Key West Island Bookstore — Local services in Key West

A peaceful place to discuss books at leisure with friends and the owner! Collection is an exciting mix of bestsellers, classics, antique books and more.

Some books are not as cheap as you might find online. If price is your sole concern, you'd be well served by attending a local library where you can borrow books for free. I still do this as a supplement to my bookstore browsing/shopping. It seems some negative reviews are quite subjective, merely discussing dollars and cents.

Local bookstores foster independent thought and scholarly discussion; a chance to understand those who are not like us. Nowadays it's too often that local bookstores fold in the presence of the "online" megastores. But those megastores, do they come to our town, support local authors? Create safe spaces for ideas? Food for thought for readers...

I've been shopping at this bookstore for many years, and the ownership recently changed. I went in a couple of weeks ago to buy Book 1 of a series, and Books 2 and 3 were on the shelf, all new. I went in today to buy Book 2. It was the only copy left, and was very clearly battered and used. I asked the owner about the price, and she said it was a new book. I told her the book clearly looked used. She said no, we just got that book in this week, and in the humidity the covers curl like that - it is a new book.

So, she lied right to my face. Plus, she offers very little for your used books - far less than the previous owner.

Time for me to find...

My son and I visited Key West Island Bookstore because he wanted to spend his birthday money and loves books. It was our first time visiting. I tried to find books he'd be interested in but had no success. However, I did find one for myself. I told the woman that was ringing me up what he was interested in and she took him around the store and he came back with 3 books in less than 5 minutes. She knew exactly where to take him and what to show him. I was very impressed with the customer service and the time she took with my son. It's been 3 months since our visit and he still carries the books with him daily even though he knows ever car fact that is...