Lincoln keeps its secondhand paper in a handful of downtown blocks and then hands the rest of the job to the public library. A Novel Idea sits at 118 North 14th Street with Bennett Martin Public Library a tenth of a mile away on the same street, while Bluestem Books and Trade-A-Tape stand shoulder to shoulder at 137 and 145 South 9th in the Haymarket, a shade under half a mile west. Beyond those four addresses you need a car and a branch timetable, because the rest of the city's cheap stock sits on the Book Nooks — shelves of donated material that six library branches sell during library hours, named as such by the Foundation that fundraises for Lincoln City Libraries. Every one of the seven stops below sits inside the Lincoln city limits, spreading from Bethany out east on Cotner Boulevard to Walt at 6701 South 14th.
Neither of the two buying desks below wants what the other one wants, which makes a wasted trip easy to arrange. A Novel Idea asks sellers to email group photographs that show the spines and waits until it has offered an appointment; it takes nothing below excellent condition, settles either in cash or with trade credit pegged about 30 percent above that cash figure, and publishes a want list that its Sell Your Books page, last edited on August 3, 2025, gives as philosophy, science, ancient and medieval history, Easton Press and Folio Society, role-playing manuals and literary fiction. Bluestem works subject by subject rather than by genre, asking for scholarly material in most fields, good literature in decent editions, theology and Eastern religion, Nebraska history and Nebraska authors, military history and natural history. The library shelves buy nothing whatsoever: they live on donations, which Lincoln City Libraries caps at two boxes a visit and accepts at every location except the South and Williams branches.
Three things date an older Lincoln roundup. Indigo Bridge, the Haymarket bookstore and cafe that opened in 2008, closed as the pandemic began in 2020 by the Lincoln Journal Star's account, came back, and then announced in August 2024 that it would shut for good on the 25th of that month. Downtown itself is a building site, and A Novel Idea routes customers around the Project O Street rebuild of lighting, landscaping, sidewalks and streets from its own front page, with a printed Dorothy Map and a Wizard of O St adventure card handed out in its building. The downtown library is on borrowed time too: the city announced on May 15, 2025 that it wanted to convert the Southeast Community College Education Square building at 1111 O Street into a replacement for Bennett Martin, then launched a public fundraising campaign for that project on June 17, 2026.
Used bookstoresA Novel Idea Bookstore
118 N 14th St, Lincoln, NE 68508
Two college seniors opened this shop in 1991 with a stock of 2,000 books, shelving cut from scrap lumber and space heaters that kept blowing the fuses, and moved it in 1992 to the two-floor downtown address it still holds, a couple of blocks from the University; the store tells that story itself, resident cats and costumed gargoyle included. Both levels carry secondhand, antiquarian and out-of-print material, from paperback mysteries to signed leather bindings, while new titles are ordered in through Bookshop.org, and the Nebraska Book Trail — the statewide passport running June 1 to September 30, 2026 — carries it as one of five Lincoln entries. Its refusal list is as public as its want list and starts with any copy short of As New or Fine, then rules out Harlequin and Silhouette romance, Reader's Digest Condensed volumes, textbooks and coffee table books about countries or animals. Check the clock before you set out: on September 3, 2026 the front page was advertising summer hours of 11am–6pm Wednesday through Saturday, 1pm–5pm on Sunday and a 7:30pm finish on First Fridays, while the shop's own Hours and Services page, untouched since March 2022, still read noon–6pm Wednesday through Saturday, so call 402-475-8663.
Used bookstoresBluestem Books
137 S 9th St, Lincoln, NE 68508
Scott and Pat started dealing in 1977, buying far more than they sold, took warehouse space in the Haymarket in 1984 and opened to the public after months of renovation, then shifted three blocks to this storefront in 2008 after what the shop calls 24 years under the bridge. Pat died in 2019 and, by that same account, a daughter-in-law named Kelly works the floor alongside Scott; an older page on the same domain puts the holdings above 50,000 volumes aimed at readers, scholars and collectors. The seller guidance is refreshingly blunt about what will be turned away: worn, soiled, underlined, ex-library or musty copies, computer books of any kind, old textbooks, anything outdated in current events, politics, travel, medicine or self-help, encyclopedias, Time-Life and National Geographic sets, Patterson and Grisham, and pocket-sized mass-market paperbacks. Monday is by appointment or by chance, and a notice dated May 20, 2026 on the shop's Facebook page, repeated word for word on its home page, announced a closure the following day for a family event with regular hours resuming after it.
Hours : Tue–Sat 10am–5pmWebsite Library Book NookBook Nook at Bennett Martin Public Library
136 S 14th St, Lincoln, NE 68508
The downtown library went up in 1962 and was put down for replacement in the city announcement of May 15, 2025 about a Central Library on O Street; in the meantime it carries one of the six Book Nooks the library foundation listed in a post of December 6, 2024, describing them as first-quality books at book-sale prices sold at the branches during normal business hours. Lincoln City Libraries adds on its donation page that magazines from recent years may be priced onto those same shelves when demand justifies it. Traffic through the building stays heavy for a site with an end date, the foundation putting circulation at 164,000 against 132,000 visits. The city-owned parking garage west of the building gives you a free first hour, which is enough for the shelf and a lap of the floor.
Hours : Mon–Thu 10am–8pm, Fri–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun noon–6pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Lincoln?
The library shelves are the value play, and they are open whenever the branch is. Six of the eight Lincoln City Libraries locations carry a Book Nook of donated material sold at sale prices, and the two pop-up editions the foundation ran in 2024 give you the range to expect: $2 for a hardcover, with paperbacks and board books down at a dollar. After that, walk past A Novel Idea and look at the sidewalk before you go through the door, because the outdoor carts step titles down in stages to a dollar and there are usually free bins beside them. Neither of the downtown secondhand bookstores above is a bargain operation — Bluestem in particular prices for scholars and collectors — so treat those as the place to find something specific rather than something cheap.
Where do I sell used books in Lincoln?
Two shops on this page will make you an offer. A Novel Idea requires photographs of your spines by email before it will schedule you, buys only excellent copies, and hands over money or store credit worth roughly 30 percent more, credit that lasts indefinitely and transfers to another account but never converts back to cash; it publishes both a current want list and an unusually direct list of what it will never take. Bluestem buys by subject and would rather hear from you while a house is being cleared or an estate settled, with the state's own history and authors high among its interests. Do the sorting at home: photograph the shelf, let BiblioScan attach a resale value to every spine it manages to identify, and you will know which few titles to sell yourself and which box belongs across one of these counters. And if you were counting on a Half Price Books counter, the chain lists a single Nebraska store, which sits in Omaha.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in Lincoln?
The Lincoln City Libraries events calendar for September and October 2026 carries no Friends sale whatsoever, and the reason is worth knowing. The Foundation for Lincoln City Libraries, whose supporters are its Friends, keeps Book Nooks on the branch shelves instead, and its post of December 6, 2024 named the six carrying one: Anderson, Bennett Martin, Bethany, Eiseley, Gere and Walt. Pop-up Book Nook Blast sales have been layered on top of those from time to time, at Walt on Saturday, June 1, 2024 and at Eiseley on Saturday, August 24, 2024 between 10am and 3pm at the same $2 and $1 prices. Nothing of the kind has been announced since, so watch the library events calendar rather than holding out for a fixed date that has not been published.
Which day is best for book hunting in Lincoln?
Saturday, with one caveat about the finishing times. All four downtown stops are open that day — A Novel Idea, Bluestem until 5pm, Trade-A-Tape until 5:30pm by its own posted grid and Bennett Martin until 6pm — and the outlying branches also run 10am–6pm. Sunday thins the field sharply: Bluestem and Bethany are dark, Trade-A-Tape is the subject of an unresolved disagreement between its site and a local directory, and A Novel Idea's summer notice gave 1pm–5pm — and on Sunday, September 6, 2026 the libraries themselves were closed for the Labor Day weekend. Midweek has its own argument, since Wednesday brings the new comics to South 9th Street and a student discount at Goodwill, while Monday through Thursday is when Gere, Walt, Anderson and Eiseley stay lit until 8pm.