SoCal Lit Scene: The One Dollar Bookstore in Orange, California

A new feature I'll be adding to this blog is reviews of bookstores and literary events in Southern California. This is going to be a little project of mine, and I'm excited to visit as many bookstores within driving distance as I can. If you are a Southern California bookstore owner or planning an event and are interested in having it reviewed on my blog, please use the contact form to let me know!

I blame it all on indiebound. Shortly after I visited Vromans, I wanted to double check that it was the closest independent bookstore and lo and behold there were all of these used bookstores that had just been added, including the One Dollar Bookstore. There was absolutely no way a bookstore with books for just One Dollar was going to go unvisited by me, and I made plans to go there the very next weekend!

Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. I could have easily walked out with 20 books, but I kept myself to just 8. One was a completely goofy choice, and if you look at the picture below I think you can guess which one. :)

The store used to be a supermarket and since the books are sold for just $1 the fixings and decor are minimal. In fact, for the most part, the books aren't even really sorted. They are slightly organized, there is a section for children's books and one for teens. The shelves when you first walk in announce new arrivals, and the books lining the wall are alphabetized fiction. But that doesn't mean you won't also find what you're looking for in the many many shelves of "mixed books."

There wasn't much in the way of good YA, and in fact, I didn't spend much time looking at the alphabetized fiction, I found most of my buys in the mixed books or new arrival sections. I hadn't heard of all of the authors or books, but let me tell you that when the books are just $1 it's a great time to take a risk. Also, there were several fairly recent releases, you might think you'd only find books you don't really want at a place like this, but I was pleasantly surprised by how many interesting options there were. Of course, there were also a couple of shelves of the Left Behind books!

There are several locations of the One Dollar Bookstore in Southern California and if you have some time to kill and some room on your bookshelf, than I suggest checking it out for sure. The picture below is the stack of books I got, and to make things even better there was a special! (does a One Dollar bookstore need a special?) For every five books you bought you got one free! So my total was a mere $7.54.

Have you read any of these books? Do you know which one is the goofy one?

The One Dollar Bookstore has locations in Orange, Burbank, and Lakewood.