Mercer Street Books

This shop is a gift to our community!
Far and away, Mercer Street is my favorite used bookstore in the city– aaaaand in most other cities! So tidy, so thoughtfully organized, it is a joy to peruse the shelves. The owners collection of bookends from around the world provide delightful little discoveries on each shelf.
Pro tip: set aside 10 $ a month for books. Go to MSB and treat yourself. Your brain will thank you!
Thank you, Mercer Street Books! You’re awesome neighbors!

I had never been here before but I will definitely be back! Prices were great and customer service was outstanding. I called in looking for a series and the woman who answered quickly helped locate my books, tell me which ones she had and the prices, and she held them for me until I got there. I’m super impressed and I will definitely recommend this book store to anyone. I was in kind of a hurry so I didn’t get to look around but I will definitely be back to look at their selection, their prices for the books I was buying were much lower than any other bookstore I called in Seattle/​Wallingford/​Fremont areas.

I have been to surprisingly few secondhand book stores and this place is truly a gem. My friend and I had nothing to do and she had a couple of books she needed to find so we headed here on an early evening on Monday. Sadly the books my friend needed weren’t there but the bookkeeper told us she normally does have them. There were a lot of great books here and most were really inexpensive. I was really happy when I was browsing through the cookbooks and found a cookbook I have been eyeing for the past several months but never got around to buying, and it was only $ 10 and in basically perfect condition. So so happy. The place is small but has a really nice intimate feel to it and if I lived in Seattle I would be here a lot more often.

Wonderful and more complete than you could imagine. I have found treasures, rarities and new discoveries. Trade in policy is generous and creates a nice circle of life.
Staff is helpful in this laid back little literary treat.

The best book store in Seattle! I initially went in to sell a box of books thinking they would purchase the entire box. They were only willing to buy a handful of my books which surprised me. After browsing the store I realized why — the selection is impeccable! After looking at just a couple shelves I was already tempted to buy 3 books. I will definitely go back to buy books from Mercer St Books, the selection and quality of books is a notch above all other used bookstores. The service was prompt, helpful and very friendly.

For its size it has everything I need and for only being a few blocks from my place in couldn’t be happier with that. Really friendly staff too!

a nice little shop — usual selection and helpful staff. My partner didn’t get the help she needed, though, so we were a little disappointed. Got some good books for $ 0.50; the other books were reasonably priced. Got a great cookbook (and relatively hard-​to-​find), so this is a store we’ll probably go back to.

This book store is right on Mercer Street. I often take the wrong bus while going home so that I have an excuse to browse through the store. It’s not as big as Elliot Bay books, so it’s easier to cover all of the bookstore and find what you were looking for or otherwise. All the books which I have found here are used, but in really good condition. Price ranges from inexpensive to reasonable. So every time I go there I walk out with at least 2 – 3 books.

I wandered into the store expecting to spend a couple minutes browsing; wound up spending a hundred bucks on a wonderful stack of eclectic books. I only managed to get past the first four or five shelves on the left edge of the store — by that point I had a 13 pound stack of items and thought I couldn’t possibly pack any more on my way home from my business trip. The super-​helpful Debbie saw my predicament and offered to have my whole stack of books shipped home to me in California. Sold! If you’re a book lover, you’re only hurting yourself by not stopping by.

Some people are addicted to drugs. Some alcohol. Some food (myself included). I am addicted to books.
God, I wish I had known that Mercer Street Books existed so much earlier in my life! I can’t even tell you the amount of money I have thrown at full-​price bookstores trying to find novels for my collection at home. I would venture to say that Mercer carries 99% of what I have bought elsewhere and for half the price!
I’m really pleased with the selection as well. My taste tends to be classic and/​or obscure, so it’s often hard to find multiple novels and/​or copies of the authors that I want in one place. But Mercer has never disappointed me in this regard.
I still have a soft spot in my heart for the biggies like Elliott Bay (I mean, how can you not?), but think about giving a second-​hand book store like Mercer a chance before heading to Barnes & Noble. It will save you some time and money.

I love a good book store, and I love the great selection of books. This is a place for the classics, plus some really killer cookbooks the day I was in. Used Bookstores are at the mercy of who wants to part with their favorite books, and this place has had a great many book lovers give up some good ones. Stop by, you won’t be disappointed.

I was really hopeful about this place both because I prefer to shop local and the great reviews it has gotten. Unfortunately what I found was a tiny bookstore with an extremely limited selection of old books that I can’t see anybody wanting. I looked for several categories of books, not even individual titles, and they didn’t even have one of them. If a sad selection of obsolete books is what you’re looking for, look no further.

Living close to this shop is a treat. If you are a bookstore lover, especially used, this charming stop near the space needle packs a lot of punch. It’s quaint but in no way lacks a good find, from the unique to the classics it’s my first stop when I have something on my list — or better yet when not. The staff, presumably the owner when I’ve been in, is very pleasant and seems to have good taste in selecting kindly loved used books and resells at a fair used price.

I love this place. I stop in every time I walk by it. It’s the cart outside I think that makes me stop but I always end up inside somehow. Book Magic. It’s clean and organized and you never know what’s going to be in there.

This place is lovely and so is the woman (owner?) working there. She was helpful and kind and conversational without being overbearing. It’s a small place, but the poetry section is nothing to sneeze at and the fiction section is SO nicely organized. Major points!
I can’t wait to go back!

Hello, I am a book addict and art books are my book of choice.
I attempted to walk past Mercer Street Books and could not. It was so cute and just screamed «you want to come inside, you know you do.» So I did, and I am in love.
The woman working there was friendly, the place was not only cute but very clean and orderly. Even the other customers were super friendly. There is just something about wooden shelves filled with books. I could have spent days in the store admiring the titles and strolling the isles. As an art book collector (not hoarder, collector) I loved that they had some gallery and museum catalogs for sale.
While I did not buy anything it was not because I could not find anything I wanted — actually I found at least one book that is on my «to read» list — but because I currently have a few too many books unread on my shelves I had to leave empty handed. I will be back as soon a I find more shelf space at home.

This is quickly becoming my favourite (yes, there’s a «u», that’s how we spell it in Canada) bookstores!
Every few months I take the bus from Vancouver BC to Seattle specifically to go used-​book shopping. After a day or two of shopping I usually end up with 7 – 20 books and just this last trip, I realized most of them come from Mercer Street Books!
*The selection is EXCELLENT
*It’s easy to find what you’re looking for (see countless reviews about how organized and clean the store is)
*Debbie is incredibly helpful if you want her to be (meaning she doesn’t follow you around and harass you if you are wandering aimlessly admiring the shelves full of treasures)
*The prices are great
*The condition of books is OUTSTANDING.
*The vibrational frequency of the store is quite high (for those of you who don’t know what the means, I’ll simply say the store has a good vibe, ya?.. for those of you who do know what I mean, I’ll mention that there is an outdoor labyrinth 2 blocks away for your walking-​meditation/​reflection pleasure.
PS. I love used bookstores and I REALLY love THIS used bookstore.

Books are my first love. Okay, my second. I loved rocks before I could read. But when I discovered reading, it quickly became my favorite activity. Grad school somehow managed to temper my love for reading. Perhaps it’s all the reading I do for work that makes me want something completely different in my free time. But with graduation looming my love of books is back in full swing. And this place is my neighborhood bookshop.
This charming store is tiny but carries so much good stuff. They don’t always have what I’m looking for but they have so much good stuff and good turnover so snatch it up before it’s gone. The space is welcoming and I find it just the right size. How many times have I been lost in Powell’s thinking, «Do I got left or right to get to anthologies?» Too many.
They have a lot of really cool art books in addition to a solid fiction section. They also sell cute little maps of the Queen Anne staircases. A real neighborhood spot.

Often, when we’re looking for an old book it’s a classic. We’ve already read it back in the day or it’s by an author we love and we’re looking for another title by them we haven’t read. If you’re like me I love books. Even though a lot of my reading these days is online, I can’t imagine myself without a good book to read.
This is my first visit here in its new incarnation. I fell in love with this place immediately. I totally agree with everyone here who says it’s the cleanest used bookstore around and I also think one of the better organized. What I really enjoyed while browsing was the great variety of titles and I couldn’t help but notice, there wasn’t any junk books just taking up space.
A lot of the classic titles had three copies, a paperback, a quality paperback, and a hardbound edition. So depending on your budget you had a choice. The prices are very reasonable, the condition of the books is good to very good, and the help was exceptional and knowledgeable.
Bookstores like this renew my faith in humankind. If you’re in lower Queen Anne, take at least a few minutes to experience this great little neighborhood bookshop. I’m so delighted they still exist.

Adorable little used book store in Lower Queen Anne. The prices are fairly reasonable. I bought a used travel book for about $ 8 the other day. The bookstore is clean and well organized.
I agree with a few other Unilocalers… stores like this make you steer away from electronic books like the Kindle. Most of the books I read, I find browsing through book stores.