DreamHaven Books & Comics
Bookstore: DreamHaven Books and Comics
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
The Official Patter: "DreamHaven has been an open shop since 1977. We are leading purveyors of
new, used, and rare science fiction, fantasy, horror, film and media books, comics, and graphic
novels.
“The Tooth Fairy left the name DreamHaven Books
under my pillow. Usually it’s a 25-cent piece;
but given the current value of the U.S. dollar,
the value of this tip was far more glorious.
DreamHaven is a book-seeker’s cave of miracles.” – Harlan Ellison"
Why I Love Them: Years ago I was searching for the perfect birthday present for my mom. She had recently told me how she thought Neil Gaiman's Coraline was one of her favorite books so I set out to find her a signed copy. Neil had a link on his site to DreamHaven Books and Comics saying that he often popped across the Mississippi River from his secluded Northern Wisconsin home to the Minnesota store and signed books for them and if you were willing to wait a bit he could personalize them. I placed an order long in advance of my mother's birthday and waited. She loved the present when it arrived, Neil had even done a little drawing of a rat in the book! So DreamHaven Books became my go to store for anything Neil Gaiman, from my hardcover editions of Neverwhere and American Gods, to Neil's rather rare guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I ordered them all from DreamHaven Books!
Best Buy: About six months after I placed my first order with them I went to my first WisCon. In the dealers' room who should I find but DreamHaven Books! They had by far the biggest display, and what I loved most was it was a mix of new and used. There were books I had been longing to see in person and books I never thought I'd find. My second year at WisCon, knowing that DreamHaven Books would be there I budgeted accordingly and in fact found a wonderful out of print copy of Caroline Stevermer's The Alchemist: Death of a Borgia which I was then able to get signed by her! But my best buy was purchased at what I will always view as my best convention experience ever, the 2011 North American Discworld Convention. The dealers' room was a wonderful mishmash of the unknown, The Cunning Artificer and The Discworld Emporium, and the familiar, DreamHaven Books. On my third day I went to this lovely and intimate event with one of the other guests, Patrick Rothfuss. He passed out copies of his book The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed for us to read as a group. It was a raucous time and so much fun, in fact if you want to read more about it, you can! After this reading I was waiting for my friend by perusing the wares of DreamHaven Books and Pat came by to give them a stack of copies of The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle. In fact the stack we had just been reading. Now, I already owned a signed first edition of this book, but then Pat said that these were his own personal copies he got when the book came out, as evidenced by the fact he signed and dated them "Pat Rothfuss 7-21-10." How could I pass up an opportunity to own such a unique copy of this wonderful book? The answer is I obviously couldn't because it is my best buy ever from DreamHaven Books, and let me tell you it had some stiff competition.
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