If you like treasure-hunting amid mountains of used books, the Book Barn in Niantic CT is a really great place to spend a warm, spring afternoon. You never know what you'll find, but I do believe it's possible to find just about anything there. And you can be sure that when you do find something, it will likely cost you next to nothing. I once found a nice hardcover copy of the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe for $5 or $6. We regularly find great paperbacks for $1. And although I've never done so myself, you can also trade books in there for credit or even cash I think. We prefer the main location, as opposed to the satellite expansions, for its character and charm, you just have to go yourself and see! The books are organized into little stands and houses, all devoted to different genres. One house is devoted to literary fiction, one to sci-fi and fantasy. Others parts are devoted to romance, mystery, travel-writing, history, young-adult and children. The list goes on. While there is a method to their madness, it isn't all well-organized so to enjoy your experience, you should probably be in the mood for random browsing by genre. We usually pack a picnic to bring with us. Finally, the staff are really friendly and knowledgeable and the kitty welcoming committee roams freely. One small black tabby seems to have adopted us, and gives us the grand tour every time we go. read more

I've never had a bad time at a Book Barn facility; I find the atmosphere to be very calming. I enjoy the cats very much. On a side-note, the book selection is very broad and at a great price. read more

I always start in the basement history section, always finding something from one of my oddball interests. And a whole section on Inuit/Eskimo studies! Needing a South Asian fix, I can always pick up a couple of Indian novels. Natural history of the Rockies? Of course. And the unexpected presence of live animals. Downtown means the obscure reaches of Christian and Hindu theology. read more

Best used book store I have ever been to. I've been to many and in many different states. None of them compare to the Book Barn. It's inexpensive, $1 paperbacks and $4 hardcover/trades. The place is ultra unique. Multiple buildings on a large compound make finding what you're looking for almost guaranteed. Also they have goats! It's a place with seeing even if you're not much of a reader. Niantic is a great little seaside village. 100% worth the trip. read more

My boyfriend saw Book Barn on a recent fishing trip and thought I would like it so he took me on 9/7/14. It was pretty cool! Parking is kind of limited and I had to parallel park (So have someone else drive if you are incapable! haha). Anyway, it is outside / inside and there are some farm animals so you do get the occasional whiff (if you know what I mean). But overall, it was pretty awesome and if you are a book lover, this is the place for you! I bought two books and paid $8 total :) read more

The main book barn location is the ultimate place to spend time on a deep dive for a book you never heard of. There's also the a couple other smaller locations if you prefer searching indoors and warm. But where's the fun in that? The place is worth exploring to orient yourself and definitely read the website on rules for selling books. It should be in your CT bucketlist IMHO. read more

A must-see and experience if you're on the CT coast for an afternoon/day/week. You will probably end up spending way more time than you thought, as everything is adorable and the collections are excellent. Don't forget to bring some used books to trade in for store credit! read more

Amazing, fun, unique book store. One of the few things I miss about not living in CT anymore.

Diamond in the rough... Best used book store in CT. Never know what you will find but a great place to treasure hunt books. read more

This place is gold. You can find any book you want and very cheap. I got Steve Jobs Bio for $5 last spring. The staff is very friendly and the place has a good vibe. They also have a huge Agatha collection which I personally enjoy. This location has a huge parking area and an outside area where you can walk and sip on coffee while you browse for books. Love it read more

Most magical of all places. I come here all the time for books and I always find something new. Very friendly place with happy go lucky cats who roam around. Best to go when it's a little dark the place takes on a new look. The decorations and set up have you looking in many different areas at once. My favorite section is the underworld. Each section is named differently, the one I get a kick out of is the redneck reading room (you'll understand when you see it). Every time I go I never want to leave, if it was possible I would live there. They also have an area with goats that you can feed for a quarter. I encourage everyone and bookworms a like to visit the book barn. read more

I love taking people to this place! Most people have never heard of it, since it's all the way in Niantic. It's a great stop to make when you are going to Rocky Neck Beach, since it's right down the road. Get your books to read, and then head to the beach! This isn't the only location that the book barn has open, they have 2 stores open downtown in Niantic too! The prices mentioned by other reviewers are correct, it's very affordable! read more

Favorite book store(s). Looking for something? Staff are friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. GREAT prices and a huge selection of used books. LOVE the main store and all of the different mini houses of books. A great place for kids to hunt and explore (adults too)! Can't say enough, love it- a must see! read more

Heard great things. Find out later its 5 different locations. Inconvient hassle. All customer service needed improving.

I picked up the beginning of a series at Book Barn on vacation and tried to find the rest of it in NYC's best used book store (the Strand), to no avail. Proving that Book Barn is in fact the best used book store on the East Coast. read more

Why should book stores be in small rooms with low hanging ceilings and a cantankerous staff? Why can't it also be an adventure? A literal barn spread out with little rooms and huts to accommodate more dusty treasures. Cat's are sleeping in every room, the book guards of sorts and a sailboat themed play area for children. Quite possibly one of the most interesting book stores I have ever chanced upon. Unfortunately the selection is better in other booksellers and the abundance of mysteries is somewhat overwhelming. As a whole I wept as I left and rejoiced with my large armload of goodies. read more

A must for every reader. Great staff, great selection. If you manage to find a book that isn't on their shelves they can order it for you.

Loved it!! I was lost in a world of books - I wish I could pack it up and take the book barn to Texas.. A must see for everybody ... Love the ambiance and the reading areas set up all over the place .. They even have menus from around the area that deliver .... read more

I love this place! Low priced books, very friendly staff, the gardens, the cats, and it's fun for the kids! This place is awesome!!

I absolutely love this place.... I stumbled upon it one day when we were just randomly driving around and now I drive over a hour once a week to come back. First off the prices are great, as a big reader im always excited to find deals. The selection is huge!!!! if you can't find something that you would enjoy reading here then you just don't enjoy reading. The decor is so unique and i love shopping outside for books :) I have truly never had such a great time exploring a bookstore before. There are so many cats wondering this property and all of the are extremely friendly, fat and healthy. Every chance I get I bring friends or suggest this place to people because the atmosphere here is one you have to experience to believe. read more

A wonderfully organized book Mecca! If you aren't lucky enough to live as close as I do, it is absolutely worth the trip.

Love this place - but parking is tight depending on time. Nice because of the organic layout forces you to discover - good deals. Worth a trip. Wish there were even more places to sit and read. Be careful you don't spend too much time. read more

My favorite book barn location. I'd lent my favorite book to my cousin & never got it back :( but I found it here for $4 in perfect shape, YAY! :) WIthout a doubt the best women's studies/feminism section I've ever seen. Great prices too. I walked out with 2 dozen+ books for $45. I found a copy of another favorite book here for $1 & sent it to a family member I thought would enjoy it as much as I did. Super-friendly staff too - it's nice when the employees love their job & it shows. Highly recommend. read more

Best used book store I have ever shopped. The selection was not the large draw for me, it was really the ambiance of the place. There were stalls set up everywhere, books were well organized and there was a friendly kitty nibbling on cat food as you shopped which I thoroughly enjoyed. I did not visit the main street location but you could really kill several hours just at the main barn location. There were a lot of people there to sell books on the Tuesday morning that I went, but very few actual shoppers. The drive was 100 miles each way for me and I would absolutely do it again. read more

worth coming to Niantic for so much more than a place for books a must have experience!

They have sooo many books to choose from and you can't beat the prices. I came here for Buddhism books and they had the biggest selection I've seen in any book store. Definitely will be coming back when I need more books in the future! read more

This place is an absolute blast to explore and get lost in - a real book lover's dream! But... the service is kind of appalling, the prices can be high, and if you're expecting to exchange books you will likely be turned away. Other than that it's a lot of fun to explore and find some great books to read. A lot of my personal favourites have come from here. read more

A day spent at The Book Barn (any of its locations in Niantic, CT) is a slice of heaven for any book-lover, cat-lover, conversation-lover, or coffee-lover. I have never been disappointed on a trip out there, even on those occasions when I have walked away empty handed. The set up is at once organized and picturesque, the selection is immense and covers every genre you can imagine, the prices are unbeatable, and the folks there are knowledgeable and friendly. Going to The Book Barn is way more of an experience than browsing some shelves. It's an adventure, wondering what you might find for yourself or for a friend among the thousands of treasures just waiting to be discovered. You can bring along books to trade in or sell, and there's always a great cup of coffee to be sipped or a sleepy kitty to make friends with :) read more

This place is awesome! Funky environment, zillions of inexpensive books, friendly staff, kid friendly scene. All around wonderful.

Whoa! What a selection! All the bookish people in the region, college and graduate school level, dumped their books here. Excellent selection. What an oasis. Makes Connecticut totally worthwhile. read more

Made a special trip just for this at the recommendation of a friend, and it was worth it for the adeventure, novely and selection. Books, Cats, more Books, Barns full of Books. I really don't need to say more. Be sure to also check out the downtown location for science fiction, DVD and cookbooks in addition to the main location for mysterys and fiction. read more

There probably isn't much I can say that hasn't been said before, but I'll weigh in as well. The Book Barn is one of the best used bookstores I've ever been too -- huge selection, good prices, good staff, lots of current or recent books, most in good condition, nice atmosphere, fairly well organized, as tidy as it can be, and (probably most important to me) a very good turnover of stock. I come up to Connecticut a few times a year, and I almost always stop in here. I never fail to walk out with at least an armful of books. read more

The absolute best place on earth. The only problem is you will walk around with no real book ideas in mind, and walk out with a stack of books... which I guess isn't really a problem read more

Decent selection and prices, but bulked up with sci-fi/mystery/romance novels--Baldwin's Book Barn this ain't.

A book lover's paradise. We discovered this used bookstore mecca only last August after living here for 2 years. I'm still upset that there were 2 years when I could have been going to this place and I was missing out the whole time. I could probably write a book (aaaay-ohh!) about my love for The Book Barn, so I'll try to be more concise in a list format: -The books. Oh, the books. So many beautiful used books. The barn is up on a little hill, and it's just stuffed to the gills. They have so many books they just seem to spill out of the barn and tumble down the hill to the various little outposts around the property: the fiction annex, Ellis Island (for new, as yet unsorted arrivals),"Hades" for romance and mystery, a shack next to a gurgling fountain for nature, travel, hiking, etc. When I go there, I feel like I've gone through the looking glass of books--every turn brings new shelves and random curiosities: an oversized chess board, a basketball hoop, 2 goats, an old book press. -I've never spent less than an hour here, never left with fewer than 4 books, never spent more than $7 for a book. I get lost here, in a great way. -Speaking of $, the prices. The vast majority of books seem to be about $4 (perhaps this is a good place to note that this is a store completely dedicated to used books). There are a bunch of more mass produced-type paperbacks for $1 (I completed my Austen collection with a bunch of these!), some nicer things for around $6 or $7, and even this kick-arse circa-1930s illustrated text on gynecological surgery was only $15. -I never know what I'm going to find here. I always leave with things I didn't know I wanted. (Those tricky book folk.) -The laminated guide to their cats! They have a number of cats who just roam the barn and the property, presumably keeping the book outposts varmint-free. Brilliant. You can pick up a laminated guide to who's who. Many of them can be found lounging in flower pots in the sun or snuggled indoors in the winter and love a good pet. But watch out for Surly Marge... -Free coffee, cheez-its, and mini-donuts while you peruse. Canvas bags so that you don't have to worry about all your finds tumbling out of your arms as you keep stocking up. -The main store can't even contain everything! The downtown store has more, such as nautical books, cookbooks, used dvds, and audiobooks (I scored a $6 audio-cd of Sedaris's "Me Talk Pretty One Day." What!) -Kind, knowledgeable staff. I wish I knew as much about books and literature as these folks. If you're anywhere within a few hours of this place and you love books, this place is worth the trip. We take visitors here whenever we can. It's just down the street from Rocky Neck State Park, so it's great to combine with a shoreline walk and maybe even a drive up to the Griswold Inn in Essex where you can have a late afternoon beverage and discuss all your finds. That's one of my favorite weekend itineraries! read more

A book lovers paradise. I could spend all day browsing. Also a good way to get rid of your old books. They won't buy everything but they took a lot of my old books. Of course I used that money to buy different old books. :) read more

This place is awesome. I spent a few hours today browsing through the 4 (and 3/4?) stores today.

I love to get books here! The prices are very reasonable. Things can be a bit hard to find but the staff is very helpful in answering any questions! read more

Love this place. It's so cozy and fun, the people who work there are fantastic and it's a great way to spend an afternoon, no matter the weather. read more

A bookworms paradise. The books range from the latest hits to vintage classics. The prices are usually more than fair-perfect for a book addict on a budget. There are several cats that can be found roaming around the property. Customers are more than welcome to pet them. read more