Coventry, in the West Midlands, holds seven of the stops below inside the city boundary: the Oxfam bookshop on Hertford Street in the precinct, the National Trust's donated shelves at the Charterhouse on London Road, an Air Ambulance charity shop on Daventry Road, a book fair booked into the Albany Theatre for November 2026, the Earlsdon library's Christmas Fair with its book sale, the Saturday car boot at Bell Green, and a second one held on set dates at Cheylesmore Community Centre. Any sum mentioned below is in pounds sterling.
Most of the dedicated bookshops sit just over the boundary in Warwickshire, within ten miles of the centre. Astley Book Farm is the draw to the north, and Bedworth's covered market, a short way east of it, gained a back-issue comic dealer in 2025. To the south, Kenilworth has the volunteer-run Tree House, Leamington has a concept Oxfam bookshop, and Warwick has a record office bookshop and an antiquarian dealer a short walk apart, while to the west a National Trust estate at Baddesley Clinton raises money from donated books. A little further out, about 11 miles away in Leicestershire, Hinckley adds the Emmaus Emporium.
Oxfam BookshopOxfam Bookshop Coventry
74 Hertford St, Coventry CV1 1LB
On Hertford Street, in the pedestrian precinct at the heart of the city, Oxfam runs a books-and-music shop that says it has been trading for over 30 years. Its shop page, unchanged in an Internet Archive copy from May 2026, lists academic textbooks, poetry and plays beside fiction, crime, travel and children's titles, and claims one of the largest sci-fi departments in the country, with rare and out-of-print comics, graphic novels and games. The same page mentions vinyl, CDs, DVDs and a poster department for classic music and cinema prints, and Oxfam posts no timetable for it, so ring 024 7622 9684 before a special trip.
National Trust second-hand bookshopSecond-hand bookshop at Coventry Charterhouse
Coventry Charterhouse, London Rd, Coventry CV1 2JR
Inside the Charterhouse on London Road, about 0.8 miles south-east of the centre, the National Trust keeps a bookshop stocked from donations, and its page published on 3 February 2026 names fiction and non-fiction, books for children and teenagers, and plenty of history, many copies new or close to it. The Trust is especially short of general fiction, and it asks for an email from anyone hoping to arrange an out-of-hours drop-off or holding a large collection to give. Its calendar showed the house opening at 10am and shutting at 4pm on 1 October 2026, with National Trust members and Go CV+ card holders admitted free and other adults charged £10 without Gift Aid.
Second-hand bookshopAstley Book Farm
Astley Ln, Bedworth CV12 0NE
In Astley, a North Warwickshire village about 5.6 miles north of the centre that uses a Bedworth postal address, Astley Book Farm bills itself as the largest second-hand bookshop in the Midlands and reckons on roughly 100,000 books in stock, from antiquarian and out-of-print titles to a Children's Hayloft. A Birmingham Live article published on 9 July 2026 followed a TikTok creator's tour of the farm, describing large metal storage containers outside brimming with more books, sections for manga, comics, fantasy and sci-fi, and a weekly riddle worth 10 per cent off the bill to anyone who solves it. Its Ten Bob Barn holds shelved but unsorted stock, duplicates and overstock among it, at 50p apiece, payable, the farm jokes, in ten-shilling notes. The website gives a 10am-to-4pm day from Tuesday through Saturday, plus bank holiday Mondays, but lists Sunday as 10:30am until 3:30pm on the home page and 10am until 4pm in its footer.
Not-for-profit second-hand bookshopThe Tree House Bookshop
4 The Square, Kenilworth CV8 1EB
In Kenilworth, a Warwick district town about 5.4 miles south-south-west of Coventry, the Tree House opened in July 2013 and trades from 4 The Square, selling second-hand books given by the public, staffed by volunteers and handing its profits to charity. It accepts any saleable book except out-of-date reference works and technical textbooks, and its home page says outright that it does not buy. Evenings turn the room into a small music venue, and its events page has MAAR booked for Friday 2 October 2026 and James Yorkston bringing a book and songs on Thursday 22 October 2026.
Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 11am–4pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Coventry?
Start in the Ten Bob Barn at Astley Book Farm, where unsorted stock goes for 50p a book, the price set on the farm's own page for the barn and repeated in a Birmingham Live piece of 9 July 2026. The National Trust shelves at the Charterhouse and at Baddesley Clinton sell whatever visitors give them, and the Record Office sells its donated stock in Warwick to fund the archive. The Saturday car boot at AT7 and the Cheylesmore dates can throw up a stack of paperbacks, though neither organiser promises any.
Where do I sell used books in Coventry?
Of the businesses listed here, the Allsop shop in Warwick alone says it buys second-hand books, so call with a list before you fill the boot. The Tree House, both National Trust shops, the two Oxfam branches and Emmaus take donations rather than paying for stock. If you would rather run the sale yourself, Vinted is one outlet and the British arms of eBay and Amazon are the others. Hand BiblioScan a single photograph of your bookcase and it prices, at resale, each spine it can identify, so the keepers for listing separate themselves from the bag bound for Oxfam.
Which day is best for book hunting in Coventry?
Saturday covers the most ground: Astley, the Tree House, the Air Ambulance shop in Cheylesmore, Second City Comics, the Allsop shop, Emmaus in Hinckley and Priory Books are all open, the last only until midday, and the AT7 car boot opens its gates at 5:30am. Sunday trims the list to Astley and the Tree House, with the Mercia car boot off Lockhurst Lane as an outdoor gamble. Of the shops with fixed hours, Monday has the Tree House and the Cheylesmore charity shop open, with Astley joining them on bank holidays.
Are there any used book fairs in Coventry?
The main one in the diary: the Coventry Book Extravaganza is due back at the Albany Theatre on the third Saturday of November 2026, and Rosie's Retro Bazaar is asking second-hand and antiquarian traders to book stalls for it. Entry is free, provided you book a place in advance. Seven days later, on 28 November, the Earlsdon library adds a book sale to its own Christmas Fair.