O Brisky Books

At first glance it looked unimpressive, but upon walking in and further exploring — the place is amazing, unique and filled with vintage books & great finds. The guy/​owner is very helpful.

O Brisky Books. This adorable independent bookstore is located in Micanopy, Florida (on the antique row block). If you are driving by Gainesville you simply MUST take the little side trip to find it… just make sure that you bring cash since they don’t take credit cards.

If Disney cast a bookseller in one of their heart-​warming films, he’d probably be a fellow quite like the owner of this treasure of a book-​store. The old man you encounter whenever you happen into O Brisky’s (I guess he may be in fact O’Brisky or O. Brisky?) seems like he never changes – I remember him being just as old and peering at me over his glasses when I was in sixth-​grade in fact. He is, however, very forthcoming and interested in helping you find the book or books you seek. The shop is a jumble, a muddle, and a mess, but fear not because this dude knows where everything is: he mainly carries used and antique books with an emphasis on Florida history and moreover on natural history, animals, and biology (there is a whole section entitled «snakes», in example).
There are rumors the owner is a retired former professor of biology from UF or that he was a colonel in Vietnam – whatever, don’t ask him, I for one don’t want to know: this shop is a place that should be encountered 110% on its own unique terms and left at that. It’s not where you go for a best-​seller but if you want a good book from the 1980s on the Florida panther or something from 1920 on this history of musical pedagogy in the United States, you need to stop in.