Used Bookstores 101

While I’ve been visiting independent bookstores wherever I am for years, since we started the blog, I’ve hunted down stores with a renewed vigor.  The number of used bookstores surprises me.  The rents are so expensive in Los Angeles that independent bookstores selling new books withevents and activities struggle, so covering the overhead with a stock of used books is doubly difficult.  As I’ve visited used bookstores over the last several weeks, I’m jealous of the communities that have them.

I’ve found that used bookstores fall into three broad categories:  those that sell mass paperbacks, those that resemble a bookstore with new books but the stock is used, and those that carry fine or collectible books (calling them a used bookstore is a bit like calling an antique store a used furniture store).  One of the attractions is the discounted price for everyone, but also the potential trade polices.  Many bookstores give credit for donated books that can be used to purchase other used books.  Some stores pay for used books, but those tend to be for collectible or rare books.  As I’ve wandered through the used bookstores, I’ve noticed that the owners are extremely knowledgeable about books, their stock, and what they see coming through.  They all knew the American Guide Series and gave me advice on how to collect them (avoid reprints), although none of them had any at the time.  I found these fun stores recently:

Newberry Books in Seattle, Washington is located in a basement store off Pioneer Square and is a finer used bookstore specializing in history, art and Asian studies.  The store just moved to this location, which is shoebox size, but lined with ceiling high bookshelves.  I had an interesting conversation with the owner about Amazon.  He receives a significant portion of his income selling via Amazon’s used book function.  In fact, I heard this over and over again as I talked to various owners, that used bookstores are surviving in part because of Amazon and selling through their site.  In the early years, when Amazon started in Seattle, Amazon was Newberry’s largest client because the buyer would call looking for books on a regular basis.  Now that Amazon has moved, the connection is lost and Newberry sells on the site like other used booksellers. 

Newberry’s business is largely Internet based.  Book agents and collectors used to visit used bookstore, but the Internet has changed the emphasis of collecting from the search to the acquisition.  Now book collectors (or any other collectors) do not need to travel from place to place searching for their obsession, they merely type in a search request on the Internet.  Call me old fashioned, but for me collecting is about the joy of finding something I’ve looked for, not typed for.

Columbia Booksellers and Stationers in Columbia, California is a small ‘Mom and Pop’ store in the Columbia State Historic Park.  My son, Kyle, and I were so attracted to it we went back three times throughout the day.  It is full of fun stuff, both historic and reproduction.  There are new books that special in history, especially California, the gold rush and the west and old used books covering the same topics.  The store sells stationery and school items (reproductions) from the 19th century, we had fun looking at the schoolbooks and slates.  Kyle found a complete set of The American Guide, not to be confused with the American Guide Series, a five volume set of books that describe regions of the United States published in 1949.  He convinced me to get it when he said we could look at it before we traveled to see how places have changed; sometimes he is very much my son.  I read the portion on Los Angeles:  “Los Angeles, like many American cities, suffers from traffic congestion which is considerably enhanced by [the] fact that there are no subways or other rapid transit facilities.  It is [a] city of magnificent distances in which one must have an auto to get around easily.”  Unfortunately, some things never change.

Items found in books over the years, what a hoot!

Capitol Hill Books in Denver, Colorado (you were thinking DC) is similar to an independent bookstore, but with used books.  The selection is diverse with an emphasis on international topics and authors.  In fact, Capitol Hill has the largest foreign language section I’ve seen so far in a used bookstore.  I noticed numerous Tom Robbins books and wondered if they had just received a large box from one source.  Not so, he’s just been a popular author and circulates through fairly regularly.  I’ve never read him, so I bought Still Life with Woodpecker  which was described as “campy” and very much his style.  The blurb on the back describes the book as a “sort of love story that takes place inside of a pack of Camel cigarettes.”  Hard to come up with a preconceived idea with that description.

Capitol Hill Books provides “bibliotherapy” a service to help the reader find the perfect good read (they were wonderful with me), or research a particular subject, or find the perfect book for the hard-to-please person, all with Denver’s largest database of used books.  They also pride themselves on being part of the community, welcoming everyone to the store and donating books to dozens of local charities.  Capitol Hill creates the atmosphere of a new independent bookstore, but the used bookstore prices.

  Village Book Exchange in San Clemente, California is largely comprised of mass paperbacks, but has a variety of other smaller sections also.  I enjoyed looking through the old cookbooks and the biblography section.  I was camping in the area and the campground map included an advertisement for Village Book Exchange.  Even though I arrived without showering all weekend and hair like straw, the clerk was lovely.  Most importantly, the bookstore is for sale, so if you’re looking for a life change and want to live in a sleepy California beach town, contact the owner.  She’s selling because her son lives in Portland and she is going to move there to join him.  In addition to used books, Village Book Exchange supplies the middle and high school kids with their required reading (some lucky English class must be reading Twelth Night, there is a shelf of them) and they provide one shelf of new books (any can be ordered) and on this particular weekend, a stack of Brisingr by Christopher Paolini, so my kids were thrilled. 

Newberry Books

214 First Avenue, South B10

Seattle, WA 98104

T:  206.518.5806

Columbia Booksellers and Stationers

Columbia State Historic Park, Franklin/Wolfe Building

22725 Main Street

Columbia, CA 95310-9401

Capitol Hill Books

300 E. Colfax

Denver, CO 80203

T:  303.837.0700

Village Book Exchange

99 Avenida Serra

San Clemente, CA

T:  949.492.1114