Book Alley — Attraction in Pasadena

I really enjoy visiting Book Alley. It has been part of Pasadena in one way or another for over 30 years now. Pasadena has a long history of used book stores with a diverse stock of titles. While I have watched many of them go away in the last decade I am happy to see Book Alley hang on.

A good used book store helps you see what a community has been reading and treasureing for years as it moves from the residents' shelves back into the Great Material Continuum through the store. I can see a reflection of Caltech in the shelves of the Science and Math sectional. To find a copy of any of the books by Landau & Lifshitz (beloved physics tomes of a certain age) in a used bookstore is a bit usual, But I found several the other day when I was in Book Alley.

When running a used book store you have to do a lot of culling and curating of the collection on offer. I went in looking for some fairly common titles by Douglas Adams and Neal Stephenson to give to a friend who has become house bound. I came away with only one of those titles but several more interesting titles for my collection. So if you are looking for common titles, try any of the online stores. But if you want something interesting you probably didn't expect, actually venture across the threshold of the door into an actual bookstore filled with actual books with actual written thoughts and images printed on actual paper. You might find it quite refreshing in an age of PDFs on screens.

I also like that the humor and religion sections are next to each other. What a wise decision that was. If it was an accident, please...

I love old books and have sold and donated my books to wonderful places, such as the former Brand Books in Glendale., and have purchased from Book Alley. Like others forced out of Pasadena by skyrocketing rents I needed to lessen my load when I moved and so brought boxes of heavy coffee table books and others I bought new years ago. The young manager could tell I needed to get rid of them and was quick to take advantage, grabbing stuff I knew was valuable -- offering me only $40 !!! -- and then actually had the audacity to suggest that I "donate" the rest to him, much as he donates bad will. These are arrogant, lowly predatory people -- the type who revel in the gentrification of the City. We lost good decent people running businesses such as Cliff's books and Bungalow News, only to be...

Well I must say when it comes to selection they definitely have it all but I went there to sell movies and books and they ripped me off! I should have gone somewhere else I didn't even get $0.25 per brand new DVD or brand new hardcover book! Yet these were worth much more the owner just wanted to throw as little money as he could and get as much stuff as he could possibly get. This store eBay's a lot of stuff so if you go to sell your stuff there you're going to get the lowest price and he's going to resell it for 10 times what he gives you at least. I must have had over 200 DVDs and books and I think he gave me $40! Next time I will eBay it or put it on Let Go. If you want Records books DVDs he does have it all but I don't approve of the methods that are used to...