Obviously you can buy your new cookbooks in shops like B&N or support the small independent shops like Warwick but often you find the real gems in small used book stores. Which ones are your preferred ones (in particular for cookbooks but regular books are also interesting in San Diego). We recently discovered the newly opened Verbatim Book Store in North Park which has a small but very good selection with very good prices.
There used to be a used cookbook store in Kensington, sort of between Ponce’s and Clem’s Liquor store. I think it’s gone, tho’.
The Antiques Mall in OB has a HUGE used cookbook section in the middle of the store.
Goodwill has several used book shops around the county. The one in Del Cerro next to KnB has a lot of used cookbooks, displayed by category and well priced.
I realize it may go against the grain but Amazon is now my Go To source for almost all used books. I’ve gotten some in almost perfect condition for $.99 plus $3.99 shipping. I’m not aware of a used book store near me for price comparison but five bucks sounds good to me. Also… most public libraries (at least where I live) seem to have used books stores with reasonable pricing. I’ve donated plenty to them over the years.
Amazon is a good source if you know already which book you want to buy but you often find the real gems when just browing different books in a book shop and have the chance to look through all the pages. The “look inside” option on Amazon isn’t terrible helpful.
I agree. These days, for things like cookbooks or travel books, I use Amazon to get a quick look at candidates of interest, and then go to Barnes and Noble or Crown to check them out and (maybe) purchase. It’s risky to buy a book (like a cookbook or travel book) without flipping the pages. I’ve done that enough times with bad results to appreciate the existence of the remaining brick & mortar bookstores.
Wish I could contribute to your list – I don’t know of any small used bookstores for cookbooks.
Re Amazon… I usually buy books I’ve seen myself or which have come highly recommended/discussed/reviewed on sites I trust. At $5 vs more like $35-$50 I’m not really all that worried if I hit a dud once in a while.
Midlife’s library recommendation is actually pretty good. My mom lived about half a mile up the street from the San Carlos branch library. When we did the remodel on her house I took a ton of books up there to donatem including a bunch of cookbooks. That particular branch has, or at least used to have, a monthly (on a Saturday) book sale, sometimes more frequently depending upon how many books they had to move.