Continent

What a gem! I’ve lived in Seattle area for 6 years now, and I didn’t even know that we had such a great Russian bookstore nearby. I haven’t seen this big of a selection of Russian books since moving here from Russia. You can find any books for your taste: kid’s books, textbooks, classics, audiobooks, etc. The owner is really nice and friendly. He spent time with me, helping me find the books I’ve wanted. I was so happy to find such a great bookstore! Will definitely come back again. Thank you!

I laughed soo hard reading the previous review! I know Egor and his family for about 15 years and they are so NOT a mafia. See, how stereotyping creats a comletely distorted picture of reality, even though I could praise the author of the previous review for attention to details. For her information, the owner, Egor, has to be downstairs most of the time because he is running a Russian radio station from downstairs for the Russian community in Greater Seattle area. That is the only way to keep the Russian book store, otherwise, it does not make much economic store. Naturally, Egor’s father is upstairs to inform him about a customer and he has to run upstairs during short commercial breaks between his air time. There is nothing spooky about a father of two young babies to bring them to the place of there own business. I find it cute and awesome, since Egor’s wife is a working mom, a biologist. And Egor, BTW, has a degree in telecommunications from a well known college in St. Petersburg, Russia. he store is very well stocked with newest books in Russian and the owner is very well informed about all the trends in Russian literature as well as he is familiar with classical Russian literature and we always love to visit, browse through books and never left without some great book both for grown ups and for kids!

I think this is a front for the Russian Mafia. No, seriously. I really do. (now that I’ve clued you in, if I ever suddenly disappear from Unilocal,never go to this store and please inform the FBI… or CIA… or whoever the hell it is that catches bad guys!)
Every time I come in here me and the sweet old Russian man at the front get into a conversation (in Russian) that inevitably ends up with us confusing each other (i speak a somewhat limited amount of Russian — although enough to get me by and not sound like I have no idea what I am really saying or why I am saying what I am saying — and he speaks a VERY limited amount of English). So, I always hear «just minute» and he runs to the back part and yells for his son to come in. A few minutes later Egor appears at the door and whispers something to his father and you can hear the old man whispering back about the crazy American girl that thinks she can speak Russian looking for the Russian version of a silly book about sparkly vampires. Then Egor appears and he is always red and dripping with sweat — like he has just been running a marathon on the hypothetical treadmill in the back, which would be believable if I thought they actually had a treadmill in the back. No, more likely he was just beating the living daylights out of someone… my thoughts are validated by the faint crying you hear coming from the back that can only be heard when you near entrance to the «storage area» in the back of the store — they don’t like you back there. Maybe this is why the old man always has Russian Christian talk radio blaring throughout the tiny store?
Regardless, they have a phenomenal selection of just about every Russian book you could want, Russian music, and a couple Russian dvds also I think. If they don’t have what you want, they can order it for you… or have one of their mobsters steal it from a Russian that does have it.
They are a little pricey, but what do you expect with them having to have it shipped from Russia? They really are very nice people and always very helpful.
Even if you don’t speak Russian it is a pleasurable experience.
OH, also, even though they used to take credit cards «their machine is broke» (maybe the FBI was closing in on them?), so take cash. Although, the last time I was in their he just told me to mail him a check and got my name and number (so the mobsters could hunt me down if I did decide to skip town without paying my $ 23.11? Joke’s on them: I have a texas number!).