At Tacoma Book Center, browsing can feel like a treasure hunt with no fixed route. Nearly half a million used books fill the Dome District store, which Visit Tacoma identifies as the largest used bookstore in Washington. The shop at 324 E. 26th St. has been part of the neighborhood for nearly four decades, putting books that might otherwise be forgotten back into circulation.
The newest chapter has an unlikely character: artificial intelligence. Co-owner Dave Killian told The News Tribune that AI companies have been buying old books in Tacoma and elsewhere. After sales dipped during the pandemic, that demand has become part of the store’s story. The reporting does not establish which companies bought the books or what happened to each copy afterward, so those details remain open questions.
For a used bookstore, every purchase starts with a physical object: a book someone kept, passed along or decided was ready for another home. The possibility that some of those books are being sought for AI work adds a strange new destination to that familiar cycle. It also makes this longtime Tacoma business a small, tangible point of contact with an industry most of us encounter only on a screen.
That development sits alongside the reason people still walk through the door. A shopper can scan shelves, pull out a book they have never heard of and decide for themselves whether to take it home. The store’s size makes room for that kind of discovery, even as its owners adapt to buyers whose interests may have little to do with reading a book cover to cover.
Killian also shared some of the rare finds and stories accumulated over the store’s long run. The News Tribune’s visit offers a look inside the crowded shelves—and a better sense of what nearly 40 years of collecting books has put in their path
Read The News Tribune’s article and watch the video here.
Discover more of Tacoma in today’s Tacoma Local Minute. Catch the rest of today’s local news, events, and updates in the full issue here.