faq:used bookstores in the tampa bay area

March 4, 2008 at 6:24 pm | In Bookstores, Books, Tampa Bay Area, FAQ |

Dear Tampa Book Buzz:

I’m planning to visit the Tampa/St. Petersburg area in a few weeks. I absolutely love going to used book stores. My biggest interests are in older American history and biography titles.

What book stores in your area would you recommend my visiting? Which are the two or three best ones? Your advice would be most appreciated.

Dear Reader:

The largest and most well-known used bookstore is Haslam’s in St. Pete. It’s been run by the same family for three generations and has even become a tourist attraction in the Bay area. The Old Tampa Book Company , in downtown Tampa, specializes in rare, hard-to-find and out-of-print books.

Those are the most well-known — and biggest — local used bookstores, but there are plenty of others in various neighborhoods in the Bay area. Used bookstores that have websites (that I know of) include The Book Swap in Carrollwood, Zbookz Bookstore in St. Pete and Book Bank USA in Largo.

Hope this helps.

Local book lovers — Please let me know what else should be listed here. Post a comment with your answers to this question.

(This post has been added to the FAQ page.)

3 Comments »

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  1. As someone who used to frequent Haslam’s back in the day when it was much smaller, darker, cramped and Mister Haslam himself turned me on to great classic mystery writers, I must say that these days Haslam’s is a pale version of its former glory.
    The center of the store is filled with low carb food or some such nonsense. If memory serves me correct they used to even have a freezer there. What?!
    That, combined with my pet peeve that they charge way too much for used books, really makes me hold my nose if I have to shop there.

    My current favorite is Jeff Morris, who’s been running Wilson’s Book World on 9th Avenue, just north of 22nd Street North in St Pete for over 25 years.
    Here’s a link:

    http://tinyurl.com/29a47n

    - Bill

    Comment by William Mize — March 6, 2008 #

  2. This comment was left on another post:

    TO THE USED BOOK STORE QUESTION
    Hi,
    Just FYI, there is a book signing at a used book store in Spring Hill, called the Book Fair on Cass circle, near 19. It is Saturday, March 8th, from 12-3, and there will be local authors there, including some who wrote about the local area, like Weeki Watchie, and the surrounding area, for those of you looking for history. The Book Fair also sells some new books as well.
    B. Erin Wylde

    Comment by tampabookbuzz — March 19, 2008 #

  3. Thank you both for the additional information!

    Comment by tampabookbuzz — March 19, 2008 #

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