Autumn Leaves Used Bookstore

I arrived in town late in the day and discovered many of the stores located on the Commons close up at 6pm. I was delighted to discover this gem was opened until 8pm featuring rows upon rows of reading material. It was easy to pass time and get lost in the wide variety of genres. I didn’t visit the café upstairs, but it seemed popular. I picked up a great selection of new and classics for a great price. Highly recommend!

Each Autumn Leaves visit, I have arrived hopeful and left disappointed.
It isn’t just that I’ve never found what I’m looking for — that’s to be expected in a used book store. It’s that I’ve never found anything I wasn’t looking for either — which runs counter to the magic of a used bookstore. I’ve come to realize this place just doesn’t have any magic. :(
To be blunt, the space is cluttered with fliers and free newspapers, the lighting is dingy, and the shopkeepers don’t smile. The shelves — while well-​organized — are dusty. Upstairs, the café is cavernous and quiet, but you’re greeted with a threatening sign about not bringing in any outside food. Downstairs, the record collection’s low ceilings and musty basement smell discourage leisurely browsing. The whole place lacks a certain coziness.
I’m grateful for the existence of used book shops, but this one really could use a facelift.

We stopped in over the weekend. It was our first visit. Autumn Leaves is very clean and well-​organized. And they have a reasonably good selection. If the books you read tend to be more academic than popular, you might like the selection even more. Personally, I was pleased to see so many books published by university or other academic presses but didn’t purchase any because their social science selection is underwhelming. Also, the prices are decent but not outstanding; they are basically consistent with other used book stores in the area.
If you’re in Ithaca and looking for discount books but don’t want to shop Amazon, Autumn Leaves is worth a try.

Giving less than 5 stars to a used book store is almost sacrilegious for this particular bookworm. But I just did not care for this store! Most used bookstores have friendly proprietors or at least employees who love greeting visitors. We were never greeted here, not even when we passed by on our way out.
That wasn’t what really incensed me, however. What got me going was the prices. Some paperbacks in good but obviously used condition were priced at $ 8. I saw nothing for less than $ 4. I can’t imagine what justifies an $ 8 used paperback. I can buy that for $.25 online. One book had a Goodwill price on the back of $ 2 and yet this store had marked it up to $ 6. Look, I get you need to make a profit, but don’t insult me!
Insulted bookworm gives 2 stars.

The store has a moderately good selection of used books. However, do NOT go there to sell your own used books. I took 2 large bags there, and they decided to buy about 5, because they didn’t think they could sell the others. Fair enough. I then asked what they would do with the rest. They said that they would sell them for a dollar, by putting them on shelves outside the store. Although they had said they would not be able to sell them (which is why they couldn’t buy them from me), they then in the same breath said that they would indeed be selling them. That was lie number one. However, I did not complain, because I feel that it’s good for books to have a second life.
I went to the story a few days later and saw, on the standard shelves, inside the store, the very books they had said they could not buy them from me, because they would not be able to sell them. And yet, there they were and marked for considerably more than $ 1.00. That was lie number 2. How do I know the books were mine? Because sometimes, when I need to write something down and have no access to paper, I write it down on the last few (blank) pages of the book I’m reading. And, indeed, there were my notes on the last few pages of the books.
I really do not like liars. If you need to sell scholarly books, go to The Bookery in the DeWitt Mall. In addition, there are two other large used book stores on Route 13. The additional benefit is that the owners don’t lie.

This place is wonderful. I love walking in here and going straight to the science fiction section. Such good varieties, and the workers there are pretty helpful too. Used books are the way to go and this place is a perfect example

I love browsing their $ 1 rack when it’s nice outside. Wonderful store.

An inspiring coworker once told me: «You are the same person day to day except for the people you meet and the books you read.» Every person who has changed the world in some meaningful has been a voracious reader.
I won’t lie. I like Netflix and it’s easier to mindlessly binge watch Breaking Bad than engage with Dostoevsky. Reading is hard, blah blah. However, I was compelled… my spirit was pulled into this store to try and find Charles Lindbergh’s «Spirit of St. Louis,» an autobiographical account of his epic NYC to France flight.
So I asked the man working behind the counter if they had it. They don’t have an inventory (being a used bookstore and all), but he recommended what sections to peruse through. In the Travel section, I did not find Lindbergh’s book — but I did find a book written on Yosemite which I picked up (for $ 5!) since I’ll be exploring the park in a few weeks and figured that reading up on it may help me appreciate it more.
Upstairs was the biography section, along with a neat looking café inside the bookstore (as well as a desktop computer where someone was playing some first person shoot video game — what?!). I didn’t find the book I initially came out to find, but walked away with David McCullough’s biography of the Wright Brothers. I finished this book in mere days over the extended weekend and couldn’t put it down.
This used book store is… as the young hip kids (who are not me) may call it: «the bees knees.» The reasons are simple:
1) Open layout, intelligently organized — multiple floors!
2) Helpful staff, a café on the 2^nd floor… and a desktop computer where you can play video games (what?!)
3) Books are in great condition. Pricing is very fair. I picked up a $ 30 practically new hardcover book by an award winning author for $ 15 and my Yosemite book was only $ 5. It didn’t have a price on it, so the cashier offered it for $ 5. That works! Oh and the book store accept credit cards! Woo hoo.
The only suggestion may be to invest time in building an actual inventory of all the titles, but I understand that might not be practical for a used bookstore with as many titles as this one. If you find yourself in Ithaca, love books — you really need to stop in here!

little gem in Ithaca. This is a great bookstore with new and used books. They have lots of sales going on too. I think in the second floor they have a little café, I never been upstairs but you can see it once you walk inside. In the back they have a child section where you can pick books for your child and also sit down and read to them. Very nice !

This is always my first spot to visit when I’m at Ithaca Commons. They have a fairly well organized selection of a wide variety of books, plus additional «Thrill of the Hunt» specials and discounts in bargain bins. Similar to used bookstores in other communities with a large college presence (e.g., New Paltz, Saratoga Springs), you can find everything from homeopathy to rocket science, music, gardening, etc. Today I found a book for which I had been searching for months having had no luck at larger bookstores (new and used) and even my local libraries. Upstairs holds the café and the Biography section, music is downstairs. The staff is on a first-​name basis with the local customers, but they don’t treat the out-​of-​town visitors any differently.

This is purely about selling books because other reviews cover buying books.
I huffed it here with 28 of my best books (several pristine hardcovers) to sell, a broad array of both mainstream and unique novels and subjects. He quietly took all my books out of the box and then offered a grand total of $ 1 for my «pocket US Constitution.» I accepted and walked out the door with all my books, and my crisp $ 1. It was actually a net loss because I had to pay the parking structure.
Guess I’ll turn to eBay.

Great place to browse for books. In particular I like their fiction and science-​fiction/​fantasy sections. I sometimes come across great finds in the poetry section as well (I like a lot of the newer, kind-​of-​experimental poets, whose books are very hard to find in used — or new for that matter — bookstores).
They also buy used books, and a couple times of year I bring in a couple boxes to bump up the balance on my in-​store credit. They’re a bit picky (they want clean copies of authors who are going to sell, and are NOT interested in buying hard cover books). But I haven’t paid cash here for a used book for years — I’m lucky because it seems they particularly like to buy the kind of books I read.
Someone else mentioned bad parking — since the store is on the Commons, it’s the same deal as other Commons stores. There are several parking garages within a block or two, which charge sometimes like $ 1 an hour, and metered on-​street parking all around the Commons. Now, if you think you can find your book in less than 15 minutes, you can risk parking in one of the «15 Minute» zones on either side of Green St in front of the Public Library, but don’t linger if you do that or you will get a ticket. (These 15 min loading zones are essential if you’re bringing them in a couple heavy boxes of books to sell!)

They had several great books I can’t even find at Barnes & Noble

This bookstore is great for finding quirky, one-​of-​a-​kind books for super cheap prices, but I mostly go here for the café upstairs. It’s a great area to study without distractions (via the internet), and I love their hot apple cider.

My partner and I were visiting Ithaca for a day, and, knowing Ithaca’s reputation for used bookstores, spent a good portion of our day’s wanderings perusing different «book barns.» We stopped into Autumn Leaves while waiting to eat dinner, and easily spent a good hour browsing through the selection of political science, cultural studies, cultural criticism, and even the Youth Literature sections. We were impressed with the organization of this bookstore compared to some others we’d seen that day, and I also appreciated the bright lighting and ample comfy seating. The store manager was nice and amiable, and we felt comfortable hanging out and reading while we tried to kill time. We didn’t even realize there was an upstairs until much later, because the first floor was so absorbing.
My partner finally found the Angela Davis book he’d been trying to find all day. I dunno if that speaks to Autumn Leaves’ selection or their organization, but either way, we liked it!

The books are well organized, it’s nice that there is a café upstairs, and the records section in the basement is amazing.
The only problem is the selection isn’t always fantastic because you have to rely on other people’s book choices that they sell back.
The clearance carts in front of the store are always good for some cheap finds though.

This is a hippie café located on the second floor of a used bookshop on the Ithaca Commons. While they do offer vegan bacon and seitan, their sandwich/​panini choices looked really dull and it wasn’t clear to me that they could do quality vegan versions of their egg-​fish-​and-​cheese-​heavy standards. The café is pretty basic.
Unfortunately, they don’t offer vegan breakfast sandwiches or even the option to substitute tofu for egg in many of their sandwiches and dishes, which seemed surprising to me, given that they do offer seitan and vegan bacon.
I did get a vegan cookie from them ($ 2.70 with tax) which was pretty dry, hard and not terribly tasty.
While I enjoy the vibe at this place, it’s currently not up to snuff. Add some vegan breakfast sandwiches, veganaise and egg substitutions and I might come back.

I really admire multi-​use spaces, and Autumn Leaves does well at offering a variety. It not only has a basement vinyl room, Angry Mom Records… see my comprehensive/​infatuated love note review of it., in addition to the main bookstore floor, but also has an upstairs café with a great study area & accessible plugs/​free wifi, and upstairs meeting space for a workers collective? Rad!
I’ve found some great social studies/​critical theory/​cultural studies books here at great reasonable prices, and I’ve only been in 3 times.
This place is a gem.

This is a wonderful used bookstore, one of the best I’ve been in. Their selection is constantly changing. I’ve gone in looking for one particular book, not finding it but finding others that I wanted to read. I go back a week later and the first book I was looking for… yeah, they had two copies.
It’s on the Ithaca Commons, so it’s relatively quiet. There is an amazing collection of LP’s available downstairs, the entire basement is full of LP’s. There is a café upstairs (i never used it) and there are still more books up there. The staff is great, very helpful, very knowledgeable. They even have rare, out of print, signed books!

I like this bookstore and I like many of the choices made by its owner, Joe. There is tons of space, with new books out on the carts when they come in. Sections are clearly labeled and the staff know their books. The upstairs café is a really nice, relatively quiet, laid-​back space for actually talking, eating, reading, or working on your laptop.
The store hosts an ATM machine for the local credit union — and this machine charges no fees for any user (although your bank may still charge you), and you can make credit union deposits at this location.
A substantial part of the upstairs real estate has been set aside for progressive community organizations for office space, meetings, trainings, etc.