Back in high school, I never hung out with the popular kids. For me the best times were with the weird-cool kids. Too smart to be popular and too inconspicuous to be ostracized, they existed in their private own universe. Imagine the weird-cool kids from High School opened a book store. That store would be Germ Books.

According to the founders, “GERM Books + Gallery began out of a need for a truly alternative independent bookstore that would provide access to ideologically unpopular books; books that address difficult social topics; books that don’t cater to the lockstep mentality of the current counterculture; and books that reveal who our true masters are: The UFO Overlords.” Besides conspiracy theory books, they also have nice selection of science fiction and cyberpunk.

Germ is also a gallery, featuring the works of local artists. The Jennifer Bates Memorial Gallery, which is named for their late founder, is “always looking for artists who don’t pander to conventional tastes or art school norms.”

With sections such as “Yes you CAN judge a book by its cover,” you know you are in the company of people who may be a bit too smart for their own good, but who definitely have fun with it. You never quite know when they are being serious and what they actually believe in, but that’s the fun of it… just like it was back in high school, but without having to be in high school again.

Germ Books
Germ Myspace

Germ Books
2005 Frankford Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19125
(215) 423-5002