Upstair Used Books

Ditto previous comments: great place. Summer 2015 hours 2 – 5 pm daily. No phone, no website, no FB„ just inexpensive and well-​collected books.

A magical place! Great selection, wonderful atmosphere. Feels like being lost in the mind of a man who has read all his life.

Incredible prices, great location, and a selection of books that though not massive appears curated to please any serious reader. I found my experience there, from when I first entered, incomparable, mostly because of the proprietor, who truly lives up to the literary mystique of New Bedford.

We make an annual pilgrimage to see my family at the holidays but the real sacred space is Ira’s, which we never, ever miss. The other reviews have called the owner eccentric and quirky and both are entirely accurate. Ira shows up when he pleases, doesn’t use heat or lights or a phone line but he does have pair of sneakers with roosters painted on them! He also reads every book, magazine, and review that you wished you did and has a nose for excellent quality literature and scholarship. He is the classical polymath who can discuss most subjects with amazing knowledge and yet is a sweet, quirky guy with no pretenses. He just eschews much of the postmodern world. (Money has it that it will take months before he knows I wrote this.). Plus, he has a moral code when it comes to books and will not charge even nearly what they are worth. Ira could triple his prices and we would still buy from him, but he truly gets incensed by people and companies that charge too much for books. I don’t know if this is a protest against the excesses of capitalism or an ethos of inexpensive knowledge but he is actually apologetic when any gorgeous museum catalog with dozens of full color images is over eight or ten dollars. Visit, buy, and if you’re lucky you will hit a rooster shoe day.

This is quite possibly my favorite store ever. Ira is great and he basically curates the contents of the store in a way that ensures that I never leave without finding something really interesting.

Upstair Used Books is a quirky shop in downtown New Bedford, on the same floor as up /​stair /​fine /​art and Calico, next door to Spicy Lime. There is a wide selection of used books at low prices, and the owner (quite a character) is fun to talk to and very knowledgeable about his book selection. I’m not completely sure on the hours for the store, but it is usually open Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The shop is not normally open on AHA nights.