The Battery Books & Music

There’s an old saying that goes something like, «You can judge whether or not a city’s downtown is worth an afternoon spent there, based on the quality of its bookstores.»
And by «old saying,» I mean I just pulled it out of my ass. But even if it actually were an old pearl of wisdom instead of an awkward segue into a Unilocal review, The Battery Books & Music is a very loud and beautiful voice in a downtown South Pasadena that is charming, quiet, quaint, and everything that a bigger city ain’t: a haven for small businesses, mom and pop shops that range from cupcakes to patisseries to steak, bathtubs, sushi, yoga, and all the brews you could ever want or use, of the coffee and alcohol and aromatherapy variety.
And books.
The Battery is the embodiment of the small, corner bookstore that you remember from when you were a little kid and bookstores were still a thing, or from whatever past you had before Kindles and Ipads and Kanye West’s Twitter hijacked the printed word for everything except your $ 200 college biology textbook (with a CD supplement you will never use).
Books, books, and more books! The Battery has them. Some new, but mostly used and dog-​eared and highlighted and footnoted with some lady’s writing from 1970, or some kid’s signature where it says «This book belongs to _​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​,» but you know he’s like fifty years old now. The Battery has all those time capsules form people who might have never even known their little «Bill loves Jenny» on page 54 became interesting sixty years later.
And CDs, cassettes, and LPs, too.
An old Columbia House Alice in Chains CD from 1994? Gimme. A full-​length, 45 LP of Mandarin Chinese for Beginners from just after World War 2? Throw it in the bag. A wrinkled motel map of colonial Williamsburg, Pennsylvania from the 60s? I might find that useful sometime, you never know, especially if we master time travel and I’m bored with my hoverboard in California and want to try it on the East Coast.
The books are fine even without the little touches of humanity that show they’ve been loved already once, long or not too long ago, and haven’t given up on being loved again. They’re loved already, by the shelves and eaves and setees and employees seen and hidden in ever nook and cranny – and by me, too, and maybe you.
You might stumble across a biography of Josef Stalin, or some old Korean guy’s kitchen diary from the 1980s. Tanks of the Third Reich? Sure. Witchcraft for Dummies? You’ll find lots of stuff like that. Maybe a one-​off volume from a series of hardcover case journals from an attorney’s office out of the 1920s, too, why not? Here, every day is Christmas and Hanukkah and your birthday and a really strong orgasm and a one in a million find that makes you feel lucky and sneaky all at once.
It’s always a treasure hunt at The Battery, and there are chairs inviting you to stay a while, unlike the few remaining chain bookstores that skimp on seats to remind you they aren’t a lending library. The employees at The Battery don’t seem to mind if you hang out there all day, or even eat a big sandwich while you read in the store. You’ll definitely want to buy something at The Battery, anyway, and your $ 5 will go very far.
Sometimes there’s live music, believe it or not, even though the shop is smaller than the average Pinkberry.
Rock out like a sardine, bruh.
The Battery is the shiznit, immune to changing times, and will keep going, and going, and going, because hardcore readers are its bunnies.
(Imean energizers).
Whatever.

This is an amazing book store with great selection. The books are reasonably priced. The man who was helping me was very friendly too. I thought his patients would have ran out, but he remained very helpful.

Great selection packed into a rather tiny space. A great place to get lost and wander.

love this place!
could get lost in here for hours. always great finds!

Rich is a cool guy, and I would work here in a heartbeat.
He doesn’t act like he’s better than anybody else like the people over at book alley in Pasadena. He’s a down to earth, relaxed individual who is always polite to who ever comes in.
The book selection is interesting, I think some things could be priced a bit lower for what they are BUT he has a much better and more reasonably priced record selection than anybody else in town. I hope it stays that way.
Cool place to go and chill out, take a break from the street and collect your thoughts while perusing books. Highly Recommended.

This is in response to your comment,
Dear Richard: If you’re not confusing me with someone else, you are simply lying to me, the Unilocal community and potential customers looking up your shop. Sadly, the latter is the case. Here is why:
1) If you see a customer struggling to carry a giant bin of books into your store, your job is to help them. Other bookstores do this: they’ll wait for the arrival of a customer with a dolly. I called before showing up, informing you that I had several books to sell. I should not be telling you how to do your job.
2) Knowing I had several books to sell, I left the shop to give you enough time to look through them. If you think this action to be from an unwilling and impatient customer, I don’t know what to tell you.
3) Highlighted books? Heavily damaged? I drove to your store from San Dimas. I would not be driving your way if I knew that I had little selling potential. This false accusation, in particular, is a really low way for you to cover up for your customer service deficiencies and overall incompetence.
Lastly, you mention that I spoke loudly to my friend. Would it make any logical sense, for our voices to be distinctly heard given the size of your store and the fact we were the only people there? Just a thought. By the way, you are coming off as highly intolerant. This is not a good idea.
Yes, following the rules of etiquette is important. I agree.
One star, zero if I could. Now I’m telling family and friends about your awfully deceiving response to my review in addition to informing them about your obvious lack of professionalism.
Have a wonderful day.

Such a fun book store to visit. I stopped by there with my family after a nice lunch at a nearby restaurant. My 7 year old daughter in particular was very excited about their kids section. The employee there was very friendly and helpful. She went out of her way to help my daughter find an age-​appropriate mystery book. We ended up buying several books for my kids summer reading. Definitely will be back.

Great atmosphere and the prices are the best!!! They also have vinyl records which just makes my day!

I can never go into this store without buying something. In addition to books, this store has a nicely curated collection of «weird» jazz on vinyl and a small collection of vintage clothes for women.
I brought my family into the store this year to pick out their own holiday gifts (that I paid for using my trade credit). They are all big readers so they LOVED this gifting strategy.

Can you say «chock full of books?» I knew that you could. I like to come in here when it’s quiet… weekdays are great. I have bought quite a few great little novels in here. Also, a small but interesting kids section. I actually wish there were even more kids books because my kids are AVID readers and I like the idea of repurposing well loved books.
I wish it was set up a little more for easy browsing and not so crowded and you basically have to get down on the floor for kids books. But, such is life… it’s not a Barns and Noble and thank god for that.

I saw an old artbook for $ 128. Another one for $ 75. Then some books are also $ 10 or less. The collection is pretty decent and the vibe is mellow and vintage. Slightly disorganized but this adds to the flair. Parking on the streets only, busy on weekends.

This place should have at least a hundred 5 stars reviews by now, what’s wrong with you people? ;) some folks need to stop using Unilocal if they are not contributing to it. this place is amazing, awesome and very cool, all at the same time !! I mean you guys know how rare it is to find a decent book store these days? plus conveniently located in South Pas. I love it :)

a pretty cute (and packed) book shop, for the most part. i totally think that this place is in violation of a fire code or something, because the walkways between bookshelves are kind of narrow, but that’s beside the point. haha.
they have a pretty organized system of book sections, and they also have records in the back. there are children’s books, cooking books, travel, language, history, etc. i was looking through some books, and it just seemed like a lot of the books were outdated. otherwise, it was pretty cute. you gotta have patience to look for what you want though!

If I know what I want: Amazon. I go to secondhand bookstores to discover. See what floats someone else’s boat and see if it works for me. I find excitement in unearthing something that looks hidden. Then sometimes I am inspired by it.
The place was a destination for me and my son (9), since we headed out too late in the day to visit museums and still have to pay a fee. We spent a couple hours at The Battery and didn’t get bored. The Battery is like a Book Museum. And the price of admission is free! Unless you buy something, because you really like it. And that is reader heaven.

I came here to sell a number of unneeded books that were gathering dust on my bookshelves. Call first to check if the book buyers, Rich and Ted, are in the store. Ted tends to be in the store in the morning, and Rich tends to be around in the evening, but if neither are around then you can’t sell your books here. I brought ~30 books, and it took about 20 minutes for them to make me an offer on ~10 books. They generally don’t take textbooks.
I took cash for my books, but they also offer store credit. I didn’t ask about the latter, so I don’t know how it compares to their cash offer. I also don’t know if you can try to negotiate for more than they offer; in principal it seems you should be able to do so.
The staff was friendly and helpful. The store itself was small and packed full of books on a wide range of topics, including art, math, travel, poetry, and fiction. They also had a small selection of vinyls. The prices seemed reasonable.
Street parking only.

FANTASTIC bookstore. Great prices, cool owner, awesome dog that roams the shelves.
Super laid back and a little cluttered, but I love that about indie bookstores. The owner is knowledgable and can help you find things.

Plenty of street parking around the area.
Didn’t have the books I was looking for, but the gentleman working was polite and, for the most part, helpful. It’s small, but seems to be organized/​cataloged for an esay search.

Since Mix n’ Munch next door was not open yet, I decided to venture into Battery Books & Music to kill some time. When you first walk into this store, it screams used books although I noticed that they also had some new books as well. I would describe their layout as organized chaos. There are books, records, and miscellaneous items scattered throughout the store. There is an attempt to categorize the books by type, but then there are just piles of books all over the place. You definitely need to ask someone for help locating a book if you are even doing that.
At least their book selection is pretty interesting with novels from Joseph Conrad and Ayn Rand, but again, it is very limited. I felt like I was at a used garage sale coming into this store. I don’t really know how this type of store stays afloat, but this seems to be a random store where you are not looking for anything in particular but something catches your eye for you to purchase. Unfortunately, even with that, the books are piled in front of each other so it actually blocks the remainder of the titles for you to see.

I am obsessed with books. In a MAJOR way. Meaning, I read constantly (I don’t even own a TV), I go to the library once a week AND volunteer there (in fact, I just took a test for possible employment), my father was an author, I am active on
, etc. You can venture to guess that I am a firm supporter of bookstores. Sadly, not all bookstores are cut from the same cloth and Battery Books’ fabric may be moth-​bitten.
Battery Books is a small shop with squished together aisles and shelves filled to the brim with books. Although the meandering through this tight space can be awkward and may cause bumps and bruises; I still support the layout due to my love for independent book stores.
However, my instant gratification was let-​down due to the immediate lack of customer service. One of the owners/​managers/​employees (?) only said hello to us when we addressed him first and spent more time with the children (his?) who were eating dinner in the store. He never spoke to us again, even though we were the only customers in the store at the time. The Asian lady behind the counter also completely ignored us. No hello, no «May I help you?», no glance our way. Heck, even a dirty look would have been welcome at this point versus seemingly being invisible. I expect neighborhood friendly service at such shops in order to keep customers coming back… that was certainly not the case here.
Battery Books does try to implore an organizational method to categorize the books (art, history, poetry, philosophy, antiques, etc). However, the method doesn’t make particular sense and the shelf labels can be difficult to see due to the tight space. The books do feature some gems (and at average used book prices), therefore making Battery Books ideal for the rare-​book lover on your gifting list or wacky book you desire to give as a joke. However, good luck asking for a specific book due to the absence of customer service.
During my particular visit, a blues band was performing in the back of the store. Not only were the musicians rather great, but the live music added a unique element to Battery Books mixing various forms of art (music and literature) and resulting in a memorable shopping experience.
Overall, Battery Books may or may not be a book paradise but there are better options available. More importantly, customer service is terrible which makes even the most avid reader skip it for a more caring experience. I’ll take my book obsession elsewhere.

Cool