Used Bookstores in Nova? (Chantilly, Woodbridge: shops, locations, driving)

[michgc]

Also, a lot of the Fairfax County libraries will have their used book sales in the fall. They are great! https://va.evanced.info/fairfaxcount...ivate=0&ln=ALL

Also, in Montgomery County the Friends of the Library there operate 3 bookstores - one in Gaithersburg, one in Rockville, and one in Wheaton. Those are very good, too.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by michgc

Also, a lot of the Fairfax County libraries will have their used book sales in the fall. They are great! https://va.evanced.info/fairfaxcount...ivate=0&ln=ALL

Also, in Montgomery County the Friends of the Library there operate 3 bookstores - one in Gaithersburg, one in Rockville, and one in Wheaton. Those are very good, too.

arlington public library has a most excellent sale.

[michgc]

Originally Posted by brooklynborndad

arlington public library has a most excellent sale.

Ooh, good to know. I've never been to one there. Any specific library? Also, there is the AAUW (American Association of University Women) sale at the McLean Community Center in September that is very good.

[Flamingo13]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

Already Read on Duke in Alexandria is overpriced. They have some interesting stuff, but they charge, like, four or five times what you'd have to pay for it elsewhere (online or brick-and-mortar). Love the owner's cats, though.

Is that the place along the service road (across from the animal hospital?) - I keep saying I want to to in but now that I know they are overpriced....

[Alicia Bradley]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

Is that the place along the service road (across from the animal hospital?) - I keep saying I want to to in but now that I know they are overpriced....

Yep, that's the one! The shop has got a nice vibe, but I was shocked that they were in some cases charging ~95% of original retail for run-of-the-mill used hardcover fiction. I bought a couple things just to be supporting a local business, but still... There are cheaper places around to get similar used books!

[Carlingtonian]

There is a HUGE used-book store in Rockville, on Parklawn, right down the street from the FDA: Second Story Books. Not too bad a drive on a weekend.

Arlington Central Library on North Quincy in Ballston (exit 71 from I-66) has the booksale every year.

Goodwill actually has a lot of used books, just not that well organized.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by michgc

Ooh, good to know. I've never been to one there. Any specific library? Also, there is the AAUW (American Association of University Women) sale at the McLean Community Center in September that is very good.

The main branch in Ballston is what I was thinking of.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

There is a HUGE used-book store in Rockville, on Parklawn, right down the street from the FDA: Second Story Books. Not too bad a drive on a weekend.

Their location in Dupont Circle is at least as convenient from many parts of NoVa, and is driveable on the weekend if you are sharp eyed about looking for parking spots. Plus its a nice area to walk around.

[persnicketygal]

Oct. 20-23 is the next Arlington library book sale (in the parking garage at the Central Library). Go early.

In Fairfax County, each library seems to have their own "friends" volunteer group that holds its own book sale.

But the George Mason branch library, off Little River Turnpike in Annandale, has its next big sale Sept. 22-25. The last day is half-price day. I didn't go to the last one; I had too many books in my own home to get through and a twice-as-long list of books that are available in the libraries. But I understand donations have tapered off over the past few years, I guess because some people were economizing and not buying books that would then be donated.

I have found the AAUW sale in McLean to be very poorly organized, and it's location was cramped (tight parking, inside tables too close together, more books in boxes under the tables than atop them). I picked up a few things and then just had to get out of there. It attracts a lot more dealers than I've seen at the local library branch sales.

(PS: I love our local book sales, but I have found nothing comes close to when I was living in Chicago and the local Brandeis University women's alumni chapter held a 2-week book sale in Skokie every summer.
Get this: An average of 400,000 books. Really. Almost everyone had their 'old people' grocery carts, pull-along luggage carriers stacked high with milk crates to take home their finds. It was amazing, as were the folks who manned the cash registers--I never got caught in a huge line. I understand the organizers ended it a few years back because they were getting older and couldn't do the work anymore. A shame; it was a great thing for readers and reaped a lot of money for the university. I see some Web mentions, tho, that the D.C.-area Brandeis women's association chapter might have done--or still do -- a sale in Bethesda?)

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

Already Read on Duke in Alexandria is overpriced. They have some interesting stuff, but they charge, like, four or five times what you'd have to pay for it elsewhere (online or brick-and-mortar). Love the owner's cats, though.

What is it about bookstores that have great cats--I always seem to find wonderful books there that I never see anywhere else, and a lot of time it happens because I stop to pet the cat and the cat is lying next to some interesting book.