Dreamhaven Books & Comics

This is the place. It’s one of the few times that I’m grateful for my wimpy T-​Rex arms. Honestly, the only thing limiting my hauls here is the ability to carry more. There are currently $ 1 paperback tables with a whole bunch of guilty pleasures. And you know you’re in the right place when there are special sections for Jules Verne, My Friend Totoro, a whole bunch of Neil Gaiman books signed by author and a case of vintage sci-​fi toys.
Good gravy, this place. Last stop here I took home a book about the origins of unicorns from a scientific standpoint, an Edward Gorey collection, a copy of Orwell’s Animal Farm as illustrated by Ralph Steadman (Fear and Loathing, Hell’s Kitchen, Pink Floyd’s «the Wall») and a visual biography of Dr. Seuss… and like ten other things. The Mister took home a copy of the Spirit reboot and some Spirit action figures too. We were very tempted to buy gifts for people, too. The kind of gifts that somehow end up in your own collection. The part of the collection that you do not loan out and guard like Golem.
Hours are limited so plan ahead. Go alone so no one can judge your spending habits. Or bring a friend so that they can help you carry. Just sayin’. :)

Jampacked but neatly organized, friendly and very knowledgable staff, a lonely green chair to sit down and a welcome break from the cookiecutter bigbox store.

This place used to be among my favorites until it changed locations. I don’t know if it’s still in business. Maybe the rent was too high on Lake Street, but it had a lot of traffic. I would often go there after work on Saturdays and find something from the adult section in back of the store. I really miss that, but it happened around the time of the market crash. Many good stores went out of business near Uptown. They have been replaced by fitness clubs, boring restaurants and high priced apartments.

Dreamhaven is one of those businesses that reminds you of a simpler time. Not like the real 1950s with racism and such but perhaps like the Pleasantville movie.
I used to walk in and the owner remembered me. He told me when new books I was looking for were in and I felt good to talk to a human about sci-​fi and fantasy art. I walked out with a used novel for $ 1.07 on a lucky day. Most days had a big old’ bag of stuff.
Now he has to compete with Amazon and its metrics to determine what books I «like» and boring cardboard I receive from my mail carrier who needs to drop the box on my porch while my dachshund tells him to get the hell out.
Dreamhaven isn’t closed, it just isn’t open to the public. If you do sales online, why have a retail place? Well, it’s a warehouse now and it opens about once a month for sales. I stop by every time it opens just to pick up a physical, bound, smells like glue, book.
I love Dreamhaven and often see them at art conventions. It makes me sad to see the weary eyes of the owner having to deal with people who don’t value books.
At this point I’d even welcome smug hipsters if their gentrification could help. I’d even help install a bike stand for their fixies.
Stop in when it’s open. The Facebook page always has clever updates and aren’t overwhelming, much like the business itself.

Love this place. Sorry it’s moved from Lake Street because it’s hard for me to get to regularly.
Visually, it is an extremely strong jolt. There is STUFF everywhere, every time you turn around you see something new. There’s only one guy there now, at least when I’ve been there, and he knows his business. If it’s unusual, rare, sci-​fi, horror, comix, old toys, etc. it’ll be here somewhere.
If you have questions, they’ll get answered; if you want to peruse alone, you will.

First note: THIS STORE IS NOT CLOSED (as of August, 2012). And it is indeed open to the public (despite what one reviewer wrote, per the owner, he is not «really» closed:
). The hours are much more irregular than they used to be, though — check the website to ensure it’ll be open when you go. He keeps it very up-​to-​date with open days and hours.
Now, the review:
This may be my favorite bookstore in America.
(plus, it’s right down the street from a great BBQ joint — extra points!)
Now, that said, it’s the best bookstore for a specific genre: that genre is «anything any kind of geek might enjoy at all.» Not just hardcore nerds, I mean anyone who has ever enjoyed any kind of fantasy or sci-​fi thing EVER — if you liked one of the Lord of the Rings movies, this is for you. If you remember Star Wars fondly from your youth, this is for you. It covers every possible iteration of anything remotely fabulist — from goth to faeries to steampunk and traditional sci-​fi and fantasy. There are even plenty of children’s books.
Other things to note:
— They carry things nobody else ever does. Small press runs, chapbooks, and unusual and unique pieces by authors you love. You’ll find things by those authors here that you never knew existed.
— There must be some sort of organization to this store, but it is beyond my capacity to grasp. Oh, I could tell that there was a section for newer stuff, and one for older stuff, and a comics aisle, etc., but it’s mostly just a gigantic jumble of awesomeness that you wander through, wide-​eyed. I’ll bet the proprietor knows where every single thing is, though.
— It is, hands-​down, the best of it’s genre, and is curated and run by a man who seems to have deep connections to the industry and a great knowledge of his chosen field. He personally knows all the important authors in the Minneapolis-​St. Paul area, and a great many outside of it as well.
— I had been worried that this bookstore, would not be long for this world. The owner apparently makes most of his $$ through mail order, the internet, and conventions, so as store sales decline, at some point he had said he might close it. But I just asked him last weekend (August 2012), and he said that he has no plans to close the store. So enjoy!

This is the best place for comics and scifi and fantacy books! The staff is great as well.

For shear volume of inventory, Dreamhaven rules every other place I’ve been to, short of maybe Big Brain. My knock on them is the near complete lack of service. I expect guys who work at a comic shop to be a little introverted, but in my experience at Dreamhaven I think I saw them leave their little center island to chat with customers about never.
Again, this place has everything you’re looking for to whet your geeky little whistle, but in my opinion a comic shop is as much a place to chat it up a little bit with members of our little sub-​sector of humanity and shopping at Dreamhaven was about as social as a visit to the library.

They’ve got a lot of stuff that I don’t even know what it is. I’m mainly interested in the back room. The back room has vintage porno, contemporary racy reads, and ZINES. And many sale items. ANd you can read all you want about your dirty fetishes in this back room and no one will bother you. They also carry Bust.

I actually saw Douglas Adams hyping up his Starship Titanic game here at one point.
The man was tall. Like really seriously and almost freakishly large.
He is now dead, so I find the likelihood of seeing him again fairly dubious.
Dreamhaven used to have a location in a basement in Dinkytown which, apparently, is no more. They are one of the more famous locations for new and used books for nerdly persuasion.