Zephyr Books

*** closed ***

I was told about Zephyr by a friend and that it was having a closing sale. A week later I was able to make it over and that sure enough is the case.
The woman helping me at the counter said that they could be open to the end of May depending on how the sale goes. Right now hardcovers are $ 2, paperbacks and pocketbooks are $ 1. The staffer went on to say that they are still clearing out their storage and that the discounts will increase as they get closer to closing the doors.
A real shame to see such a resource go and only catch it at the end. I picked up some great selections on war and western history. They even still have plenty left in their children’s section.

Ok– true gem. had no idea would find such a place in Reno. Guess i don’t know Reno. Wonderful store, huge selection, great space. Very large, coffee in back. Selection is fantastic, lots of academic books. so well maintained. if you like to used books and are in Reno, this is a must see.

The more I shop here, the more I grow to like it. They have pretty good turnover – there’s always new and interesting items on the shelves. Staff is friendly and helpful. I sell used books from time to time and find that the book buyer is very picky, but I guess that’s why I always find cool things to buy.

I came in yesterday after eating at Si Amigos. I was just planning on looking around. They have a sign outside asking you to leave backpacks and bags at the front desk. This makes me nervious because my purse is a backpack style. I did not try to fight it and left it and my leftover bag there. At least they put it on a counter behind the desk. It is a very large and roomy store, with good lighting, so you can easily read the titles. It looks like they make an attempt at organising. However the signage that they do have is confusing and there is not enough of it! I think that it would drive someone that has either worked in a library or is very into organization crazy! Someone mentioned Fried Green Tomatoes while I was there. I have been wanting to read it so I asked about it. The woman backtracked her actions and found it for me! When she went to get my things from the back counter she knocked my leftovers onto the floor! She insisted on paying me to be able to replace what fell. So I ended up with the book at no charge to me! That is great public relations! They also do appraisals on older books! I will probably go back.

Decent used bookstore.
Not much to elaborate on. They sell books… That are used

Stopped through here on a trip to Reno, and enjoyed it. Very friendly staff, very large selection. A little disorganized, to be sure, but the rest of it makes up for that.

This is the book store that started out as Black and White books on Wells Avenue and moved to just off Lakeside Drive before reopening as Zephyr Books.
It’s got a lot of books and the prices are fair. I seldom seem to find books here I like. I don’t know if the problem is me or them. So only three stars.

Everyone says Zephyr has the best selection of books in Reno, which is probably true, but it’s no great shakes. The reviewer who compared it to an estate sale was right — they don’t seem to bother to cull the estate books before they put them on the shelves.
They do have a collectible books room full of relatively good books priced at internet levels; that’s something other stores in town don’t have.
Except in the collectibles room, the aisles are wide and there was plenty of light, so the overall browsing experience is OK.

I stop by Zephyr’s at least two or three times a month. I’m an avid book hound and love the hunt, so to speak. My mom introduced me to this shop, thus feeding my addiction. The organization leaves a little to be desired, my experience working in bookstores make me want to reorganize her entire system.
The best part about Zephyr’s is the selection. I often am hunting for books that are out of print or hard to find. The owner often knows exactly who I’m looking for and where it would be, so that saves on the time it takes me to look.
The almost haphazard arrangement of the books make one want to browse for hours. (Which I’ve done, much to my own delight.) By far, Zephyr Books is the best used book store in town!

Can’t wait to go here again. Perfect date: cruising old books here and then going across the street to the Gas Lamp for dinner.

I’d give this great Reno asset 5 stars if it were only a tiny bit more organized. However, I did eventually find everything by the author I was reading when visiting Reno. Not only that, the proprietors later bought back from me (at approx. half price) every book I purchased there! Buyback hours are from 6 — 8 p.m., for example, but I was able to go in & trade at other hours as long as I was purchasing an additional book. When you walk in and see the piles of books, you are looking at buys they’ve not yet shelved. Zephy’s even carries the magazine First Edition to satisfy collectors. These folks also sell online, so there’s a lot of things going on the casual customer might not notice. Collectibles are amazing here. Hours & lighting are good. Prices seem high for used, but condition of volumes is A-​1.

A fun place to shop for used books. The books are not very well organized, and you wouldn’t really expect much of this store looking at it from the outside, but they have a large number of books, and if you are looking for something rare, their book buyer may have it, or could keep an eye out for you.
One trip there, I had the pleasure of getting a look in the back, at their rare book section, and was quite impressed by some of the old books that I saw as I looked around.

A large store with an eclectic selection and a nearly-​as-​eclectic shelving schema. The categories break down reasonably but if you want to find something specific within that category, well, I hope you packed a lunch.
There’s a distinct «estate sale» vibe here, thanks in part to the amount of 1970s-​and-​earlier work in hardcover, and in part to the… um…“grandma-esque” scent in the air on the day I visited. The SF section had some strange holes in the authors available but given the natural ebb and flow of stock in a used bookstore like this, it may have just been down to when I came in. But even the cheap book-​club editions seem to get Brodarted, which is nice.
Worth a visit for out-​of-​towners who don’t have any specific titles in mind; I’ll leave it to the locals to say whether or not they hold up to repeat business.

I loved this store. If I’m in Reno looking for books I will definitely go here. It’s a huge store — lots of different books, classic‘old pulp, and new paperbacks, and a lot of former library hardcover books. There is a little coffee stand, and a few little tables. It still felt a bit like they were getting the hang of things, but I couldn’t find anything wrong with this place.
I got 2 sci-​fi books, 1 from the early 80’s that’s very hard to find, one a very new paperback, 2 romance novels — both hard to find publishers– and my dad got like 5 out-​of-​print paperback mysteries. All relatively hard to find used books.

The boyfriend and I had seen this store for a while before we decided to go inside. It’s located a short walk (and I do mean short) from Sushi Pier 2, which is one of our frequent hangouts. Both of us love fantasy and sci-​fi books, a lot of which were parts of series we started collecting back in the 90’s but hadn’t had a chance to complete yet.
On this particular day, we were trying to find Spelljammer books which are now out of print.
There is both an up side and a down side to Zephyr Books. While we were able to find some of the books we were looking for, they weren’t in any particular order. This meant that we wound up with volumes 1, 2, 4, and 6 rather than a whole series. Now we have to either hunt down the missing books from another store or online, or hope someone will dispose of their copy at Zephyr. So, sometimes you can luck out and find a rare old gem, and other times you may only find part of what you wanted to get.
Furthermore, the book buyer seems to be to blame for this. When I brought in several complete fantasy series to trade/​sell, he only selected parts of the series. He’d take volume 2, but not volume 1 or 3. So, not only am I still stuck with a stack of books, but now they’re even more worthless than when I first walked in. I can’t even give them to friends, now, or to the library; who wants to read an incomplete series of novels?
But aside from that, Zephyr Books has been the one place in town that sometimes gets in volumes of untranslated Japanese manga. So far, I’ve been lucky enough to find stuff for Valkyrie Profile and Dragon Quest. You can’t just pick those up at your local Border’s. Also, they have a decent selection of older D&D source books, which is great for role-​playing nerds like me and the boyfriend.
And aside from that, it’s great to buy hardback fantasy novels for a fraction of the chain store prices. That’s not to say that everything at Zephyr is dirt cheap. But some books I’ve purchased were more than 50% off the cover price, and they weren’t exceptionally old titles, either. We’re talking some of the recent stuff that’s only been in circulation for a year or less.
I haven’t tried their coffee, even though the owners (I’m assuming that’s who they are) reminded us about it. But I usually stop by after eating sushi, so I’m never in the mood.
They do usually play an interesting new age music selection, and have two large, clean bathrooms. There is also a chess table set up, but I never feel like I could just sit down and play without someone giving me a funny look. The proprietors are friendly, though, even when you’re a klutz like me and drop a whole stack of books on the floor. (Nothing was damaged, btw. They were more concerned about me, thinking I had fallen or something, than for the books.)

I really want to give this store a lot more than 3 stars – the people there are so nice, and Reno needs more great used bookstores – however, I had to knock off 2 stars for the following reasons:
1) Not a great selection. The store is fairly large, and when you walk in the selection appears to be good, but the shelves are filled with a lot of older, out-​of-​date books that make it seem as though there are more choices than there really are. Of course, this is a newer store, so maybe they just need some more time to accumulate stock.
2) The atmosphere is, too, well… bright. This may seem overly picky, but I like my used bookstores to be dim and crowded and cozy. I like the feeling of losing myself in a bookstore, but there is no getting lost in this store with its fully-​glass storefront, straight and wide rows, and bright fluorescent lighting.
Still, it’s worth a visit if you just feel like browsing through books; just don’t expect a comfy place to hang out for a long time. They also have a small coffee bar, although I haven’t yet tried their coffee because I walk past Bibo on my way there.