5th Avenue Books

This place is not exactly a five star place, but it fits the needs of a used book store. Some small sitting area, though could be more and also more comfortable. Advice to the owners, people will buy your books even if they read a bit in the store ;they won’t finish it there.
Anyway, i liked the smell of the old books and care free atmosphere

Incredible book store… Total gem for this unique, one of a kind bookstore to be in San Diego! It’s a place for true book lovers or to simply browse thru the most avant garde stuff, and unique finds.
Friends from New York were visiting and we walked by this bookstore on our way to find fun stuff on University Ave. We walked in after seeing some cool books from the window display like a Yoko Ono art book. We then spent at least an hour going thru this amazing collection. From Confucius to Normal Rockwell illustrated Tom Sawyer books, survival guides, erotic books, encyclopedias, etc … This stuff is AMAZING. Comparable to a small version of strand bookstore in New York but more unique! An employee, helped us with a smile and provided us with great customer service the entire time. He told us the owner lives in LA, so books are collected from SD and LA, but they end up here. And they’re totally AFFORDABLE! In the end, it was hard to choose which books we wanted to take home.
Not the fanciest. There’s no place to sit, and no café to read at, but it’s a real bookstore that truly indulges the intellectual curiosity or nostalgia of an avid reader. In fact, I would call it a specialty bookstore. I had great experience with customer service here and will be a regular!

This is one of my favorite used book stores in the city… I love going in to check out what books they might have on the shelves. I’m a Golden Book fan for using books as cards… so this is my go to shop. They always have at least one book that I want to buy… and I always ended up spending my money on some great find. Check them out… it’s worth a gander.

Bibliophiles rejoice! This is a Must See Shop for the bookish Hillcrestian who enjoys a dash of vellichor with their purchasing experience. Whenever I encounter a «new» used book store there are two genres that I immediately seek out, which are Philosophy and Thanatology. It is exceedingly rare that I am sated with either; In the case of 5^th Avenue Books, I found an adequately sized Philosophy selection adjacent to a decently stocked Thanatology end-​cap. I am doubly delighted by the latter since it is a rare occurrence that I find this genre, let alone books within it that I don’t already own.
Amidst the MANY duplicates of Elisabeth Kübler-​Ross books (an essential in *any* Thanatological library as she was a pioneer in death studies and identified the 5 stages of grief) I found quite a few candidates to bring home with me. One of which was an out of print edition of «Master of Death» by Michael Camille that was about $ 15 more than I’d have spent had I made my purchase through Amazon, but I had it in my hands, I had smelled the pages, and I wanted it on my shelf. Done deal.
As an added bonus, I discovered that they house quite a sizable collection of enviable leather-​bound classics. Costly, but gorgeous. They didn’t have the particular one I was looking for and I was disappointed to learn that there was no waiting list or form of customer call-​back should they receive a copy of the book I wanted. Bummer.
I’ve read several of the reviews on here bemoaning the fact that the employee/​owner/​whomever wouldn’t get up and walk them over to the book they were after. Personally, I prefer to be pointed in the general direction and browse through the selection undisturbed, so this worked out well for me. And I feel compelled to add that when inquiring about the leather-​bound copy of Crime & Punishment, after telling me that the edition I wanted was not in stock, the man behind the counter led me to a few alternative editions (I wasn’t interested in them, but he led me to a potential solution nonetheless).
As other Unilocalers were quick to point out, he frequently smokes in the doorway. I don’t see the issue with this unless they stood meekly at the counter waiting to be acknowledged. Do this and you are likely to be standing there for quite some time in expectation and growing impatience. I have a solution for those folks: walk over to him and get his attention. «Excuse me, I’m in a bit of a hurry and am ready to check out now. Can you please come help me with my purchase?» Seems easy enough, yea? Just try not to be a dick about it or I get the feeling you will have it served right back to you. Uncommon in business practice, I know, but there it is.
The one thing I could do without is the relentless commenting on my *choice* of purchase. Ultimately, I’m unfazed and only slightly annoyed as I tend to raise eyebrows with my book selections *where*ever* I go. However, having worked in retail the majority of my working life, I find it hard to ignore the obvious faux pas of overtly judging your customer’s purchases. An independent business can run itself however the owner sees fit, but it seems a quick way to lose customers. /​shrug
All in all, I think fondly of this store and always recommend it to fellow «worms» visiting Hillcrest. I prefer it to the shop across the street because I feel that their selection has more to offer my particular tastes. My visits are few and far between only because I have run out of shelf space and have so many damned books begging to be read already. I refuse to feel crowded by my own things so it will have to wait until I get another shelf.
How does it go? «Girl has one night stand… but too many books to fit on it…»
Ba dum CHHH!

I was walking by and the books in the window piqued my interest. They had a Tim Burton book called, «The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories». I know someone who is a fan so I wanted to check it out to possibly buy it for them as a gift. There were a few other books I saw that I thought might be good gifts (a book about Frank Sinatra, an art book, and another book).
I was going to ask the worker, but he looked enthralled in whatever he was reading and really looked like he didn’t want to be bothered. He didn’t even bother to greet me or the other person that walked into the store. I walked to the window where the book was displayed. I looked for a tag on the book, but didn’t see anything. I looked around for a few minutes, then left and thought maybe I’ll come back later.
On the way back to the parking area (to get my car) to leave Hillcrest, I decided to walk back in the store (since it was on the way) to ask about the book. Again same guy was sitting there. I wasn’t greeted… no biggie. I asked him about the book. He was unsure about the price and so I grabbed the book and brought it over to him. He said it’d be half off the listed price on the book. I thought the book was in decent shape for being used but for that amount, I would rather buy it new on Amazon.
As I was leaving I thanked the guy. I said it loud enough for him to hear me, but he didn’t even acknowledge my thanks (didn’t say anything whatsoever). Not sure if he was mad that I didn’t buy the book… or what? I’m definitely not impressed with the service here.
The store is decently sized. The books seem to be grouped based on subject matter for the most part. Not sure if it’s much more organized than that (it didn’t appear so to me). Plenty of cool books most of which appear used. Service needs to be improved though.
I’ve been in this store before. The last time I was in there, it was another guy. At least he was friendly and personable unlike this guy. That’s the only reason I’m making it two stars versus one.

When I visited a couple years ago, I was charmed by their tucked-​away selection of erotic lit. They have fascinatingly pervy old books for niche interests, stuff that’s hard to find anywhere, let alone a bookstore that is decidedly NOT some seedy back-​alley joint.

Whereas Adams Avenue Books has the best theology and philosophy section for used bookstores in SD, 5^th Avenue has the best selection for literature, science, and film in SD. Very impressed.

I want to do negative stars. This guy, who may or may not be the owner, is an ass. The lady who works there isn’t much better. They treated the place like a gossip session. They were too busy outside smoking to answer any questions and he walked by 3 times without acknowledging me. I know all the crude details of their personal life, though, because that’s all they did while they were in and out of the front door– talk nasty about things. It’s your store, talk how you want; I could care less and have heard way worse, but you kinda have to go do some work while your there, too.
I found some interesting books and left them sitting right there on the shelf. He didn’t even acknowledge us walking out through the clouds of smoke. I am happy to give my money to the bookstore across the street where the people are kind and friendly.

Not very friendly. I came in one time and there was an awkward conversation going on but it was like they wanted everyone to know their biz. I used to visit once a week but I prefer the atmosphere of the book store across the street instead. There’s a lot of books here though. The prices seem reasonable but there are some older editions that are outdated for a ridiculous amount. Hit or miss.

Crazy big selection. If you’re looking for a certain kind of book, you’ll find it. Everything is organized by section, with each aisle labeled very clearly.
The downside is, if you’re looking for a *specific* book, there isn’t a way to locate it because they keep no database. This kind of baffles me, but if you saw the piles and long aisles, you’d understand why they don’t want to do that.

5 stars is for the book selection here
but no stars or one star for how old and worn out it is here.
I would love to buy this place and transform it**
I still love to come here because they have a very good selection of books, large place.

I came in here with a friend because she was looking for a large text Spanish-​English dictionary. I didn’t really look around myself, but the store was pretty big and seemed to have a large selection. The lady we talked to was very knowledgable and helpful. I would return here to look for some books.

I found a really cool tolkien lord of the rings set very lightly used for $ 20! So stoked. Will definitely be back. Staff was helpful and friendly too.

Like previous Unilocalers noted: This bookstore seriously has a great selection of books! I was able to find all the authors that I was hoping to find books by — Chuck Palahniuk, Haruki Murakami, Kurt Vonnegut, Paulo Coehlo, Roald Dahl, and more. Their «teen fiction» section was great too — it brought me back to so many books that I had read when I was younger… *cue nostalgia*
Although this bookstore is a bit more expensive than other bookstores, I don’t mind! They are in great condition and I believe most are priced at half off the usual price. I also love that comfy leather couch in front of the kid’s section…

This bookstore has an amazing selection and even better organization… like useful, browsable merchandising on their part. I love used books stores but I often find the organization completely maddening and end of leaving after a few bewildered minutes. This is not the case with 5^th Ave– you will spend time inside and find something you are interested in.
I come here every single time I come to SD, and I always leave with something. The prices are VERY reasonable. I wouldn’t bring my books here to sell though; from my eavesdropping it does seem like they are really picky. But ya know what? Their shelves are bursting at the seams to the point where you wouldn’t want to
this place during an eathquake… so I totally get it.

This is one of the better bookstores in San Diego, but for some reason it’s the one bookstore I always walk into and never leave with anything in hand. Everything is really well organized, and they have a great selection of fiction books, which is what I usually go for. Their other book categories are super full, too, so this place should have something for everyone! I recently came across an area full of popular music piano scores, so I will definitely be back to look through those when I have more time!

This is one of the few bookstores where I can get Tintin books for my collector friends and cheaper than in Europe. Other than that, I see a lot of self-​help books on shelves and not very interesting stuff. As other have noticed, this place looks and smells very old and not so well taken care of. Probably that is the charm as well, as I like to go and browse every time that I am in Hillcrest, which is often. Also I find sometimes foreign books and the prices are fair. I hope they stay long because it adds character to the neighborhood.

I like this bookstore. They have a huge selection and it’s all in great condition. I had a lot of books that cost me a lot of money and they were just laying around my room. I didn’t want to donate them, so I traded them here. Well, the trade was a great deal for me and this bookstore

I just called looking to give my boss a book for Christmas, an older sounding man answered and I told him the title of one of the books I had in mind, he put me on hold for 30 seconds and told me they didn’t have it.
Then I politely asked if they had another book, he interrupted me while I was speaking and told me he couldn’t go around looking for all my books. I was only going to ask for one other title, but the tone he had seemed like I was going through a Summer reading list.
All I could say to that was «I’m sorry…»
I guess what I really mean is I’m sorry I even had the thought to give this bookstore my business. I will never enter this store, nor open my wallet in its general direction.
Not even speaking of selection, when a chain like Barnes & Nobles has better customer service you know there’s a problem.

I used to shop here when I first moved into the neighborhood a few years ago. But not anymore. Sure, they have a huge — albeit overpriced — selection of books. But it’s that odious and obnoxious owner. He sits on his baby elephant-​sized derrière and *glares* sullenly at customers as if he’d just suddenly gotten a very unpleasant whiff of some nauseating smell coming from your direction.
It gives me the creeps, frankly.
And, really, who needs it when you can get every single copy of every single book that they carry online — for less money and without all that poison pen attitude?