Downtown Sarasota holds three of the nine stops below inside a triangle whose longest side stops short of half a mile, walkable end to end in twenty minutes or so: A. Parker's Books and Book Bazaar share 1488 Main Street, the Friends' room sits inside Selby Public Library two blocks away on First Street, and The Exchange occupies a corner of Burns Square on South Orange Avenue. After that the map opens out fast. Newtown lies 1.7 miles north-northeast, Gulf Gate 6.1 miles south-southeast, Longboat Key 6.6 miles out over the bay, downtown Bradenton 11.5 miles up into Manatee County, the Braden River branch 7.9 miles north-northeast, and Venice 17.4 miles down the coast. Anything outside the Sarasota city limits gets its town named up front, in the opening line.
Most of the cheap print on this page passes through nonprofit hands, and every group prices and discounts on its own terms. Gulf Gate posts a monthly half-price day and pins it to the third Thursday. The Selby volunteers do the same on the last Tuesday. Venice publishes a flat list — four dollars a hardcover mystery, five for an illustrated art book, two or three for a beach paperback — and clears its workroom with all-for-a-dollar days. Bradenton's Second Edition wrapped its stock and sold it blind at five dollars for its thirteenth birthday. What none of these rooms do is buy: they run on donations, which is why a seller's options here look nothing like a seller's options in a Half Price Books town.
Two names carried by older Sarasota roundups now lead nowhere. Brant's Books, opened in 1956 by Glen and Majorie Brant according to the shop's own history page, has no open storefront; the site says its owner is busy trying to reimagine and reopen the place, with a new Sarasota address promised only through social media. Shelf Indulgence has left Florida: its own FAQ and contact page give an address at 108 S. Wayne Avenue in Waynesboro, Virginia, and its Bookshop.org profile calls it a downtown Waynesboro shop, while the exhibitor roster for the 2026 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair still carries the old 2805 N. Tamiami Trail listing under Nichole Snyder. A third gap is temporary — Sarasota County's Ask Us file, revised August 26, 2026, still has Fruitville Library and its bookstore closed for a major renovation. The one arrival runs the other way: Goodwill Manasota built a bookstore on Longboat Key at the end of 2025.
Used bookstoresA. Parker's Books & Book Bazaar
1488 Main St, Sarasota, FL 34236
Two separate corporations share one storefront three blocks east of the bayfront: A. Parker's Books, Inc. handles the antiquarian, rare and finely bound end and keeps a rare book room behind it, while Book Bazaar, Inc. fills most of the space with used, out-of-print and scholarly stock. Its About page dates the physical store to 1980 and counts over 100,000 titles on the floor. Both firms appear on the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair's exhibitor roster for the 2026 edition, listed at this same address under Gary Hurst and Joe Phillips respectively, with the next fair set for March 6 and 7, 2027. Do not plan around a published timetable: the ILAB member profile warns that the hours vary by season and tells visitors to phone or email for the current ones, and neither the site footer nor the contact page prints a grid.
Friends of the Library bookstoreSelby Library Bookstore
Selby Public Library, 1331 1st St, Sarasota, FL 34236
Some 0.2 miles from Parker's counter, tucked inside Selby Public Library, staffed by a Friends group incorporated in 1978 that turns over donated stock beside a rotating local Artist of the Month. Its events page advertises a fifty-percent-off day on the last Tuesday of every month, and the next one on that calendar is Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Read the times off the door rather than the web, because the organization contradicts itself: the About page publishes a plain 10am–4pm week from Monday to Saturday, plus a First Friday Highlands evening running to 7pm, while the footer that runs on every page and Sarasota County's Ask Us answer agree on something else — 10am until 7pm from Monday to Thursday, then 10am until 4pm on Friday and Saturday. One more wrinkle for anyone searching: the county points at selbylibraryfriends.org, which will not load, and the working site is friendsofselbylibrary.org.
Friends of the Library bookstoreFriends of the Betty J. Johnson North Sarasota Library Bookstore
Betty J. Johnson North Sarasota Public Library, 2801 Newtown Blvd, Sarasota, FL 34234
Up in Newtown, an unincorporated stretch 1.7 miles north-northeast of downtown, one organization runs both a bookstore and the African American Cultural Resource Center out of a single building on Newtown Boulevard. The cultural side opens Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5pm to 7:30pm, plus the second and fourth Saturday afternoons by appointment, so a late visit can take in both. The hours here are the group's own; Sarasota County's Ask Us file, updated on August 26, 2026, shortens that Thursday to 4pm, which is worth a phone call if you are driving out for the extra two hours.
Hours : Mon–Wed 10am–4pm, Thu 10am–6pm, Fri 10am–4pm, Sat 10am–2pmWebsite Friends of the Library bookstoreFriends of the Gulf Gate Library Bookstore
Gulf Gate Library, 7112 Curtiss Ave, Sarasota, FL 34231
Gulf Gate is unincorporated territory 6.1 miles south-southeast of downtown Sarasota, and this shop occupies part of the branch library on Curtiss Avenue. The homepage carries a standing markdown in capitals — every third Thursday of the month, selected items go for half — and asks donors for newer hardcovers, paperbacks and jewelry, the last of which a volunteer named Dorothy curates beside dollar greeting cards handmade by a volunteer named Margo. The times below come from that homepage and match what Sarasota County published on its answer file when it was refreshed in late August 2026.
Hours : Mon–Fri 10am–5pm, Sat 10am–4pmWebsite Goodwill bookstoreGoodwill Longboat Key Bookstore & Attended Donation Center
Brista Commons, 3160 Gulf of Mexico Dr, Longboat Key, FL 34228
Out on Longboat Key, 6.6 miles west-northwest across the bay, in the newly built Brista Commons plaza on Gulf of Mexico Drive. Goodwill Manasota cut the ribbon on Thursday, December 18, 2025 and wrote the morning up itself: nearly 3,500 square feet, the charity's first address on the barrier island, a signing by local author Beth Rice, and seven jobs created. That same post says the inventory is refreshed several times a day and that the drive-thru lane accepts donations while the shop trades. That 8am-to-8pm daily window is the only published Sunday opening on this page.
Hours : Mon–Sun 8am–8pmWebsite Friends of the Library bookstoreSecond Edition Bookstore
Manatee County Central Library, 1301 Barcarrota Blvd W, Bradenton, FL 34205
11.5 miles north-northwest, over the Manatee County line in downtown Bradenton, where the Central Library gives over part of its first floor. Manatee County describes Friends of the Central Library, Inc. as a 501(c)(3) that operates this volunteer-run shop, and the library system marked its thirteenth birthday in a post of April 3, 2025 by wrapping gently-loved titles and selling them blind at $5 each. That post also published the week, which is what the grid below reproduces.
Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–4pmWebsite Friends of the Library bookstoreFriends of the Venice Public Library Bookstore
William H. Jervey, Jr. Venice Public Library, 300 Nokomis Ave S, Venice, FL 34285
Down in Venice, 17.4 miles south-southeast along the coast, in a room inside the Jervey public library on Nokomis Avenue South. The Friends publish their prices outright: $4 buys a hardcover mystery or a travel guide, $5 an illustrated art or coffee-table book, $2 or $3 a beach paperback, and the shelves also carry CDs, movie DVDs, audiobooks and sheet music. Volunteer Karen Murphy posted a Big $1 Sale on July 2, 2026 for Saturday, July 18 in the library's Community Room, every format at a dollar between 10am and 3pm with the displays restocked through the day, and the group says it clears its workroom that way once or twice a year. Check the closing time before you commit the drive: the Friends' bookstore page closes the room at 4:30pm, while their homepage and Sarasota County's answer file put it at 5pm.
Where can I find cheap used books in Sarasota?
Floor prices in this metro live in the Friends-run rooms. Venice prints its list openly at $2 to $3 for paperbacks, $4 for hardcover mysteries and travel, and $5 for illustrated art books, and empties its workroom at a dollar a copy once or twice a year, most recently on July 18, 2026. Gulf Gate cuts selected stock in half each third Thursday, and Selby does fifty percent off on the last Tuesday, with September 29, 2026 next on its calendar. In Bradenton, Second Edition inside the Central Library sold wrapped surprise books at $5 for its thirteenth birthday in April 2025 and carries ordinary donated stock in between. For volume in a single visit, the Braden River sale in east Bradenton is the one multi-day event on this page.
Where do I sell used books in Sarasota?
Honestly, barely anywhere across a counter. The Friends shops at Selby, Gulf Gate, Newtown, Bradenton and Venice all take donations and pay nothing, and Goodwill on Longboat Key works the same way through its drive-thru lane. The Exchange on South Orange Avenue is the one route on this page that returns money: it is a consignment house, and its consignor notice of August 1, 2026 keeps books, audiobooks and DVDs exempt from the $6.00 minimum it applied to every other category, so inexpensive print is still taken in. Because the market pays so little here, sorting matters more than usual — stand a shelf up, take one photo, and BiblioScan puts a resale price against every spine it can identify, which sorts a shelf into the two piles that matter: titles worth a listing, and everything bound for a donation crate.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in Sarasota?
No single date covers the county, because every branch has its own Friends organization. Inside Sarasota itself the model is a permanent shop rather than an event: Selby Public Library, the Betty J. Johnson library in Newtown and the Gulf Gate branch each keep a volunteer-run room open through the week, with their discount days falling on the last Tuesday and the third Thursday respectively. The Fruitville room is the exception and is closed along with its building for a rebuild, per Sarasota County's Ask Us file as revised on August 26, 2026. For an actual sale you cross into Manatee County, where the Braden River Friends run a four-day event, the 2026 pair of them spanning September 2 to 5 and January 29 to 31, and where the organizers head it Semi-Annual on their own site. Between sales that branch keeps a Book Nook of donated stock on open shelves, priced at whatever you choose to leave for it.
Which day is best for book hunting in Sarasota?
A weekday, and preferably a Thursday. Six of the nine stops close on Sunday, and the only one with a published Sunday window is the Longboat Key Goodwill, which trades 8am to 8pm daily. Saturday works but runs short: Newtown closes at 2pm, Gulf Gate and The Exchange at 4pm, Venice somewhere between 4:30pm and 5pm depending which of its pages you trust. A Thursday gives you the longest afternoons — Newtown to 6pm by its own posting, Selby to 7pm by the county's — and a third Thursday adds the Gulf Gate half-price rack on top. The last Tuesday of the month is the other date worth circling, because that is when the Selby volunteers take fifty percent off, next on September 29, 2026.