Oh my god, we are so lucky to have BMV books in our city.
There is nothing that you can't find in here.
They sell used books, sure. The true draw of this place is that they have an abundance of new books that other book stores don't want for some reason, and BMV sells them for dirt cheap prices.
I got a band new Nabokov novel for six bucks, a brand new Chomsky book for eight, and a David Sedaris hardcover for ten when you can't even get the soft cover for that price on Amazon, all of them brand spanking new.
The true gem in this place happened to be a copy of Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine. They had a bunch of brand new copies for 10 bucks. I also just happened to be on my way to a lecture by Klein that evening and she just happened to be signing books at the end, to my surprise. So I ended up being able to get my copy autographed. I just happened to come across the book on a day when I was on my way to see her speak. How's that for a little bit of serendipity?
Like art books? Well look to further. One whole half of the front part of the store is dedicated to them. And they are all from the 10-30 dollar range for amazing books that you would pay 50-100 dollars for in a "regular" book store or a museum.
They also sell some cool music.
A damn fine place to go book hunting!