We all like to read, and those who don’t like to read don’t know it yet. But what we don’t like so much is shelling out the more than 20€ on average per book. That is why second-hand bookstores are the alternative that is maintained and multiplied over the years .
You won’t live long enough to enjoy so many books at a good price, so if you don’t read, it’s not because you can’t afford it. Madrid is full of second-hand bookstores (some people still call them old bookstores) and here are just a few of them. And since drawing up a list implies eliminating potential members, here is an excusatio non petita accusatio manifesta: there could well be two bookstores that we like very much, such as Alcaná Libros (Marqués de Viana, 52) or Libros Dodó (Vallehermoso, 35).
1. La Casquería
The casquería is undoubtedly the most alternative proposal. Based on the principles of the social and solidarity economy, this second-hand bookstore has reinvented one of the stalls of this market of Lavapiés with the explicit objective of “recovering the market” because “it means to put it back in value as an economic and social engine of the territory it inhabits”.
Like many others, they are powered by donations, but the most interesting thing is that the price of the books is calculated by weight. Just take a stroll among their shelves, where books have been assigned value based on weight, and head to the checkout where they will weigh your books and tell you their equivalent in euros. An essential of the letters of Madrid.
San Fernando Market, Embajadores Street, 41 (Lavapiés)
2. Rapture Books
This bookstore in Malasaña is many things. As their website says, “some things are hard to define in essence. Above all, if Arrebato is not quite a bookstore, just as it is not exactly a publishing house, just as it is not exactly a cultural management center, but it is everything at the same time”.
In addition to second-hand books (they have a collection of about 12,000 copies) of the highest quality, they have a strong presence of independent copies, without major labels behind them.
Calle de Palma, 21 (Malasaña)
3. TikBooks
Most likely the largest second-hand book franchise in Madrid, TikBooks has the advantage of having several locations and you can ask them to bring you a copy from one of their stores to the one closest to your home. One of those second-hand bookstores where there is an abundance of pink novels and books with brightly colored covers, but where it is also easy to find the great classics thanks to the union of the catalogs of all its stores.
4. J&J Books and Coffee
This local malaysian is a coffee shop/pub where Anglo-Saxon immigrants hang out in the company of some Spaniards looking to perfect their English. While the second floor of the bar is pure revelry on weekends with its pub quiz and its murky, but charming British speakeasy atmosphere, the downstairs is a bookstore with some couches, chairs and tables to shelter you until the storm and the pints arrive.
Calle del Espiritu Santo, 47 (Malasaña)
5. 7 Colores Bookstore
This tiny shop, located in one of the streets leading to the Plaza de Lavapiés is one of those little gems that the neighborhood hides. The place, as is often the case in these cases, is deceptive, and you could spend hours browsing its shelves full of books where the academic spines are combined with relatively recent narrative copies in good condition.
Calle de la Fe, 6 (Lavapiés).
6. Tuuulibrería
This bookstore is a classic among those who like to browse in second-hand bookstores. Its operation is simple: “take as many books as you can fit in your hands” and “leave the donation you consider”, says its web page. They have a little bit of everything and sometimes maybe too much junk (although this happens to all of them), which doesn’t mean it’s not worth a visit.
Embajadores Street, 11 (Lavapiés) and Padilla Street, 78 (Salamanca district)
7. Reread
This bookstore is a small oasis in the jungle of students and elderly people that is the neighborhood of Chamberí. Releer, run by Rosa, is the result of someone who had to take what was left of her unemployment to set up a business to get ahead. No one is going to get rich from books, but it’s always nice to be surrounded by them, as it happens to Rosa.
70 Blasco de Garay Street, Chamberí (Chamberí)
8. Cuesta de Moyano
There is little to say about this slope, a must-see for locals and visitors alike, which is constantly being renewed with new activities such as the initiative hostia A Book!. Not all of their stalls have second-hand books and not all are equally inexpensive, but it’s worth a look. If you’re (very) lucky, you might even stumble upon a box full of books in the middle of the street that one of the stalls can’t sell and no longer has room for.
Claudio Moyano St., s/n (downtown)
9. Books & Co
This bookstore, in the heart of Delicias, is the best stop on the way to the El Retiro (if you come from Legazpi, of course). They buy books at 20 cents and sell them at different prices. Every once in a while there is a little dog (well, a big dog) around who lets himself be loved, and, besides, its web page is quite functional if you prefer to go for the long shot and search for a specific book or author.
Murcia Street, 16 (Delicias)
10. Re-Read
One of those second-hand bookstores that have managed to make of the sale and purchase of books a national emporium. They have stores all over Spain with special influence in Barcelona. In Madrid its growth has been gradual and in just a couple of years there are already five bookstores. Also your catalog search and purchase is quite useful.
11. Reading Corner
It is perhaps one of the most expensive on the list. They know what they have and you don’t sell the genre at any price. In addition, it is located in the heart of dos de Mayo Square the epicenter of hipsterism. Take advantage while the weather permits and buy a good book to read in the same square.
Plaza del Dos de Mayo, 5 (Malasaña)
12. San Ginés Bookstore
The passageway of San Ginés has the chocolate and churro shop madrid’s best known and one of Spain’s oldest bookstores, both named after the adjacent church. Since 1650 this corner of Arenal Street has been selling books. Its open-air shelves and the wood that lines the small premises make it one of those charming corners that occupy the album of almost any tourist who passes by (even if their destination is the churrería). They specialize in antique and second-hand books, and you can find anything from bargains to collector’s editions on almost any subject.
Pasadizo de San Ginés, 2 (downtown)