Used Bookstores

Hello dear Readers,

As I promised, here are the pictures and information I want to share with you about Used Bookstores in Costa Rica.

Downtown San Jose or "the Central Valley", is full of these kind of stores. Known as "Libreria de Libros Usados", a used bookstore can be the perfect place for treasure hunt or simply to take a look around. This time I visited two stores: Libreria Luna and Libreria Libro Azul, both located in downtown San Jose. Links down below for more information.

Every time I visit a used book store, it is like stepping back in time. Do not know about other countries but here in Costa Rica, most of these stores are located in old buildings and because they have really old books, you can smell the oldness of it and see it. Very old books, with their yellow pages, but also others classify as "used" but because of their condition, they look like new ones.

Not more important than the book itself but another benefit of buying used books is you can find them at a cheap and good prices and even better when you find one of the ones that look like new at a cheap price, right there, you get a really good deal.

Another interesting thing about the stores, the owners take used books you have at home or you do not want anymore. You can either get money for them or you can exchange the books you do not want for books you do want, as long as they have the ones you want at the store.

From costa rican text books for school to English literature. You will find used books in English almost in every used bookstore.

Another item is very common to find at a used book store are magazines. One of the stores I visited, they had a vast selection of National Geographic from the 90's. Time Magazine, and also newer numbers of  People Magazine. 

In my case, I was looking for costa rican books. Specific books written by Costa Rican Authors. Some of them books that I read in High School and I wanted to own and re-read them. Its very interesting the titles you can find at a Used Bookstore. And is also interesting to see the demand that some books have. For example, great sagas and trilogies: The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games and books like The Hobbit and how we can forget Harry Potter, very popular books among readers.

For some people visiting a Used Bookstore is an interesting and fun thing to do but for other people, they represent the only way the can buy and get books because of the low cost and also what I mentioned before, in some cases, why to go to the regular bookstore and pay $30 for a paper back when you can possibly find the same title, used but in a decent condition, for $8 or $10. These are prices for books recently published or consider popular but you can also find books which its price can be $1 or less. I found the Spanish version of "Just one day" by Gale Forman, in a pretty good shape, at $7, you cannot tell is used.

Nothing compares to the feeling of being in a used bookstore and find, touch, and smell books that for example were published before you were born or books that were part of people's lives for years but for different reasons, they ended up in a Used Bookstore. All the stories, all the memories these books represent. Its interesting to think about how many people own a specific book through the years. We cannot forget that the same people getting used books today, can go back to the same or a different store years later and sell or exchange that book, Then, that same book can have a different owner. This does not always happen but it does happen sometimes.

Used bookstores. They do not always look good or pretty as the regular and bigger bookstores but inside, they keep treasures that can always put a smile on our faces: books, books and more books

Libreria Libro Azul

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Libreria-libro-azul/189546691168129

Wen.