Becker’s Books

Just outside the loop on the Katy Freeway, Becker’s Books has been Houston’s go-to secondhand bookstore since 1993. Actually run by Mom and Pop Becker, this family business has thrived as a local bookstore by preserving the treasures that people expect to find in an old school “stacks” bookstore.

From $2 paperbacks to $1000 manuscripts, there is a reason for everyone to come to Becker’s Books and get lost in the stacks.

The Story

In 1993, Dan Becker opened Becker’s Books in Houston to house his personal collection of books. Over the years his passion turned into his livelihood as Becker’s Books grew to be one of the largest local, independent bookstores in the country.

Opening a used and rare bookstore has been a lifelong dream of Becker’s Books owner Dan Becker. He and his older brother Dain grew up reading secondhand books and loving local bookstores in their hometown of Chicago. In their adulthood, both living in Houston, they loved shopping for, reading, and buying books. Together they would find used and rare books and sell what they couldn’t keep in their own houses at trade and antique shows. Dain passed away before his time in 1989, but among many of the cherished memories he left behind was the time spent with his brother.

In 1993, Dan and his wife Ann bought a house in the Spring Branch neighborhood of Houston, Texas. He took his own personal collection of used and rare books exploding out of his garage and warehouse and filled the Spring Branch house to the brim with every kind of book you could think of.

Over the years the Beckers have opened two additional warehouses to house their inventory and have sold books on Amazon, and recently built a website with a group of local bookstore owners’ books in a searchable database with plans to have shopping functionality added soon.

There are dozens upon dozens of corridors of books stacked from floor to ceiling. The bookcases are made of dark, sturdy wood and the floors are saltillo tile. Behind every corner is a chair or couch for you to curl up with and test your potential book purchases. Each day at Becker’s books starts at 11am with a pot of strong, black coffee and a plate of cakes or cookies, and there is always the Keurig for those who wander in a little later in the afternoon or evening and still want a cup of coffee.

We are open Monday through Saturday from 11am-6pm but we highly, highly recommend setting aside three to four hours for your first time, as most people don’t realize how much books we actually have.

Although light on things published in the last five years or so, Becker’s Books offers Houston’s largest selection of used and rare books. Approaching a million titles, our inventory is expansive and will seriously help you discover, “the lost art of browsing,” as we often have exactly the book you’ve spent decades looking for, but more often than not you will find a whole lot of things you didn’t even know you wanted.

For an extensive but not comprehensive idea of what kind of books we have, these are some of the subjects we have covered: Agriculture, American Indians, Americana, Anthropology, Art, Audio Books, Bibliographies, Biography, Books on Books, Business and Finance, Cars and Car Repair, Chapbooks, Children, Christmas, Collectible editions, Collecting, Cookbooks, Crafts, Drama, Economics, Education, Ephemera, Essays and Letters, Fashion, Fiction, Folklore and Mythology, Foreign Languages, Gardening, Genealogy, Grab Bag, Health, History, Humor, Journalism, Law and Legal Reference, Literary Biography, Literary Criticism, Magazines, Medical, Movies and TV, Music and Dance, Natural History, New Age and Occult, Oil, Philosophy, Poetry, Politics, Psychology, Recovery, Reference, Religion and Theology, Science and Technology, Scouting, Self Help, Sets, Sex, Sociology, Sports and Games, Study Guides, Texana, Textbooks, Transportation, Travel and Adventure, True Crime, Writing and Language, and Yearbooks.

Even though the inventory, staff, and children have all grown at Becker’s Books, if you stop by you are almost guaranteed to run into one of the Becker’s who started the store Dan and Ann (or at least their children Charlie and Mary). We are located at 7405 Westview Houston, TX 77055. Our hours are Monday thru Saturday 11am – 6pm, and we open the day after most holidays.

Come see us or give us a call at (713) 957-8088!