The ground covered here is San Luis Obispo plus the towns within roughly 12 miles of City Hall: Los Osos and Morro Bay out by the estuary to the west-northwest, Grover Beach and Arroyo Grande off US 101 toward the south-southeast. Ten of the sixteen stops are inside the city, and nine of those sit within 0.6 miles of City Hall, from the library on Palm Street down to the thrift stores at the lower end of Higuera Street; the tenth is the Sunday swap meet at the Sunset Drive-In. Paso Robles and Atascadero lie past that ring, so their bookshops appear only in the tips.
Sort out the selling half of any trip in advance: just two counters below take books back, and neither publishes a cash offer. Nan's in Grover Beach sets its trade value at 20% of the cover price and describes it as credit on its policy page, and A to Z, over in Arroyo Grande, returns 20% of full cover on copies carrying its own stamp, its owner told the Tribune in June 2026. The thrift stores and the three Friends groups on this page run on donations, and Fred & Betty's says outright that it offers neither consignment nor exchange.
Three things changed in 2025 and 2026. A Satellite of Love left 1335 Walker Street for 1235 Monterey Street on June 6, 2026, the Tribune reported, though the footer of its website still carried the Walker Street address in October. SLO Thrift, one of the book-carrying stores on the Higuera thrift row, only opened on January 16, 2026. And the Arroyo Grande branch library is shut for a major renovation, so the Friends group there has suspended its sales until it reopens.
New, used and rare bookstorePhoenix Books
990 Monterey St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Bruce Miller opened Phoenix in November 1981, first on Broad Street, and moved it to this two-story building whose awnings read "new, used and rare books"; ownership has passed to his son Evan Miller-Donnelly, who, the Tribune reported in September 2024, also sells the stock across several online platforms. Visit SLO CAL's bookstore crawl of June 19, 2026 describes floor-to-ceiling shelves of used, new and rare titles and tags the shop as known for used and unusual books. The shop's Instagram bio posts a seven-day week with 9pm closings from Thursday to Saturday, the same grid the Tribune printed in 2024, and the account's January 29, 2026 post announcing a full-day closure the next day for the nationwide general strike is reason enough to check the feed before setting out.
Hours: Mon–Wed 10am–6pm, Thu–Sat 10am–9pm, Sun 11am–6pmWebsite Friends of the Library bookstoreSLO Friends of the Library Bookstore
San Luis Obispo Library, 995 Palm St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
A permanent corner of donated stock on your left as you walk into the downtown branch library, which the Downtown SLO directory places directly across from City Hall. The Friends group behind it, whose website was promoting its October 2026 sale, describes the shelves as gently used fiction, nonfiction, children's books and magazines at bargain prices, while unusual and higher-value donations go to the group's eBay store instead. One or two bags of your own books can go in the marked bin to the right of the inner entrance door. Opening follows the county library's branch schedule, which leaves Sunday and Monday dark and gives Friday only an afternoon.
Hours: Library hours: Tue–Wed 10am–6pm, Thu 9am–5pm, Fri 1pm–5pm, Sat 9am–5pmWebsite Used bookstoresNan's Books & Crystals
1328 W Grand Ave, Grover Beach, CA 93433
In Grover Beach, 11.5 miles from City Hall down the coast, Nan Fowler's used bookstore of 1987 passed in 2020 to her granddaughter Kassi Dee, who is also Grover Beach's mayor. For a June 13, 2026 story, the Tribune reported more than 75,000 used books for sale, priced at half the cover, quoted Dee on about 30 people a day bringing books in to trade, and gave the buying rate as roughly 20% of the cover price. The store's policy page sets a $1.50 floor, marks the few new books at full price and treats those trades as store credit; Dee told the paper that books the shop turns down go to the Grover Beach Community Library. Crystals bought from the former Halcyon store in 2023 and two resident cats share the floor.
Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–5:30pm, Sun 1pm–5pmWebsite Used bookstoresA to Z Books
909 E Grand Ave, Arroyo Grande, CA 93420
A mother-and-daughter used bookstore in a single-story building it shares with two other businesses at East Grand Avenue and South Halcyon Road in Arroyo Grande, 1.3 miles east of Nan's. Owner Laura Mullen told the Tribune for its June 13, 2026 story that she and her mother opened in Grover Beach in 1988 and moved here in 2008; most books cost half of cover, a cart holds $1 copies, and a book stamped at purchase brings back 20% of its full cover price. Sections run by genre and then alphabetically, one shelf is labeled for books that fit nowhere, and the shop's website mentions a small corner of new books, CDs and DVDs.
Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–5pmWebsite New and used bookstore with garden chapelCoalesce Bookstore
845 Main St, Morro Bay, CA 93442
On Main Street in Morro Bay, 12 crow-flight miles out from City Hall, sits the shop that Visit SLO CAL's June 19, 2026 crawl calls a Morro Bay landmark since 1973 and the region's longest continuously running independent bookstore, with rows of new and used books inside and a garden wedding chapel behind. Its website adds out-of-print searches and takes book requests by email or phone, with delivery around Morro Bay, Cayucos and Los Osos. The doors open from 11am to 4pm all week, and the Friends' shelf in the Morro Bay library is a quarter mile away.
Hours: Daily 11am–4pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in San Luis Obispo?
The Friends' shelves are the floor of the market: the Morro Bay store starts at $1 and tops out near $4, the Los Osos Book Nook sells donated stock, the downtown San Luis Obispo bookstore describes its prices as bargain ones, and the downtown Friends price their Community Room sales by the stacked inch. In Arroyo Grande, A to Z keeps a cart of $1 books, and the Higuera thrift row is worth a pass too: the Tribune's April 2026 visit noted SLO Thrift's rainbow stickers running from $1 up to $5 on some goods, and a reporter's $2 Odyssey bought at Lumina Thrift. Nan's in Grover Beach and A to Z both price most secondhand copies at half the cover.
Where do I sell used books in San Luis Obispo?
Trading happens in the south of the county. At Nan's, a trade-in is worth a fifth of what's printed on the cover and comes back as credit, while the Arroyo Grande shop credits 20% of full cover only on books bearing its stamp; neither publishes a cash offer. The Friends groups in San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay and Los Osos and the thrift stores on Higuera take donations only. Before splitting a box between the credit counter and your own listings, stand the books up and take one photo of the row: BiblioScan tags every spine it recognizes on that shelf with what the copy fetches secondhand, and that one picture splits the books worth listing online from the credit pile.
Which day is best for book hunting in San Luis Obispo?
Saturday, since every store and library shelf with published hours opens that day: start early at the downtown library shelf at 9am, walk to the Higuera thrift stores, then drive south to Nan's and A to Z or west to Morro Bay, where the library shuts at 1pm that day and Coalesce at 4pm. Sunday suits a different plan, built around the Sunset Drive-In swap meet from 6am to 11:30am, followed by SLO Thrift, Dr. Cain's and Nan's, which opens at 1pm.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in San Luis Obispo?
Each group publishes its own rhythm. The San Luis Obispo Friends planned three 2026 sales, one each in February, June and October, at the Palm Street library, and point to their Facebook account for upcoming dates. The volunteer-run community library in Grover Beach holds its sales on Saturdays and lists them on its book-sale page. The Morro Bay Friends speak of periodic sales without a calendar, the Los Osos Friends have paused theirs until they find a sales coordinator, and the Arroyo Grande Friends have stopped for the library renovation.