(Used) Books in New Haven

An anonymous but loyal commenter asked about where to buy used books in the Have’. I like you guys already and I haven't even met most of you! The first two semi-jokey suggestions that come to mind are

(1) the lobby of the Div School
(seriously, out of the stack above, which lives on my bedside table, only the top three are not free books from the Div School... and the bottom one, which is an art monograph)

and

(2) New York City.

Uhm, yeah. I used to live in Chicago and be all over Powell’s books, but that was when I had free time to read non-required literature and all this extra income I spent on fun things (like first editions of Bradbury!). Le sigh. But if

(1) it’s not the end of the semester

or

(2) you don’t feel like paying $28 round-trip to browse at The Strand...

Well, we need to come up with some better suggestions.

Sadly, I think my one and only walking-distance recommendation is the Book Trader Café (They have their own website, but Google is telling me that it might have some spambot program attached to it. Since this is the first time I’ve ever gotten this message, I’m going to take it seriously. Google at your own risk, folks.) I love the Book Trader as a café and a bookstore; I conduct all of my alumni interviews for my college there, and usually walk out with something tasty.

If you’ve got a car, you can also check out Books & Co., a short drive up Whitney Avenue. (They appear not to have their own website, or even a blog.) I asked my friend Sean, who smokes a pipe and seems like he should know about things like this, and he wrote the following:

"... It's not a bad store, and has what those kinds of used bookstores usually do; paperbacks of bygone bestsellers, the kind of stuff Connecticut housewives bring in when the neuroses have eaten away at their minds and it's time to "get rid of all of this stuff." Occasionally you find something quality; I got a hardcover Eaton de Valera biography for like six bucks there once. And their poetry section actually isn't half bad.

Which part of Mexico are you from?
Paraguay."

(That last bit is a line from Bottle Rocket, which we watched together recently.)

In the non-used world, book fans should definitely check out Labyrinth Books as well – they sell most of their books for 50-80% off of list price, so it’s as cheap as buying used. Atticus Books also has a great café for lunch and lots of fantabulous stationery.

And if you’re really just trying to accumulate as many books in your apartment as possible, we do have a library or three.

-Kate