No chain store, online retailer or Kindle can ever replace the charm of an independently owned used bookstore. You never know what you’ll find on the shelves, and you can walk away with a ton of great reads at an extremely reasonable price. Tacoma Book Center is Washington’s largest used bookstore, and it’s fantastic.

You’ll find Tacoma Book Center in a simple, unassuming building at 324 E. 26th St.

Rumples / TripAdvisor And this is where it has been for over 20 years.

Believe it or not, there are 16,000 square feet devoted to used books inside.

Rumples / TripAdvisor Each book that comes to the store by donation or purchase is inspected, processed, and placed in its appropriate section.

Sometimes even the 16,000 square feet of space isn’t enough to contain them all.

Rumples / TripAdvisor At those prices, you could afford to stock an entire home library.

So what exactly will you find in this bookstore? A little bit of everything.

Maureen S. / TripAdvisor Their fiction collection includes plenty of Sci Fi, mystery and classic literature, and they have every category of nonfiction you can dream of.

It’s getting harder and harder to find bookstores like this, and they need our support.

Ingrid Richter / Flickr This is one of the few remaining used bookstores in Washington that is both large in size and truly locally owned.

Tacoma Book Center is open 7 days a week from 10-6.

Rumples / TripAdvisor That’s plenty of time to stop in and buy some books.

 

Rumples / TripAdvisor

And this is where it has been for over 20 years.

Each book that comes to the store by donation or purchase is inspected, processed, and placed in its appropriate section.

At those prices, you could afford to stock an entire home library.

Maureen S. / TripAdvisor

Their fiction collection includes plenty of Sci Fi, mystery and classic literature, and they have every category of nonfiction you can dream of.

Ingrid Richter / Flickr

This is one of the few remaining used bookstores in Washington that is both large in size and truly locally owned.

That’s plenty of time to stop in and buy some books.

Tacoma Book Center is Washington’s largest used bookstore. Bellingham’s Village Books is also very impressive.

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