MISSOULA — Last Best Books, Missoula’s newest used bookstore, is hoping to start a new chapter for local readers and for the antique books in its collection. The bookstore has a bit of everything, but emphasizes its rare reads.
“I just wanted this to be more of a cozier, more of an old timey kind of place, where it's a little chaotic and a little magical,” Owner Crystal Koosman said. “When you go into a used bookstore like this, you might not find the exact book you were looking for but, hopefully, the right book will find you.”
Koosman spent years working at other bookstores and wanting one of her own. In October, she opened Last Best Books. Since then, a first edition Hemingway and a 1948 Webster’s Dictionary have passed through its shelves. That is by design, according to Koosman.
“I love to see old books or unusual books. Books that might have ended up in the trash, and I like rescuing those books and, hopefully, to keep them circulating,” she said.
There are about 10,000 books in the store, with more in boxes waiting to be unpacked from exchanges and donations. They come in every genre from classic literature and poetry to science fiction and fantasy to cookbooks and survival manuals.
Specializing in out-of-print and rare books, there are also beautifully bound books, signed copies and first editions. Koosman said she works to price books affordably, to keep them circulating out in Missoula and beyond.
“One of the thrills of working with used books is that every single day you see a book you've never seen before in your life and you might never see it again,” she said. “I have a customer who came in and bought a novel in German. And I said, ‘You know, this might be the only copy in Missoula,’ and she said, ‘This might be the only copy in Montana.’”
While Missoula has other new and used bookstores, several have closed over the years. Koosman hopes Last Best Books will turn a new page for local readers and for the books.
“It's just the more used bookstores we have, the more chances books have to find their way through the community,” she said. “That's one of my favorite things, is when you get to touch an old book that's older than me, older than my customers in many cases, and if the book is lucky, it'll be around after we're all gone.”
