ABOUT US
DBN (it’s easier to say) is a used bookstore & newsstand located on funky Lexington Avenue in downtown Asheville. We carry some valuable, rare, strange, weird & wonderful books as well as cheaper reading copies of everything you need. We are blessed to live & work in a town that values great bookstores. Our sister bookstore, Malaprop’s, opened in 1982. DBN opened in 1988. Each bookstore in Asheville has a special flavor & we would be robbing you if we didn’t recommend you pay each a visit each. Consider: Bagatelle Books, Firestorm, Battery Park Book Exchange, The Irving Book Company and Biblio.com (the latter two are online only.)
With a few exceptions, all of our books are in very good condition, or finer. We specialize in things that amuse us, as well as the metaphysical & occult, hippie how-to, homesteading & self-sufficiency, Eastern medicine, zines, things beautifully illustrated, and Easton & Franklin Press leather-bound editions. We also support a variety of local artists and their wares.
We price books as fairly as possible. We want you to have what you want to read. We list our fancier & rarer stock online at biblio.com & abebooks.com. What we have there is only a fraction of the browsing pleasure we offer; please stop by in person if you can.
“Asheville is a special place that calls out to artists, writers, and creative people. I know we can be part of revitalizing that creativity, just as it helped downtown Asheville get off its feet 37 years ago. I am excited to continue and further my love of books at the helm of two of the finest community bookstores. My hope is to change little, retaining the magic they have held since opening their doors.”
HISTORY
Before we inhabited 67 N. Lexington on July 1, 1988, the location had been a shoe store (still have the stools where a shoe expert would sit to fit your shoe), a jewelry store (we inherited a very heavy sea foam green bank safe), a hippie homestead (until recently there was a very weird shower stall in the back) & in the twenties, a livestock auction (a certain regular claims we maintain some ghosts from then).
“My love of books came naturally—an inheritance from my grandmother, who always told us that “our only wealth was what we had in our heads, what we learned, because all else can be taken away.” As a Hungarian, she knew this well, having lived through two World Wars, a revolution, and Communist rule. I still hear her words and they are my guide in everything I do.”
