Little District Books

Congrats on your new location, Little District! They're definitely still in the process of moving from tiny space to more expansive space but I am so stoked for them. So much more room for queer literature and joy. Wonderful and helpful staff with great taste. Absolutely worth the visit, every time. Can't wait for them to open their little cafe…!

10/10 experience, staff are kind and respectful, atmosphere is supportive and quiet, if you are a LGBTQIA+ teenager in the DMV you will love it here. Plenty of options with new and old, popular and unpopular queer books. Would recommend!!! 🫶🥹✨

On Tuesday I was really excited to visit Little District Books while I was in Washington, DC. I’d heard a lot about it and I love supporting queer bookstores. I walked in ready to buy something and honestly the experience just wasn’t good.nnWhen my girlfriend and I came in, no one greeted us. The employee at the counter finished with the customer she was talking to and still didn’t say anything. We were standing right there at the front looking at stickers and nothing. No welcome, no hello, nothing. We went deeper into the store and kept browsing. We were in there almost an hour. The two workers kept talking to each other and greeted every person who walked in after us. At no point did either of them even consider to come ask if we needed anything or if they could help.nnOn top of that, for such a big queer collection, there were barely any queer Black authors or authors of color. I checked fantasy, sci fi, romance, the shelves in the back. I found only a handful. It didn’t make sense for a queer bookstore in DC of all places.nnWhen I mentioned this at checkout, the employee got defensive. Instead of taking the feedback, he tried to tell me there were Black authors “around the store.” I told him I had already spent an hour looking. Then he asked me to make a list of authors for them so they could “look into it.” That felt strange because that’s the kind of work a bookstore should already be doing. I told him about Ruby Roe who is a well known Black queer author with multiple books out and he had never heard of her.nnWe walked a few doors down to East City Bookshop and the difference was insane. We were greeted by multiple people right away. The energy felt warm and welcoming. We found queer Black authors within minutes. I even bought something right away.nnSeeing the difference between the two stores made things really clear. At Little District Books, we weren’t acknowledged, the representation wasn’t there, and when I spoke up, I felt the employee was more concerned with defending the bookstore than offering to do better and acknowledging the lack of diversity. I really wanted to love this place but it didn’t feel welcoming and I hope that changes, because queer spaces should feel like they include all of us.

Was a wonderful experience! The staff were friendly, helpful, and extremely knowledgable. Their selection was vast and they had many hard to find books I’ve been looking for as well as hundreds of niche books I’m now interested in reading. Would highly recommend a stop in!

Absolutely love this shop! I was visiting from la and went out of my way to stop by and I'm so glad I did. They have an amazing selection of diverse lgbtqia authors and stories. The staff was very kind. The whole store is easy to navigate and very welcoming.