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Seattle’s first technical book store coming soon to Capitol Hill

Elliott Bay Book Co. isn’t the only new book store planning a Capitol Hill opening. Ada’s Technical Books will be located in the Loveless Building and is scheduled to be ready to serve Seattle’s tech and geek community starting in mid-June 2010.

The bookstore is named for Ada Lovelace, a 19th Century pioneer in computer programming. She is celebrated today as a symbol of all the great women who add to the advancement of technology.

According to the Ada’s website:

Our goals are to bring a valuable resource to the technical community in Seattle by carrying a large selection of new, used, & rare books on Computers, Electronics, Physics, Math, and Science. We also hope to foster education and innovation in the local community by hosting monthly meet-ups, book signings, and training workshops. The store will also have a lounge area and refreshments for customers to plug in and hang out. In addition to books, Ada’s will also carry a wide selection of puzzles, brain teasers, and gadgets.

I asked Danielle, one of Ada’s Technical Books owners, a few questions via e-mail:

Why do you think a technical book store is needed on Capitol Hill?

Capitol Hill in particular, but Seattle in general, has a large, technical community. There are no technical bookstores in the city or on the Eastside. We think Capitol Hill is a great place to start one because of the large technical community that already lives and works here, and the number of businesses, such as Metrix Create:Space, that are starting to pop up around Cap Hill that are targeted for that community.

What kind of events to you plan to host?
We plan on having an “author of the month” every month. Throughout the month, we will feature books written by this author and books that he/she recommends for general reading. At the end of the month, the author will come in and give a free lecture (or a reading, depending on the author). We will also occasionally host workshops with the authors over the weekend.

Along with that, we would love to host meet-ups of different technical groups at the store and encourage people to use the space for work, research, and collaboration. We will carry fast Wi-Fi and drinks along with our books.

 
What inspired you to open the store?
We currently work in the technical industry and we love visiting technical bookstores in other cities… we only wish there were one here. So, we decided to start one.
We are excited about not only carrying great, highly technical books and technical leisure books, but also about carrying some geeky extras. We think this will have a draw for both the technical people in Cap Hill, but also those who don’t know what to get their geeky friends as gifts.
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Coffee Forever
Coffee Forever
13 years ago

Good for grad students … nice.

Cloudy Day
Cloudy Day
13 years ago

Great news! I can’t believe Seattle didn’t already have a technical bookstore. Best of luck to this new venture!

Chuckie Babbage
Chuckie Babbage
13 years ago

ADA’s Technical Books will be located in the LOVELESS Building? Now that’s funny.

Also very cool. Can’t wait to shop there.

linder seattle
linder seattle
13 years ago

There’s been a lot of crankiness in the comments lately and this isn’t intended to be cranky, too. Just wasn’t sure if this is the 1st technical bookstore in the area.

The UW had a technical/professional bookstore at 4th & University downtown for several years (’90s to ~2005). Besides books on architecture, law and medicine, the store featured books on science, coding, math & computers. It claimed to have the largest selection of computer books in the NW.

Coffee Forever
Coffee Forever
13 years ago

And, not to be cranky, if it is the second or third?

The story is really a footnote that a new bookstore is opening on the Hill. Good news all by itself.

jfrson
jfrson
13 years ago

This bookstore was about as technical as Quest Books, the metaphysical bookstore next door. Carried a lot of standard titles in the CS section– nothing outstanding. The mathematics section was plagued by the same condition that most standard bookstores are under– lots of books about math and really mediocre, outdated textbooks with nothing worth buying for the working mathematician. My recommendation is to visit Powell’s technical or buy online.

AdasBooks
AdasBooks
13 years ago

Hi jfrson!
I just now noticed your comment and I am bummed you had that experience at our store. Our inventory is continually growing and changing. We would love to eventually build up a really great selection of books that will satisfy all technical interests. If you have any suggestions of books we should definitely carry on our shelves, drop me a line at danielle [at] adasbooks [dot] com or stop by the store and just tell me in person :)

-Danielle