There are a lot of different places to buy books these days. There's multiple independent bookstore in pretty much every major city and every new release is available online as well. You can even choose to buy books digitally via Kindle or other other eBook platforms. If you're specifically just looking to buy physical books of the newest 2026 releases somewhere online, however, some websites are better than others.
Online Bookstores List
| Name | Where to buy books | Types of books |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | https://www.amazon.com/amz-books/book-deals | Physical boooks, eBooks, Audiobooks, Textbooks |
| Barnes & Noble | https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/books/_/N-29Z8q8 | Physical boooks, eBooks, Audiobooks, Textbooks |
| Target | https://www.target.com/c/books-entertainment/-/N-5xsxd | Physical books, Textbooks |
| Bookshop.org | https://bookshop.org/ | Physical boooks, eBooks, Audiobooks |
| Powell's Books | https://www.powells.com/books | Physical boooks, Audiobooks |
| Book Outlet | https://bookoutlet.com/ | Physical books |
| Books-a-Million | https://www.booksamillion.com/ | Physical boooks, eBooks, Audiobooks |
| Thriftbooks | https://www.thriftbooks.com/ | Physical books, Textbooks |
| Better World Books | https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ | Physical books, Textbooks |
| AbeBooks | https://www.abebooks.com/ | Physical books, Textbooks |
| Half Price Books | https://www.hpb.com/ | Physical books, Audibooks, Textbooks |
| Chegg | https://www.chegg.com/books | Textbooks |
| Biblio | https://www.biblio.com/ | Physical books, Textbooks |
| Book Depot | https://www.bookdepot.com/ | Physical books |
| Alibris | https://www.alibris.com/ | Physical books, eBooks, Textbooks |
| Bookstores.com | https://www.bookstores.com/ | Physical books, Textbooks |
Where Is the Best Place to Buy Books Online
The overall best place to buy books is at Amazon. The online retail giant started as a way to bring book shopping to the web and very much succeeded. Amazon has all of the popular new releases and preorders at the same time or before everyone else and usually has the overall best deals on those titles. Amazon also offers some free digital books as a membership benefit for Prime Members, even if you don't have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. You can find all of Amazon's offerings on the Kindle Store, which is part of its larger retail site. There are also some of the best audiobooks via Audible, also owned by Amazon.
The main downside of Amazon is that it doesn't have any physical locations to actually pick up books since it shut down all of its brick-and-mortar bookstores back in 2022. So if you want to be able to actually pick up the books you buy online, you're better off going with Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble has been expanding its locations across the U.S. and will often have exclusive editions of new books you can't get anywhere else. There's also the annual Barnes & Noble Book Haul sale, which takes place in August every year.
