Presto Electro

Denton is a city with a lot of unusual sights. From the day-glo orange messenger trucks of Frenchy's Lawn & Tree Services to the immaculately-restored Denton County Courthouse:
But when I first moved up here, I was always the most struck by the façade of Recycled. On paper, a pink building with lavender trim sounds like something a Disney princess would live in, but in real life it really works out great!
This is largely thanks to the fact that Recycled is actually a recycled Opera House that was built in 1899. To add even more recycle-y-ness, the Opera House was built out of the bricks from the Denton County Courthouse that was condemned in the 1870’s. There are bricks in that building that are upwards of 150 years old!

The outside is brilliant, but the inside is where Recycled really shines. The place is filled with an absolute labyrinth of shelves. You’ve really got to see it to understand, but they have a photo gallery on their website that hints at the layout of the place.
Once you get over the novelty of walking around a human-sized mouse-maze, the substance starts to sink in. Every shelf, every wall, is covered in REALLY COOL BOOKS! Recycled has sections on every subject imaginable. Art books, sheet music, science books, literature, nonfiction, metaphysics, yachting, farm upkeep, public records, poetry, picture books… the list goes on. If you want a book on some vague topic, Recycled almost certainly has a section for that.

If you’re not much of a reader, there is still plenty of awesome to be had. Recycled also boasts really big CD and record collections. I’ve found a lot of really great gently-used CDs here, and it is the only record store I know of that has a Local Denton Music section.

There’s also a Jazz section that is bigger than any Jazz section I have ever seen in my life. There’s almost more Jazz than pop at Recycled, and that warms the cockles of my heart.