in with nothing in mind, but left with a couple of classics that I’d been ‘waiting’ to read. I wish I could spend more lovely afternoons chitchatting with the ladies and sitting with a book in my lap.
The proceeds from our purchases go towards a scholarship fund for a school in PA. They have a great collection of rare books on the first floor.
What’s not to love?

I adore this place.
Tucked away on P street in a converted rowhouse, it’s the sort of store most people wouldn’t look twice at in an upscale neighbourhood like Georgetown; there are no big signs announcing sales or high-​end logos in the window. However, for someone like me– a self-​professed bibliophile who’s always on the look out for fresh reads despite her insanely tight budget– The Lantern is a godsend.
As soon as I walked into the dim, hushed shop I was greeted by a wizened old woman with a poof of white hair. We exchanged pleasantries and smiles in hushed voices. She asked if it was my first time and when I admitted that it was, she gave me the grand tour while remaining behind the desk (the place is tiny). Then she welcomed me to browse while she attended to her duties.
I’ll admit here that for me, the charm of this place lay in that smell. You know the one I’m talking about. The yellowed pages, the covers rubbing against one another as people pull and then replace the texts, and the sense of burgeoning inspiration you get in a room full of old books combined to make up the smell that anyone who loves to read greets like an old friend. The fact that this obviously used to be a home contributes to the peace and tranquility I felt as I wandered the shelves. At one point I spontaneously dropped to my knees upstairs in a patch of afternoon sun with my selections and began to read one of them right there. I was so at home; it was just the right thing to do at that moment. I felt as if I could sit in my little puddle of sunlight all day, reading about adventures had by people I would never meet. This innate and almost instantaneous sense of comfort is why I fell in love with The Lantern.
Besides that, they have a wide selection of rare old books here that you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else. As everyone has mentioned before me, I wouldn’t come here with something specific in mind but I guarantee you’ll come away with something you like. For parents: they have a children’s section on the first floor near the window, so if you’re trying to encourage your kids to become bookworms this is the perfect place to do it on the cheap. The most expensive book I bought here last time was $ 8. That’s hardcover. I don’t mean to kick a man when he’s down but what the hell: take that, Borders. You can find the price printed neatly in pencil on the first page of every book. Also, be sure to check their hours before you come: they’re only open for a limited amount of time during the day. Sundays, for instance, it’s 12 to 4, so sneak in while you can. You won’t be disappointed.

Very charming bookstore with helpful staff. Don’t come in here looking for a specific book. You will be sure to find something you’re interested in. I definitely recommend this place. Very affordable.

This is absolutely my favourite bookstore in the city. It’s staffed entirely by volunteers, and they only accept donations. They’re always having a buy-​4-​get-​1-​free sale, and their prices are always wicked low, so you can walk out of there with 5 books for under $ 25. (Much better pricing than Capitol Hill Books, I have to say.)
I will say that it’s the kind of place that you shouldn’t necessarily go to with a specific book in mind, especially if it’s a recently-​published one; but if you love wandering through shelves of old books and finding unexpected little treasures, this is the place for you. Check it out!