2 Best Places to Shop in Downtown with Sixth Street and Rainey Street, Austin

Established in 1970, Texas's largest independent bookstore is a homegrown alternative to Amazon and corporate chains. The quirky bookshop, staffed with a passionate team of dedicated booksellers, has been voted Austin's best bookstore for more than 20 years, stocking bestsellers along with books on topics from celebrity memoirs to alternative home-building texts; there's also an incredible children's section. Browse magazines; shop for literary-inspired tchotchkes and Austin- and Texas-centric gifts; and catch readings and signings by local and touring authors. Heavy-hitting literati luminaries, including former presidents, make stops here while on book tours.

This fantastic place is so much the ultimate toy store of your childhood fantasies that it's too good to save for actual children—don't be embarrassed to come in even if you don't have little ones of your own. It's the place to get things like Edgar Allan Poe and Beethoven action figures, vinyl dinosaur figurines, reproductions of vintage toys you played with as a kid, and floor-to-ceiling diversions for all ages, including science toys, metal robots, stuffed animals, costumes, hard-to-find candy, baubles and bangles, and more.