Bibliomania: A Guide to Used-Book Stores in Northern Virginia

Bibliomania

A Guide to Used-Book Stores in Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia’s used-book stores offer bibliophiles many ways to indulge their passion. This guide points book lovers in the right direction to find the book they want or the browsing atmosphere that suits their mood. Rare book collectors and comic book addicts alike—and every kind of aficionado of the printed page in between—can find the object of their desire in one of these establishments.

The guide indicates booksellers’ specializations, hours, availability of parking, access to public transportation, special events, and more.

Key Free parking available Paid parking available Accessible by public transportation Buys and/or trades books

1

Reston’s Used Book Shop

RUBS, on the plaza facing Lake Anne, is a home away from home for its loyal customers—a community center that hosts a monthly book club and occasional author readings and music performances. It has a large children’s section made inviting by rugs and child-sized chairs. Its organization tends to the quixotic, but who can resist perusing a shelf labeled “Good Reading”?

Phone and Location 703-435-9772 1623 Washington Plaza, Reston

Hours Apr–Oct: Mo–We 10–7, Th–Sa 10–9, Su 12–7 Nov–Mar: Mo 10–6, Tu–Sa 10–7, Su 12–5

2

Claude Moore Colonial Farm Book Shop

The proceeds from this shop support the educational programs of a living history museum in a privately run national park. Its unprepossessing entrance belies a richness of offerings inside: first editions and rare volumes, as well as sheet music and vinyl records. It specializes in history and politics and has an unusually large espionage section—thanks to donations from staff of the park’s neighbor across the narrow, shaded lane—CIA headquarters.

Phone and Location 703-442-7557 6310 Georgetown Pike, McLean

Hours Feb 4–Dec 19: We–Sa 12–7; closed Dec 20–Feb 3

3

Hole in the Wall Books

This old house in Falls Church is packed to the rafters with a wide variety of well-organized books. It has a very extensive science fiction and fantasy section, as well as fantasy games. It also has an impressive collection of comic books and graphic novels. The organizing principles are not obvious at first, but the owner is friendly and helpful.

Phone and Location 703-536-2511 905 W Broad St., Falls Church

Hours Mo–Fr 10–8, Sa–Su 10–6

4

Bookhouse

This old frame house on a residential street in Arlington is home to rare and antique books; the store specializes in history of the United States and other countries. Don’t look for run-of-the-mill beach reading or paperbacks—this is strictly antiquarian.

The store has been run for 45 years by an octogenarian who is looking to sell the whole kit and caboodle, including outbuildings storing as many books as are displayed in the main house.

Phone and Location 703-527-7797 805 N. Emerson St., Arlington

Hours Tu–Su 1–6

5

Already Read Used Books

This store has no specialty, but a lot of books.

Organizing principles have given way to the pell-mell piling of bags and boxes of books, so rummaging is the only way to find anything, but may be made difficult by the man asleep on a pallet of grimy blankets in the last aisle. The man who greets customers at 8 o’clock on a weeknight may nod off midquestion. Four fat tabby cats regard the interloper—the customer—with insolence. Not for the faint of heart.

Phone and Location 703-299-8406 2501 Duke St., Alexandria

Hours Mo–Fr 11–9, Sa 10–9, Su & holidays 12–6

6

Book Bank

Located in Old Town Alexandria near the King Street Metro stop, Book Bank is a small store with equal amounts of fiction and nonfiction and a small selection of children’s books. They have a special shelf for current-year releases.

Phone and Location 703-838-3620 1510 King St., (Old Town) Alexandria

Hours Sep–Apr: Su–Th 11–6, Fr–Sa 11–7 May–Aug: Daily 11–8

7

C&W Used Books

C&W is a huge store in an exurban shopping megacenter. It is an organizer’s paradise. Aisle upon aisle and row upon row and custom-made shelf upon custom-made shelf of neatly stacked books of every variety, intelligently organized, beautifully aligned.

This is where the reader of trashy romance novels will find her bliss.

Phone and Location 703-492-7323 14583 Potomac Mills Rd., Woodbridge

Hours Mo–Sa 10–9, Su 11-6

8

Prospero’s Books

Located in Old Town Manassas, Prospero’s has a wide, well-organized selection of history, politics, and fiction. It specializes in rare and antique books on history, especially the Civil War, and has an extensive collection of maps and prints, but it is not too high brow to maintain shelf upon shelf of popular fiction in paperback. Its home is an antique-decorated 1911 building with tin ceilings that some say is haunted.

Phone and Location 703-257-7895 9129 Center St., Manassas

Hours Mo–Tu 12–6, We–Fr 10–7, Sa 10–8, Su 12–6

1 Reston

2 237

McLean Washington, D.C.

28

3 Falls Church

4 Arlington

5 6

28

Alexandria

8

Manassas

Scale

5 miles

7

Woodbridge

Copyright 2015 © Andrea Heggen