Haslam’s Book Store

Realizing you’ve forgotten to bring a novel with you on a long trip is a horrible, sinking feeling. A panicky kind of feeling. So imagine my delight at finding a pamphlet in my hotel lobby for a place claiming to be one of the nation’s best used bookstores! My husband and I loaded up the kids and drove the whole gang out to St. Petersburg.
Cool neighborhood, very artsy, fun murals on nearby buildings. But I had mixed feelings about Haslam’s itself. I couldn’t stand the new and used books being mixed together — it was very confusing. If I hadn’t been on a tight budget, I would’ve just gone to Barnes and Nobles, and finding books I could afford here was kind of difficult. Also this is definitely in no way the place you want to go for used fiction. Extremely limited used fiction selection. Mostly only romance and mystery type novels from the 80’s. I never found my novel. However, their metaphysical section was bangin’. Great astrology section too. Atmosphere was great. Lots of rooms to wander through and little places to sit and check books out, and a kitty wandering around! Loved that!

It is true gem for book worm like me, the selection is huge. It is a fourth generation family business. Couple of cats are laying around the counters which give a place an extra family place. As for the price, it is a bit pricey considering that many books were used, and in today’s Amazon era, you can buy some books for pennies. But for chance of flipping through books before buying it, it is priceless!

This is a bibliophiles heaven. Just walking in the door gave me a huge smile. I could wander around here for hours! I literally squealed when I saw a whole shelf of the hardcovers I collect. I’ve never seen that many in one store! The cherry that topped it all off was seeing a cat walking down an aisle. They have shop kitties! I’m a firm believer that every bookstore needs a shop cat. Of course, I had to make friends with her. A great employee introduced me to her and we had a great conversation about both of the kitties. (The other was supervising transactions at the cash register.) Absolutely great place. I can’t wait to go back and really explore!

Looking for a huge, winding bookstore with new and used books and lots of history? Haslam’s is the place. With thouuuusands of books nearly categorized for easy searching, this is a good place to be on the look for something specific, or come in exploring and looking for something new.
We came in primarily to kill some time and soak in the old bookstore vibes and got exactly what we were looking for. Stop by on a visit to St Pete!

I had an issue that became a big issue with my credit card for about a day and I was really happy with how they worked it out with me. I’ve been going there for years and didn’t want one bad experience to tarnish it. I’m happy with how it turned out and will continue to buy all my books through them.

Yes it is big but if you go there for a few years you’ll see that many of thee books there have been there for years and will be there for years to come.
It is hard to argue with success; they’ve been around for years where other book stores have failed. Tough business. Having said that though I find the place disappointing overall. I’ve been to better used book stores if not many bigger. Their
books are old. That is that very few are newly used. Here’s why…
If you try to sell used books to them they
give you very little 0−5% of cover– give or take. This deters those with quality pre-​read books from dealing with them. Hence their old outdated collection sits which they have to in turn supplement with new book sales which are mixed in among the used.
Then if you do find a used book you like you’ll not like the high price. And good luck bargaining with them. I offered $ 20 for an old coffee table book they had priced at $ 25. They wouldn’t take it a year ago and I’m sure it is still there. Dumb.
Still worth a visit if you haven’t gone.
I’m not a dealer just a customer who has been to a lot of used book stores all around the country and I’ll give this one two stars out of five. It’s their business so they can do what they want, but they need to revise their policies to improve the currency of newly used books so that local book worms will visit more often then once every five or ten years.

This is EXACTLY what a bookstore should be. Old, winding, endless, ink & paper smelling with booksellers who truly know their stuff.
I was in a bit of a hurry so I wasn’t able to browse as long as I wanted but you could easily spend hours here. They had every genre you could imagine new and used, ugh it was amazing. They also had book sets with high prices which I am assuming are for collectors.
The booksellers were so nice and helped me find what I was looking for plus they had a cat that I was allowed to pet! Plus 5,000 points.
Definitely a must see. If I still lived in the area I’d be here all the time.

I love Haslam’s selection of old and new books, classics and new fiction. We need more old family businesses in Pinellas County, This is the perfect indie for book lovers.

Best selection of books in tampabay area. Haslam’s has been around since the 1930s depression era and biggest inventory store (at last count) in southeastern usa located in this current location since the 1960s. So no it’s not Barnes and Noble nor does b&n have this much selection. the atmosphere here is just books .It’s easy to loose track of time a few hours here find some treasures meet knowlegable staff and intelligent kitties or is it intelligent staff and knowlegable kitties??? Interesting unique store

My favorite bookstore of all time! Come here as often as possible, if not to buy, just to browse. I always love conversing with the staff and playing with the cats. No where is as good as Haslam’s!

I really love coming here because I just like being in huge bookstores. I appreciate the cats wandering around and the staff have always been friendly and helpful. The new books are usually a little high on the price end, but I understand the fight for maintaining a legitimate bookstore in the age of Amazon. If you can afford it, it’s a great place to find new releases and classics alike – they even have collector’s items! They have an option for ordering books they don’t have in stock as well, so don’t be too disappointed if they don’t have what you’re looking for!

So, if your a lover of books this is where you need to be! It is the heaven of book lover’s it’s called Haslams!!! They have books that you don’t find in your average bookstore like Walmart or BArnes and Noble or Books a Million. I mean they have books from back when. They have every genre, author, you can think of. I would love to get locked in here and just read every book they have because it’s just an amazing selection and find. Yeah, there not the fanciest with a Starbucks in it’s store, or selling decadent muffins but what there selling you just can’t find anywhere else and that’s what makes this a rare find.
I have brought my kids here since they were small and now I’m bringing my grandson. I hope this bookstore lives on forever.

I just love a bookstore staffed by knowledgeable readers and cats. The organization is easily figured out (though they have helpful maps at the front and in the back), it’s much better than the corporate chain bookstore that was my other choice. Although there are both new and used books, the used book selection is merely good, not great, I ended up with a new book on sale I had been meaning to read. Interesting collection of collectible rare books.

Wonderful place to find books. Make sure to check the bookshelves outside of the store!

My favorite bookstore since my husband and I made our first trip to the Tampa Bay area in 2000. They have a huge variety of books in each area, some of which are rare and signed by the authors. The staff are very helpful since they saw me wandering around and guided me to the section of my favorite genre, true crime. I think I have read every true crime book available at our local library and have bought many on my nook, kindle, and e-​book reader (reading is one of my favorite activities when I am off work). They had four shelves stocked with multiple books that I had never read. They specialize in local authors and I have never found a bad book there. They have four adorable cats that roam the bookstore, and only one let me pet him or her. I also found the remainder of books to the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, which I could never find at the library, and look forward to reading on the gulf or the pool.

Brought in a list of spiritual/​metaphysical books that had been suggested to me and they had all but one. They offered to order the one they didn’t have. :) Wonderful customer service. Very traditional bookstore, definitely my favorite :))

We love Haslams! We have lived here in St Petersburg for almost 30 years. Haslams has always been here. We love it!

I planned my trip to St. Pete without even knowing about Haslam’s, and I ended up spending half of my only day in the city there. There’s a variety of used and new books– though definitely more of what I wanted in the «new» section, but I didn’t mind paying the price for that and supporting this lovely store. There are also a lot of genre shelves, which are great for people looking for something in a specific category. AND there are some lovely rare books behind glass. And then, to top it all off: Bookstores with cats are one of my favorite things in the world, and Haslam’s has two very sweet ones! Would recommend to anyone traveling through the city. I’ve never been to Powell’s in Oregon, but the outside of Haslam’s reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of it.

One of my favorite book stores of all time. There’s a reason this place has been around for so many years. If you need to find a book, Haslam’s probably has it. I could probably spend hours here and never get bored. They do have newer books, but depending on the book’s popularity, it can be hard to find here. So what? Get that book online, but come here for the books you can’t.
Someone mentioned in a precious review that prices are high. I don’t agree. They often offer new books at 10% off and I’ve walked out with several used books for a grand total under $ 20. Again, if you’re looking for a brand new best selling book, of course the price is going to be higher here.
But the charm of Haslam’s is in the fact that they do carry so many interesting finds, engage their customers, and offer such a wide variety of material. This place holds a special place in my bookworm heart.
If you haven’t visited yet and are a bookworm like me, don’t miss out!

This place is authentic awesomeness. It has a good old non-​corporate feel. You can spend hours in her browsing books from the history of St. Pete Books to Pottery Books, to Kids Books, to American History Books, to Books with Cute Animals inside, and then of course the Metaphysical Books.
Supposedly, Jack Kerouac’s Ghost haunts the metaphysical section and moves books around at night. He used to live in St. Pete. His visited here often. He died in St. Pete, on October 20^th, my birthday. Spooky. Some people complain about his rambling writing style, but I like it, and since I often write in a similar rambling style, I find it easy to read and enjoyable.
I do not believe in ghosts, but Haslam’s makes me want to. We spent hours here on numerous occasions just exploring. We have purchased books here almost every time we come, we see it as a kind of admissions fee because we linger for hours.
This place is old and so real. In the age of Amazon, Barnes & Noble is dying, but we MUST keep frequenting these real book stores and keep them alive. There is something truly special about Haslam’s with or without the Ghost of Kerouac!
«[T]he only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.»