Right by Gate 20 you get a real bookstore at AUS
Book People in the Barbara Jordan terminal sits opposite Gate 20, and it feels more like an Austin shop than an airport rack. Shelves run heavy on fiction and current nonfiction, with Texas authors and local themes mixed in. This is where you grab a real paperback, not just a celebrity memoir from a spinner stand.
The store keeps standard terminal hours, roughly first-morning flights through the last banks in Barbara Jordan, so you can usually duck in before a 6:00 a.m. departure or a late-night arrival. Pricing tracks normal airport markups: paperbacks run a few dollars over downtown retail, and hardcovers sit in the $25–$35 range.
Beyond books, you’ll find travel basics like neck pillows, decent notebooks, pens, and a small kids’ section with picture books and activity titles. If you’re parked near Gate 20, it’s a five-minute round trip from most nearby gates (18–22) at a normal walking pace, so this is a low-risk detour on a 45-minute connection.
Selection skews mainstream bestsellers with a noticeable Austin and Texas slant, so niche academic stuff is a long shot. If you need a specific title for a class or book club, assume they won’t have it and treat this as a browse-and-grab stop instead of a targeted errand.
Tip: If your flight boards at Gate 20 or 21, board in the last half of your group and use the earlier time to duck into Book People first; lines at the podium usually look worse than they move.