San Francisco Book Company

Just slightly disorganized, but I’m going to chalk some of that up to customers lazily putting books back haphazardly. I had to go through several unsorted stacks on the floor in different areas of the shop, but at least I found some true gems out of it for MUCH better pricing than other overhyped anglo bookstores…
My favorite purchase was actually a fortuitous find by the bookshop gentleman. I’d been looking for this particular book for almost five years to no avail. He climbed up and rummaged through the again, sometimes inefficient shelving, to try to find it for me, but had to admit they didn’t get much D.H. Lawrence. A few minutes later though, he pulled it out of a new stack they had just gotten in!
A woman also came in asking for this or that author, which makes me think that they get new stock fairly often, and the bookshop owners are happy to help you as much as they can. Not only with books; he spent a long time giving me advice on how to survive as an expat in Paris, and overall it was refreshing to meet a friendly bit of home.

I love this place. Wonderful prices: I bought two books today, 5 euro each. You’ll definitely find something here; there are books everywhere (as one would hope in a bookstore).
I really urge people to buy their books from small bookstores such as SF. Paris wouldn’t be the same without them.

ATTENTION: C’est une revue de karaōke, ouvrez le hyperlien et chantez avec les paroles suivants:
Hey, viens la, viens revue moi, né pars pas sans livres
Oh! Oh! Oh! Viens la, trouvez un livre, né pars pas sans il
Hey, vous revenez aux USA, sans livres pour lire
Eh, cette nuit, dans ce endroit, les livres sont jolis…
Mais qu’est-ce qui brille sur nos regards
Ce sont les beaux auteurs
Un vieux roman, des classiques mort
Tu ressembles a un bookworm
Et vous lu les bruts ou les lumières
Mais préférez plus les légendes
Ou vas-​tu, sans beaux auteurs
Tu t’en vas vers nulle part
Allez, viens la, viens revue moi, né pars pas sans livres
Hey, viens la, trouvez un livre, né pars pas sans il
Hey, vous revenez aux USA, sans livres pour lire
Eh, cette nuit, dans ce endroit, les livres sont jolis…
Passer en revue tous les jours des notre retour
Prends tes livre, he, tu as futé
Et à prix réduit
Mais tu cries dans les choix meme chez Shakespeare
Et brillent les beaux auteurs
Ou vas-​tu quand tu pars
Dans la rue, vers nulle part
Allez, viens la, viens revue moi, né pars pas sans livres
Allez, viens la, trouvez un livre, né pars pas sans il
Hey, cette nuit, dans ce endroit, les livres sont jolis.
Hey, vous revenez aux USA, sans livres pour lire
Allez, viens la, viens revue moi, né pars pas sans livres
Allez, viens la, trouvez un livre, né pars pas sans il
Hey, vous revenez aux USA, sans livres pour lire
Hey, cette nuit, dans ce endroit, les livres sont jolis.
***c’est fini***
*taps microphone*
San Francisco & Co is the quieter option for the anglophile contingents in Paris; those who want to avoid the saturation of body mass that permeates Shakespeare & Co. Located on the narrow Rue Monsieur-​le-​Prince, very near the house where Auguste Compte used to live, this little haven-​in-​the-​wall will have all the English musts, and must-​nots (paperback thriller section on the second room)… but if you walk even further back, there’s a catacomb-​like little room where you will find many old out-​of-​print titles at slashed prices. It was here that Paris gave me its last golden eggs on the day before my departure; Buchner, Suetonius and Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s fantastic and life-​changing «History of the Conquest of New Spain». I also found JFK’s «Profiles in Courage» in this little room.
Stop by in route to the Blvd. de St. Michel from Odeon, and maybe Paris will yield some golden eggs for you too!

I bought the most books from this place! They have an amazing selection of fun, fast reading, romance, sci-​fi, classics, and even cookbooks. My favorite is the suspense mystery section. I found a lot of authors I started reading on this trip, and he had the rest of the books in the series!
Books floor to ceiling. Prices are not bad. They also BUY/​SELL here, which is great when you have a lot of books to unload and/​or trade!
The location is really great. It’s off Metro Odeon, by my favorite bar Fubar! The streets in this area are aligned with tons of brasseries, cinemas, and other English bookstores. Great area to spend a couple hours restocking on books, catching a film, and getting drinks!

I was teary-​eyed when I left my library back home in the US. I came to Paris with only 5 books. I tried the local library, but they only have 1 shelf of English books peppered with titles like War and Peace. Yes, yes, I’ll read you someday, you masochistic book! What’s a reader like me to do?
San Francisco Book Company — love it, love it, love it! I finally found my spot for cheap, used paperback fiction! Floor to ceiling of used books on a hard-​to-​find street. Even though I was going to an American bookstore, it fell quite Parisian, I must say. I got a «real» American hello when walking in the door. I engaged in «real» American banter with the owner. I smelled like a musty book when I left (I even sneezed while inside the store!) And I’m not even bitter that they didn’t buy my 5 used paperbacks. Overall, excellent!

This used English bookstore certainly fills a certain need for any Anglo (and Anglophile!) spending a decent amount of time in Paris… especially summer in Paris without a TV — the perfect recipe for reading outside. After buying too many paperbacks at W.H. Smith and finishing them in record time, I realized that my wallet wasn’t cool with this spending habit that I was forming. Luckily, I heard about the San Francisco Book Company, which would buy my books and give me cash or credit for more books. Perfect!
The store is on a quiet street near the Odeon metro station. It has the feel of Shakespeare & Co, but without the crowds or price tags. Books were crammed on shelves all the way to the ceiling and each section was clearly marked. I had a great time perusing everything, and settled on a couple of novels for some light outdoor reading.
An older gentleman seemed to be the only person manning the shop, and he checked out the books I was planning on trading. Since they were still in almost mint condition (purchased only a week ago!), he took them all. They offer store credit or cash, but you’ll receive more in store credit. Naturally, I chose the store credit and immediately used it to purchase my «new» books. (They do have a free book bin in case you don’t want to carry your unsold books home) I had to pay the difference, but it was definitely a better bargain than the sterile W. H. Smith or touristy S&Co.
Overall, this shop filled my need for English books on the cheap and provided a delightful experience to boot.

All us expats know about WH Smith and Shakespeare and Co — but this little english bookstore tucked away on a quiet street right off of crowded Odeon is a relatively unfrequented gem that should be getting much more business. When I come in here I feel comfortable, unhurried, safe — its intimate without being overly friendly or claustrophobic. The staff are all American, very knowledgeable but completely unpretentious. SF Book Co. reminds me of the bookstores I used to shop at back in the San Francisco Bay Area in California where I grew up. Go figure.
The shop is itty bitty with books books books everywhere. Like any used book store I would not recommend coming in looking for a particular book — even though the shelves are ostensibly alphabetically ordered it is pretty haphazard and there are little piles of books lying about everywhere. Come in with a free hour or so and explore the shelves, read a few pages here and there until something catches your interest.
They have travel books, fiction, non-​fiction, plays, huge photo and art books, history, language guides, dictionaries, poetry, even some random english language DVDs.
Books are around 10 euro a pop (the used pocket fiction selection in the back run for about 5 euro) — which is pretty decent for foreign books here. Also — they buy english books and offer a great trade rate if you want to pick up new books, or you can opt for cash.