Cedar Rapids spreads its secondhand books thin across Linn County, Iowa, with three entries on this page sharing a single downtown building. Inside it, on Fifth Avenue SE, the Cedar Rapids Public Library's Friends work a $2 shelf, sell from the plaza out front on farmers market mornings and empty the auditoriums for two long weekends in 2026; a mile due south in Czech Village, Sisters Books & Nooks racks used copies beside its new ones. After that you drive. Shady Character Books sits 2.8 miles west on Edgewood Road NW, the Christian Store three miles north on Center Point Road NE, and the Goodwill Outlet 5.4 miles south beside the Eastern Iowa Airport, while the northeast of the map belongs to two other towns — Hiawatha 4.1 miles out and Marion 4.2 to 5.1, each with a Friends shop of its own and, in Marion, a branch of Half Price Books. Each listing beyond the municipal boundary states its town before anything else.
Three separate Friends groups run their own secondhand operations here, and none of them shares a calendar with the others. The Cedar Rapids group keeps a permanent Book Nook indoors, sells beside the farmers market outdoors, and hands the Beems and Whipple auditoriums over to a long weekend twice on its 2026 calendar, April 10 to 12 and November 6 to 8. Marion staffs a shop facing the Information Desk on its library's main floor and reckons three sales into each year. Hiawatha runs a shop inside its own building and empties the Forrest Kramer Room when a bigger sale comes around. Track the three schedules separately, because a single missed date does not mean the other two are quiet.
Two changes in 2026 will make an older list send you to the wrong door. A library notice dated July 9, 2026 announced Ladd Library on the west side closing permanently on August 9 while staff moved the collection, and its replacement, the Busse Branch at 1845 Sandberg Lane SW, opens to the public at 10am on Saturday, September 19, 2026; since the Friends put a Book Nook at both library locations, that date adds a second $2 shelf to the city. The second trap is a category error. Several well-known local names carry new stock only: Next Page Books in New Bohemia, opened as NewBo Books on July 1, 2012 and purchased by Bart Carithers in December 2015, advertises a fine selection of new fiction and nonfiction; HEA Book Boutique, which moved to Boyson Road NE in January 2026, is a romance specialist founded in 2023; and Swamp Fox Bookstore over in Marion builds its front table out of the week's releases.
Used-book chainHalf Price Books Marion
1400 Twixt Town Rd, Marion, IA 52302
Over the line in Marion, 4.2 miles northeast of the downtown library on the Twixt Town Road retail strip, though Half Price Books files the branch under Cedar Rapids on its Iowa-Nebraska page — a page carrying two Iowa addresses in all, this one and Clive outside Des Moines. The Buy Counter takes printed and recorded material and pays cash, on terms the company spells out in advance: nothing is quoted until a staff member has handled it, a government photo ID is required, whoever brought the load stays in the building until the evaluation ends, and a parent or guardian has to stand alongside any seller below 18. Its packing advice is worth following, since it asks for containers one person can lift on their own and puts that at 15 to 20 pounds, and it warns that electronics are not bought at every branch. The chain publishes dated customer reviews on the store page itself, including one from June 9, 2026 that found a clearance sale set out on the sidewalk.
Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–8pm, Sun 11am–7pmWebsite Used bookstoresShady Character Books
212 Edgewood Rd NW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52405
A single-room used shop on Edgewood Road NW, 2.8 miles from the downtown library, occupying the address that carried M and M Bookstore before it. The Gazette told the handover story: Darryl Schade, a regular who had walked in to say the science fiction section was a mess and ended up volunteering there, bought the business when Ursla and Bill Lanphear decided against reopening in spring 2020, and the Lanphears had themselves taken it on in October 2017 from two owners who had run the original for 27 years. Schade said at the time that classics, vintage reads and science fiction would set the tone, while the storefront page it publishes leads on first editions, signed copies and scarce material instead of bulk. It is a stamp on the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour running July 1 to September 30, 2026, and hands the passport across the counter.
Hours : Tue, Thu–Sat 10am–2pm, Wed 10am–2pm and 5pm–7pm; closed Sun–MonWebsite Used bookstoresSisters Books & Nooks
1612 C St SW Ste A, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
A mile due south of the library in Czech Village, next door to Corner Store Apothecary, opened on September 9, 2025 by Jamie Sharar and Sarah Danielson; the Corridor Business Journal trailed it that August as a dark-fantasy shop leaning on romantasy, horror, thrillers, banned books and LGBTQIA+ voices. New titles lead the floor, but the owners state that a wide selection of used books sells alongside them, and their returns page draws the line without hedging: secondhand copies go out as is and cannot come back. The room is furnished for staying — vintage seating, tea, wine, and alcoves you may reserve free of charge during opening hours — so budget more time here than the square footage suggests. It signed on as a new participant in the 2026 Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour.
Hours : Tue–Thu 11am–6pm, Fri 11am–7pm, Sat 10am–6pm, Sun noon–5pm; closed MonWebsite Friends of the Library shelfBook Nook, Cedar Rapids Public Library
Downtown Library, 450 Fifth Ave SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
A standing rack inside the Downtown Library, filled by the Friends of the Cedar Rapids Public Library out of donated stock and priced flat at $2 a volume, with everything raised going into the library's literacy programs. The Friends state that books are always for sale at the Book Nooks at both library locations, the second of which is the Busse Branch on Sandberg Lane SW, opening September 19, 2026. Their page also carries the Fall 2025 Focus newsletter and the group's 2026 sale dates, so the calendar sits one click from the rack. Nothing here is listed or held back, which makes it a look-every-time proposition rather than a trip in itself.
Hours : Mon–Thu 9am–8pm, Fri–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 1pm–5pmWebsite Friends of the Library bookstoreFriends' Bookstore, Marion Public Library
Marion Public Library, 1101 6th Ave, Marion, IA 52302
In Marion, 5.1 miles northeast of downtown Cedar Rapids, the Friends of the Marion Public Library staff a shop on the library's main floor directly opposite the Information Desk, and it keeps the same hours as the library itself. The group promises a frequently refreshed spread across genres and age groups plus book-themed merchandise, and states on its About page that it sponsors three sales a year on top of the shop. Its summer 2026 sale, held July 17 to 19 in the Community Room, put hardcovers at $3 and softcovers at $2 before the Sunday afternoon switched to bag pricing at five dollars, and the Friends have announced a November follow-up without attaching dates to it yet. Donations reach the same volunteers during library hours, with music CDs, DVDs and other media declined outright and magazines accepted only if under two months old.
Hours : Mon–Thu 9am–8pm, Fri–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 1pm–5pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Cedar Rapids?
Start at the Goodwill Outlet on 6th Street SW, where a book is tagged at a quarter, a hardcover at fifty cents, and everything else on the floor sells by weight; Goodwill also notes that Iowa purchases carry no sales tax whatever the date. Inside the Downtown Library, the Friends price their Book Nook at a flat $2, and their tables in the Urban Plaza on farmers market mornings ran seven times across 2026, from May 30 to September 19. In Marion the Friends charged $3 for hardcovers and $2 for softcovers at the July 17 to 19, 2026 sale, then closed the room on Sunday with bag pricing at five dollars, while Hiawatha's April 18, 2026 sale went at five dollars for a bag of adult books and one dollar for a bag of children's. Away from the libraries and the bins, the Christian Store north of downtown carries a permanent pre-owned section — books, Bibles, CDs and DVDs, in the thousands by the store's own reckoning — with each copy priced on its own rather than through a seasonal sale.
Where do I sell used books in Cedar Rapids?
Realistically, one address: Half Price Books at 1400 Twixt Town Rd in Marion, a 4.2-mile drive out to the northeast, which pays cash at the Buy Counter for books, music, movies, comics and games. The published conditions are worth reading before you load up, since the store will not quote on anything it has not handled, wants a government photo ID, expects you to remain on site while the evaluation runs, requires a guardian for sellers under 18 and recommends containers in the 15 to 20 pound range, light enough for a single carry. The city's two independent secondhand shops, Shady Character Books and Sisters Books & Nooks, put no buying terms in writing anywhere, so a call ahead is what decides whether the trip pays; short of that, all three Friends groups take gifts against their own published screens. Sift the pile before loading it. Photograph the shelf as it stands, feed that to BiblioScan, and a live market price lands beside each title the software reads off it — enough to split a heap in two, the copies that earn more under your own listings and the boxes headed for Marion or a Friends donation desk.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in Cedar Rapids?
The Cedar Rapids group runs a three-day Big Fall Book Sale in Beems Auditorium A and B and the Whipple Auditorium at the Downtown Library, 450 Fifth Avenue SE, and the library calendar lists the 2026 edition as an all-day event across November 6 to 8. The same two rooms had already held a Big Spring Book Sale over April 10 to 12, 2026, nine until five on the Friday and Saturday and one until five on the Sunday. Between the big ones, the same Friends sell from the Urban Plaza out front during Downtown Cedar Rapids Farmers Markets — seven dates in 2026, each 7:30am to noon — and keep the $2 Book Nook filled throughout normal opening hours. There is a fourth route as well: the Friends will book a private appointment to shop the stacks in their Sorting Center at the Downtown Library, where they describe thousands of books at $1, $2 and $3 plus individually priced items and collectibles, arranged by emailing [email protected]. Marion and Hiawatha keep their own schedules, with Marion sponsoring three sales a year and Hiawatha clearing the Forrest Kramer Room, as it did on April 18, 2026.
Which day is best for book hunting in Cedar Rapids?
Saturday, on condition that you begin early and push westward. The Friends put their plaza tables out at 7:30am on market dates, the Goodwill Outlet unlocks at nine and stays open until seven, Half Price Books in Marion runs 10am to 8pm, and Shady Character Books gives you a four-hour window from ten to two that governs the whole route. Sunday narrows the field without closing it: Sisters Books & Nooks trades from noon, Half Price Books from eleven, the Goodwill Outlet from eleven, and the Marion and Cedar Rapids library desks from one o'clock, while the Christian Store stays closed. Skip Monday if the independents are what you came for, because Shady Character and Sisters are both dark and only the chain, the outlet, the Christian Store and the library shelves are trading.