Westsider Rare & Used Books Inc.

I recently visited Westsider Rare & Used Books on the Upper West Side and left feeling completely inspired. The space has that perfect old New York charm tall shelves stacked with everything from rare finds to well-loved paperbacks, narrow aisles that invite wandering, and that comforting scent of aged pages.nnWhat I appreciated most was the curation. You can tell the books are chosen with care. There’s a thoughtful mix of literature, art, history, philosophy, and unexpected gems.nnThe staff is knowledgeable without being overbearing, happy to help if you need guidance, but also respectful of the quiet ritual of browsing. It feels like a community space, not just a store.

This is the platonic ideal of a used bookstore.nnI've been coming here for over a decade, and I'm blown away by the selection every single time. It's very rare that I don't walk away with an incredible find: the (very affordable!) used books inside are often difficult to come across elsewhere.nnThere's a few cheap secondhand shelves on the street, and sometimes you can find a decent book or two for a few bucks.nnThe real meat is on the inside, where books are stacked all the way up to a high ceiling in this railroad-, deep and high hole in the wall style store. It's an incredibly cozy, warm atmosphere, especially in the winter, and unparalleled to anything else in the city. In a very real sense, this is the stuff of dreams. There's a wide range of choices, from poetry, fiction, criticism, architecture, philosophy, religion, political science, and history, along with a selection of records, comic books, and photo books. Anyone can find a book for them hidden away somewhere on these shelves—browsing them is its own reward. I gravitate towards the history section, where I've been able to score hard to find. At one point they were selling the collected edition of Braudel's Civilization and Capitalism at a severe discount, and I still regret not picking it up. No worries — I walked away with three books just the other day.nnOn the second floor you'll find the collector's rare and unique books, worth seeing at least once.nnWestsider is tight for space, but I'm very happy they have the one or two stools available to fine tune selections before purchase!nnStaff has always been extremely courteous, helpful, and at times very funny.nnA real gem of a store.

Plenty of books, very small location but this is the thing that makes this shop unique

Unique little bookstore with a large selection of used books and some rare and vintage books. Enjoyed looking around at their entire inventory. Very friendly, helpful staff. Upbeat customer service. We left with a few titles we had to have even though we’d have to ship them home. I took a few photos and told others about it after such a great experience. Wish we had locally owned book stores like this closer to home.

I love the feel of this store, it's cozy and has interesting selections. It has much to take in and found myself leaving with titles I wouldn't usually reach for if I was just shopping online or at my local book retailer. I had a great time here