Jeannies Used Books

It is the Best!!!! Great customer service, many hidden gems. So many different choices from pre school to college graduate. You may be looking for 1 book But to many other choices will capture your imagination.

Been coming here since my best friend introduced me to this place way back in elementary school. I could spend hours in here and never grow tired of it. I seem to always leave with at least one book in hand. Really hope Jeannie is able to find a new location so we don't lose this amazing place full of thousands of great quality used books.

Closing soon at this location, Jeannie’s Used Books, a Portsmouth landmark for over two decades which has drawn people from who knows how far away to visit and enjoy the books in every category and for every taste at VERY REASONABLE PRICES. Happily Jeannie herself is alive and well, ready to carry on the tradition if she can find a new location that is affordable, and for all our sakes I hope she may.

As an ancient English major and quondam professor of literature, virtually all my life has been spent in refuges such as Jeannie’s Used Books, and I have lived so long now that I have outlived most of them—blow after blow has fallen on the industry, it has never been high volume or highly profitable, and the competition has grown to massive proportions. And of course even the deservedly successful used book stores demand tremendous space, not only to house the expanding library, but to provide safe and comfortable access for the customer: only you know what you are looking for—or what might interest you—and if you are not able to “walk the stacks” to make your selections, it is as if your senses have been turned off, and you have to depend entirely on memory to order what you want to read.

Some of us, old as we are, have already spent too much time in front of a computer: what we long for is what we long enjoyed, the opportunity to select at leisure from among thousands of books, hundreds of editions, hardbounds and paperbacks, turn pages and examine every feature so that we may intelligently choose the friends we wish to take home with us, perhaps to accompany us for the rest of our lives. No public library, no matter how well established or maintained, can really offer the same opportunity for permanent possession as well.

I drove down to Portsmouth from Newport News intending to photograph it and review it, only to find a notice from Jeannie on the door informing me of her having to vacate the premises—the shopping center has be purchased, and the entire property is evidently to be repurposed. Soon I hope Google Maps will be able to redirect you to a new location, where Jeannie may continue the service she has so cheerfully given us for all these years now. But for now—if you would like to help her—head on down to Jeannie’s Used Books and load up on anything you can: anything you buy now, she won’t have to move to a new location! And of course, you will have plenty of reading material to remember her with if the worst comes to the worst, and she has to retire. It’s been a very fine race she has run!

Prices are amazing and I love coming here at least 2 times a month. So many books and amazing prices. Worth every moment in there. Could take ligit hours to go through everything if u wanted

Love..Love...Love THIS PLACE! I could spend all day here! The owner is LOVELY!