Wise book enthusiasts are advised to visit Last Word Books in OlyWa. Check the tasty stash including the thick stack from the legendary counter-culture publisher Loompanics plus Evergreen College library books – cheap out the backdoor. The rag-tag group is even MySpaced and erstswhile curators of the Oly Zine Library and un-secretly Pirates and Honky Tonk Dragons .

Last Word Books – and their stablemate Rec the Place Fantastic Records – are worker owned collectives specializing in hard to find media of all sorts and providing a comfortable and welcoming space for the free exchange of ideas and they are a Zhonka Surfbreak location – kicking down the free wi-fi for the people! What’s more, they tend the Uncle Weed collection of cannabis related books and magazines for professional use only).  Here’s a map to Last Word Books in downtown Olympia.  To get to Olympia better, be sure to examine the Oly Poster Project & listen to the Clubside Breakfast Time podcast

LWB is a frequent stop for me whenst sojourned in Wa’s capitol city – where everyone brings a half dozen friends to college with them and stay on to starta rock band or non-profit group (well not all, some start worker’s owned collectives).

Here’s what Evergreen had to say about LWB:

Last Word Books emerged from the storefronts of downtown Oly on May 2002, opened by four ambitious then-sophomore Evergreen students. Six Greeners and alumni now run this cooperative. All but 2 percent of the books are used; even the new ones make use of recycled material. The inspiration for this used-book store came from co-owner Sky Cosby, whose father owns Walla Walla’s Earth Light.

Photos by Cynthia Miller