Nerd Books

Zero stars. Waste of drive time. No hours posted. Doors locked. Empty parking lot. Not even zombies woukd wander here. Desolate.

They are CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC. I was unfortunate enough to walk in through the delivery door, find the books I wanted, start to scan them at the station, and get a half hour lecture on how I was not supposed to be there. Granted it was entertaining, but I really needed the books right then, so I’m only here to tell you they are not a retail business. Don’t go there. Oh yes, if you really want to risk it, you can call them on the phone and place your order and pick it up by appointment outside, but my guess is that even that possibility is subject to revocation without notice. I did get a strong sense of arbitrary decision making in process. After all, the owner could take this Unilocal presence down, but he does not like Unilocal and would apparently rather gripe about them than do something to get at the source of his irritation.

Pretty good selection of books. Considerably less stock than they’ve had in previous years. Great pricing. Store is not much more than a moderately clean warehouse and has steadily decayed since I started coming here four or five years ago. Owner is pretty much an arrogant ass which may explain the decrease in stock. If you run off the business then you don’t need the stock.

Awesome store if you’re looking for technical books! Fantastic selection and great prices. But recognize that this is nothing more than a good-​looking warehouse. It’s not particularly well-​organized for browsers and shoppers. It is optimized for the employees picking, packing, and shipping books to Internet customers.
Don’t expect customer service or friendliness. In fact, you can expect customer hostility if the owner is in a bad mood (which is fairly often). Children are not allowed in the store and don’t try to enter through the front door; you’ll find a sign that basically says «If you idiots can’t close the door behind you, I’ll make you walk around to the side door. So there!». You’ll be ignoring the year-​round Christmas tree and have the store dogs sniffing your crotch while you browse books.
But frankly, if you can get past the eccentricities of the passive-​aggressive owner, it is a great place to find and buy technical books. All in all, it is a major advantage to living in the Metroplex. We’re glad you’re here!

I went to Nerdbooks today in Richardson, TX. I was looking for
a book on the new Google Android cell phone operating system
(«Android Application Development» by Meier). They had the
book (about $ 2 better than Amazon and no shipping) and I
bought it using their in-​store eCommerce method.
Large selection on all tech subjects, especially related to internet and
computers.
Wish they had more pure science/​physics/​math titles.

Nerd Books is a wholesale computer book seller. If you like to leaf thru the computer book section at say, Borders, this place is going to blow your mind and give you a hernia.
The prices are roughly on par with Amazon. You get to go in and leaf through the selection, and let me tell you, it’s extensive. Last time I was there, they had two or three racks dedicated solely to digital signal processing.
Since this place is a wholesaler, they don’t have a cash register or take cash. You walk up to the kiosk terminal in the middle of the store with your purchases and self-​checkout using their web site. Instead of getting shipping, you click the «UH, I’M HERE IN THE STORE» box. Pretty strange, but I’m willing. Naturally, you can also have Nerd Books ship books to your door.
My only regret about moving to Austin is that Nerd Books is still in Dallas.