Symposia Bookstore

Located on 510 Washington St. you will find this gem of a place that takes used books donations and sells mind blowing titles for extremely bargained prices. This is a palace of used books and if you are a book hunting connoisseur you need to make you way out here to view the staggering amazing book collection. The service is beyond excellent and I will look forward to coming here as a repeated customer. The employees here know their books and are willing to go above and beyond. This bookstore is quite the catch so if you have any lingering books that are sitting untouched bring them over here to donate! Let’s support local businesses and keep bookstores alive. Support your local bookstore! Symposia deserves it and so much more.

Since I have a CD player in my car I love playing CD’s and Symposia has a great selection of oldies but goodies. I’ve been listening to Lauryn Hill’s ‘miseducation’ album for weeks and I love it. It’s 2 CDs for a dollar = great deal. Today I picked up Carlos Santana and Annie Lenox. Wonderful variety of books too that are very gently used. And saw great puppet class for kids.

Positive experience both buying books and at the children’s puppet show. Friendly staff and a varied selection of books. Small space but lots of choice. May want to check on class/​show timing to make sure your purchase time doesn’t fall at the same time.

I think the staff here is volunteer, so they get a pass on seeming uninterested/​unknowledgeable. They have a ton of used book and they are normally around $ 5 or some other equally affordable price.
Apparently Tuesday nights the place is closed for yoga…

Donations only. No trade-​ins or buy backs.

I stumbled upon this book store when my companions and I were waiting to eat at Stacks (which would be a great name for a book store as well, now that i’m thinking of it).
They had an array of fiction and self help out front. Several titles caught my attention. Most books were about $ 5 and all in good condition. I settled on 2 titles I picked up from the sidewalk display and then went inside to ask about a Burroughs book that I hadn’t read yet (might as well get an older book at a cheaper price, right?).
The people operating the store were helpful although subdued. I can see why a previous reviewer would perceive them as unfriendly though.
I asked if they took cards and they did not, so I had to put back the 2 sidewalk titles. Oh well. Stores like this are pretty rare these days so, can’t be too mad about the cash only rule.
I paid with the only cash I had on hand and walked out with a new/​used book to read. I found exactly what I wanted and I plan to be back to check out the fairly large selection the next time I am in Hoboken.

I disagree about the staff being unfriendly. The owners operate this store as a true community service and they’re a wonderful couple. In addition, they have a devoted crew of volunteer workers.

Unfriendly staff, and not a great selection of books. All used fiction is $ 5, but all books (especially used books) are not equal. With Barnes & Noble out of business, Hoboken could use a really solid, friendly used bookstore/​café.

Great used bookstore with clearly organized categories of books. Variation of categories, books at great prices.