You must take a trip to The Company of Books: A gently used bookstore that helps realize reading is freedom!

Location: 2200 Mount Vernon Ave, Alexandria, VA 22301 • tcbdelray.com • 703-299-3080 • TCBdelray@gmail.com

Open: Sunday-Tuesday 11am-6pm • Wednesday-Friday 11am-9pm • Saturday 10am-9pm

About The Company of Books: A not-for-profit used bookstore located in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia. Its two floors are packed with books in a variety of genres, both fiction and nonfiction. There is also a third floor for events that is also a hang-out space with board games, crafting supplies, tables, and comfy chairs. There is also a doored room for meeting space.

Book Clubs meet every month. A book is selected by the group, we read it, and then get together to talk about it. Pretty standard! (If it’s a longer book, we may meet to talk about the first and second halves over two months.)

  • Unnamed: Sat 10am-12pm (2nd Sat every other month)
  • Unnamed: Mon 6pm-8pm (3rd Mon every other month)
  • Classics: Mon 6pm-8pm (4th Sat every other month)

The Company of Books

Book Chats are a more general get-together to talk about whatever books we’re currently reading, what books we’re looking forward to, or any other book-related topics that come up. No commitment necessary, come whenever it works for you!)

  • Mon 6pm-8pm (2nd Mon every month)
  • Sat 10:30am-12:30pm (last Sat every month)

How to donate books:

  • Books are accepted 12pm-4pm daily. This ensures that we have time at the beginning and end of the day to price and shelve donated books.
  • The parking lot behind our building has five spots dedicated to bookstore customers, numbered 6 by the building, and 41-44 around the recycling bin.
  • We offer store credit for donated books. In general, we give $1 credit for small (mass market) paperbacks, $2 for larger (trade) paperbacks, and $3 for hardcover books. These amounts are reduced for kids’ books and we may adjust them for other factors, like the book’s condition.
  • Please only bring us two medium-sized bags or boxes at a time, so that we have time to process other customers’ donations too.
  • Whether or not you plan to claim store credit, we ask that you stay in the store while while we look through your donation—this generally takes 10-20 minutes.
  • We do not accept books with writing or highlighting in them, ex-library books, or hardcover books missing their dust jacket. Books do need to be in good condition (gently loved is okay). See below for a more detailed list of of some types of book we’re generally looking for and some types we can’t use. This is subject to change as we figure out what works in the store.
  • If you want to donate a book that does not appear on the list, check with us! It may be something we can use, while not being something we’re specifically looking for in large quantities.

WE USUALLY NEED THESE TYPES OF BOOKS (although we can’t use every book):

  • Art
  • Literature (including Children’s/YA)
  • Collectibles
  • History
  • Local interest (VA and DC)
  • Military history
  • Philosophy
  • Prize-winning titles
  • Science fiction and fantasy
  • Vintage (pre-1961) fiction paperbacks

WE GENERALLY CAN’T USE:

  • Audiobooks on tape/CDs, music CDs, DVDs (although we do currently have some for sale, we are not looking to expand at present)
  • Computer programming and software books
  • Diet books
  • Encyclopedias
  • Large print books
  • Magazines
  • Political memoirs
  • Reader’s Digest Condensed books
  • Textbooks
  • Hardcover mysteries and thrillers
  • Literary fiction in mass market (small) paperback (SF/fantasy/horror/mysteries/thrillers in this format are fine)