Bell's Books — Attraction in Palo Alto

Absolutely marvelous, this independent bookstore in Palo Alto has a neat little history to it mentioned on their website, which piqued my interest to visit this place.

While they aren’t a huge store, they pack a solid collection in the space that they have. They also have first signed editions of classics, and other books too. Those books aren’t exactly cheap, and understandably so.

Coming to the bookstore design, they’re spread out across two floors, the second floor accessible via a small set of stairs. They’ve the check-out counter right at the entrance, and the staff manning those counters are quite friendly and well-read. They’ve new arrivals and recommendations in the front section of the first floor. Race is something I think everything should be reading about, so I was glad to see tables dedicated to books on race. On the side walls in the front section of the first floor, they’ve classics, best sellers, children’s books, among other things such as cups and other literary items. They also have long ladders which are propped against the side walls to reach the higher sections of those walls. Quite old school, I liked it!

At the back of the store on the first floor, they’ve fiction on one side and science and sports on the other. Their fiction collection is also quite amazing, carefully curated for fiction fans like me.

On the second floor, at the back they’ve an entire section dedicated to history—Western Europe, Northern Europe, Asia, ancient Egypt, just some of the regions and the history books associated with them. There are quite a few books on other areas such as philosophy, religion, mystery, literary biographies, science fiction, translated fiction, mountaineering, animals, antiques and local interest on this floor as well.

The view from the second floor is also worth checking out.

Independent bookstores like these keep me coming back to bookstores, to get a feel for what it means to be among books and helpful people, a close-knit community where everyone is welcome. Support your independent bookstores, go visit Bell’s.

I got a cup with a typewriter and a Margaret Atwood quote on it about all of us becoming stories in the end, quite a find!

The bookstore is located in downtown Palo Alto and is quite conspicuous. In case you’re looking for parking, there’s a parking lot with free parking(for 2-3 hours) right in front of the bookstore.

I’ll be back here soon. Thank you...

I have not shopped here, but I have tried to sell them my own books. It was not a good experience, particularly with regard to communication. First, they were very difficult to schedule- it took months of back and forth. From what I can tell, many boomers are getting rid of their books, and there is just too much supply relative to the demand. Perhaps this makes them very picky, which they were not upfront about at the beginning. After putting in a decent amount of effort to organize the books, and meet them at my house, they looked at perhaps half of them, and offered to buy almost nothing- only one very high value item. We have 100s of very nice books of all genres in good condition, so it was not a case of this being a ratty collection. Throughout our experience, we suffered to understand their process, their interest, their intent....until we ended up with no deal. It was almost as if they weren't serious about doing a deal at all. If you are considering how to dispose of your large collection of nice books, I would use caution with Bells and put your time and effort into...

I am not from Palo Alto so the last time I was there was fall 2018. I am so saddened by the gradual loss of bookstores. PA used to have I think a dozen or more in the 1990s -- is it possible that Bell's is the last near University? There is the Books Inc in Town and Country which is very nice but nothing quite compares to a used bookstore especially a nice one like Bell's. I am hoping Bell's remains forever and I certainly will continue to make a point of purchasing there when I am nearby. Things disappear -- I recall the Bijou Theater -- it turns out that is now the Gordon Biersch (IIRC). Movie theaters are another thing I miss. Of course, now many restaurants I have been eating at for decades are permanently closed. This is our history -- let's try to help such...