Used book stores rock

The subject line says it all. Every one I’ve been in has had at least a little treasure waiting to be dug up. Yes, it’s a store filled with books someone else didn’t want. No, it’s nothing like a flea market or garage sale or a Used College Texts-R-Us warehouse of crap (well, most of the time, anyway). Whenever I pass a used book store I haven’t been in before (and occasionally when I pass one I have been in) I have to stop and browse.

So here’s a little story… I’m a computer professional. I’ve been writing code and patching networks for more than 13 years, since before I graduated high school, and I thought it’d be all I ever do for cash. Well, fast-forward a few years, and enter the dot-com bubble and crash…

So at this point all the serious work I’ve been able to find in my area is some part-time contract work at a charter school. Since I have a baby on the way and need some insurance, I go looking for a more full-time job.

I pick up a job at a large used book store chain here in the DFW area, and it absolutely rocks. The benefits are nice, I get along with EVERY co-worker, my bosses take care of us trained monkeys, and I’m having a ball. The pay isn’t as good as I’ve had in the past, but my job satisfaction level is incredibly high. I have this guilty pleasure in the job, kind of like that guy in the movie American Beauty.

Anyways, here’s the kicker. Most of the store’s books are sold at 50% of retail or less…and the employee discount is around 50% of THAT. I can check out any item I want for a month before I commit to buying it. And I get free health benefits and a free paid lunch hour every day. It’s like being in a library all day long (if you like that kind of thing) but I get to bring in my drink and talk loudly.

So anyway, used book stores rock.

The Dun King

Yes, yes they do.
I’m pretty much keeping the local one in business single-handedly.

I love my local used book store, and browse any I come across, too. I don’t get all my friends who dig browsing the ‘real’ bookstores, I’d be broke in a month doing that. I can’t count the number of times I’ve found something for a buck that turned out to be incredibly meaningful to me, but that I wouldn’t have paid big money to find out.

Sounds like you found a great interim job, yay you!

Very cool. :cool:

There are only two major problems with the ones I’ve gotten hooked on:

  1. they rarely stay in business long enough
  2. stuff manages to get misplaced so whatever sections they use to categorize the books get all cluttered and you have to go through the entire stock to find specific topics.

Otherwise, I agree withthe theme of the OP!

I love used book stores. My particular interest is collecting up books on local history of surrounding areas – last time I was there, I just plonked myself down on the carpet in the aisle of books, and went through the shelves, happy as a clam.

A couple of businessman-types came up, looking for the economics section next one along. I just briefly looked up, waved, and they waved back, smiling, before moving on.

Something really special about the ambience there. Wonderful, wonderful stuff – great prices. :slight_smile:

Too true, the vast majority of the used book stores I’ve been in have been like this. But the one I got the job at (1) is very clean, very well-organized. I think the key thing is, the store doesn’t keep every single book it buys. The really good stuff goes out for the customers, the rest pretty much gets distributed to schools and charities. (I’d say it’s maybe a 75-store / 25-donation split during the summer.) I was – and still am – very much impressed with the level of professionalism at this place.

That won’t stop me from going into smaller, messier places, though. Especially now, since I have some idea of the amount of effort it takes to keep such a place neat and tidy.

The Dun King

  1. At the risk of sounding like a marketing droid knee deep in advertising copy, I’ll say it. Half Price Books. Stores across the US, based in Dallas. http://www.halfpricebooks.com/

New York City’s legendary Strand. There’s a used bookstore that will be in business forever.

I love used bookstores so much that I actually have recurring dreams about them—some of the happiest hours of my life have been spent rummaging through dusty old Mom ‘n’ Pop bookstores.

Annie, don’t give the Strand a kina hora! And I must add that NYC has two used bookstores I actually prefer to the Strand: Argosy, on East 59th, and the glorious Gotham Book Mart on West 47th.

Bah. I want a good used bookstore. There’s just the one nearby. It’s dark, smells odd (and not a good odd either), the selection is made up almost entirely of romance novels and third-rate science fiction, and I keep getting ignored by the owner when I come inside. It gives me the creeps, certainly not a great motivation to come back.

But I do so love used bookstores that aren’t that one, like the one I found in St. Augustine a few years back that was the antithesis of the local bookstore. And library book sales are my god.

I have mixed feelings on this subject. As an avid reader on a limited budget, I positively love used bookstores and have gotten terrific books at prices you can’t beat with a stick. These kinds of prices also inspire me to expand my reading tastes in the sense that I’ll buy and try books I wouldn’t normally if it meant buying them brand new at brand new book prices. I can deal with the aforementioned internal disorganization pretty well, but what really bothers me is that so many of them don’t have regular hours (or are even open at the times posted on the front door). Let me rant a moment here…

My boyfriend, who shares my affinity for reading and used bookstores, has told me of several used bookstores in his area (we have a long distance relationship) that he loves and knows I’d find wonderful. But they’re never open when I’m up there to see him (weekends, other than weekends he comes down to see me). You’d think they’d be open on Saturdays, at least, huh?

Then there’s the “Mom&Pop” used bookstore within walking distance of my apartment. Their posted hours are Monday through Saturday (though they used to be open on Sundays too; I remember seeing them open on Sundays and stopping in), and of course I’ve shopped there and bought books from them many times over the years. When I told my boyfriend about this bookstore and suggested we take a walk there (it was a Saturday), he was really enthusiastic about it. But when we got there, it was closed. Note that the sign said Saturday hours were 10AM-6PM and that when I looked at my watch, it was 11:10 AM. This was the second or third time we tried, too. And there was no additional sign saying “closed” either.

Now what I want to know is why used bookstores haven’t got regular hours, and the ones which DO post regular hours, don’t stick to them.

Yes they do, and I kinda prefer the feel of a used book to a new one.

The one I frequent, and I mean frequent is great. they call me by name, they hold any Vonnegut that comes in for me.

Sigh, off there tomorrow

Half Price Books really is a great place to work, isn’t it? I worked there for a month before my hands got too bad to continually shelve books.

I love used bookstores. And I got pissed off at hearing Michael Stackpole, one of my favorite Star Wars authors dissing them.

I’ve gotten so many Romanov books in mint condition for pennies at Half Price Books and Borders Bargain sales. At the latter, I found a book that was originally 65 dollars for SIX!!!

Love 'em! I live within an hour or so of the biggest new & used book store in the world–Powell’s City of Books. It’s huge (and very well organized, thank God.) It takes up an entire city block–you need a map to find your way around, and they provide them. My parents used to take me there every birthday and set me loose with 10 bucks or so. Good times, good times. A visit to Portland isn’t complete with stopping in at Powell’s.

One of the best things about travelling is finding the little gems of used book stores in various towns. Finding an unexpected treasure at a bookstore in Hicksville, USA is a huge rush. (I’m such a geek, aren’t? :))

Most of the books I buy are second hand. My best source is the charity shops, who usually have a section for used books. Which is just as well because in my area we have lost 4 used book shops recently through closure.
My main interest is science fiction and it’s the only way to find some of those long lost classics that are now out of print.

V

Used bookstores rock long and hard. They are a gold mine of rare books, a place where I used to get my ::GEEK ALERT:: Dr. Who book supply. ::GEEK ALERT::

Heya Koffing – what’s up with your hands, if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve noticed new interesting issues with my hips (from duck-walking while shelving the next-to-bottom shelves) and most everyone at my store has some kind of back problem…

Yeah, I’ve shopped their website a few times. Next time I’m in Portland, I will be stopping by… I just don’t know if I’m worthy… :wink:

The Dun King

Mrs. ricepad and I make it a point to visit Acres of Books whenever we’re in Long Beach, CA. From the street, it looks like any other storefront. Step inside, tho, and you’re inside a freaking WAREHOUSE of used books. We’ve spent as much as 5 hours there.

We LOVE used book stores!

::scribble scribble:: Acres of Books, Long Beach. Next time the familial unit is at the aquarium down there, maybe I can shanghai them into the used bookstore!

As a po’ college student with a voracious appetite for books, used bookstores are my friends. There are two in town, both of which I have been buying from for years. One of the saddest days of my life was when the Book Stop moved out of the shopping center near my house… used to be that I could walk a couple blocks to the shopping center and immerse myself in that warm booky aroma well-aged books have. Now I have to drive. Oh well, such is life.

We live about 20 minutes from a town called Ventura, the downtown of which is absolutely packed with thrift stores, antique shops, and- you guessed it- used bookstores! Someday I need to get a Ventura phone book and determine exactly how many there are. Quality and selection varies, but I found one of the jewels of my collection in Ventura; a hardcover copy of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s ‘Hotel Transylvania’ that looks like it was printed in the 70s or early 80s.