5 Best Broke-Ass Bookstores

Drunks love David Foster Wallace

Fuck going to Green Apple or City Lights. Sure they’re fancy enough to warrant their own Wikipedia pages [Green Apple / City Lights] but City Lights sells only new books'”which means they ain’t cheap'”and Green Apple’s Kindle-bashing video is so unfunny it makes me wanna say 'œfuck it' and buy one out of spite. Plus the used books at Green Apple aren’t even all that cheap. Half the time you can find '˜em brand-fucking-new on Amazon for cheaper. But fuck Amazon too.

AARDVARK BOOKS: Head immediately to the aisle all the way on the right. Say hi to the resident pussycat. Continue all the way to the back of the store. Here you may find vintage Vonnegut and Updike and Steinbeck paperbacks for less than fifty cents and usually no more than $2 or $3.

BOOK BAY MAIN: The City’s best selection of cheap classics'”you know, all the books written before even your great-grandmother was gobbling on Moby Dick. The bookstore is run by the San Francisco Public Library, and all titles here have been donated, which keeps prices low.

BOOK BAY FORT MASON: Same deal as Book Bay Main but with a better selection, albeit fewer classics but who the fuck wants to read Shakespeare anyway?

DOG EARED BOOKS: They always have at least two full tables of remaindered books, which equals brand-new copies of quality reads for sometimes less than $4. Raymond Chandler, Susan Sontag, William T. Vollmann, et al.

ADOBE BOOKS: Disorganized as fuck and OVER/UNDER it’ll be out of business in six months, but there is an impressively awesome selection of vintage paperbacks including Dostoevsky, Asimov, Orwell, and a bunch of other fuckers smarter than you. You just have to not mind digging through stacks of books that’ll remind you of your college roommate’s laundry pile.