Top Used Bookstores in Las Cruces, NM

Baltimore may be known as “The City That Reads,” but Las Cruces may be home to the largest per-capita sales of used books anywhere in the area. Options for new books are restricted to the local Hastings and the newly-built Barnes and Noble, but older books can be found at perhaps a dozen stores in the area. The three profiled here are simply the best three; local people will have additional ideas as well.

Number three on the list is A Book Affair, which is located in a converted boarding house in the Solano district. A minor maze of corridors and rooms stuffed to overflowing with books, the store almost requires a thread trail (a la Theseus) to be sure of extracting yourself. However, a wide variety of books are available, including perhaps the largest Las Cruces selection of romance novels and chick-lit style books. If there is any area that this store is deficient in, it is in science fiction and fantasy. Larger collections of such books are readily available elsewhere, though.

A Book Affair runs an intriguing book credit program that allows individuals with overstuffed libraries to liquidate a portion of their stock. The payments on these books are then placed down as credit, and permit the offering of deep discounts (sometimes as much as 60% off) on existing store stock. As an incentive, there is no restriction placed on the type of book that can be purchased with the program; one does not have to turn in historical fiction to purchase historical fiction, for instance, but may use the aforementioned book credit to purchase non-fiction or reference material as well.

The Basics:
Name: A Book Affair
Location: 1496 S. Solano Dr., Las Cruces, NM
Areas of specialization: Romance, historical fiction