Skoob Books

Skoob books is my absolute favourite secondhand bookshop. It’s not pretentious, it’s in a basement, and I literally spend about an hour every time I go just browsing and thinking hard what to spend my student Budget on. What’s also great is that they have an additional discount for students (woo!) so this is really the perfect place for literature students like myself to scrounge up some of the best deals for texts. Not to mention, everything is really handily catalogued too, from drama to law books, and the staff are always friendly and helpful. 5/​5, I always make it a point to visit whenever I’m in the Brunswick area.

Truly the bibliophiles’ paradise — books piled upon books, floor to ceiling, in a basement shop. Staff are friendly and willing to help, but never pushy (thank god). Browse for hours and leave with paper gems for a few quid. They have everything, including sheet music if you are keen for something slightly more melodious, less prosaic.

I loved it! New and old books from all kinds over than half price cheaper than in a normal bookstore. It was lovely to discover and to enjoy the spirit ofthis little place. Loving books? Must go here!

Can’t really add much to the reviews here. Second hand books piled everywhere, cool place to just chill and browse. Generally friendly staff. Definitely a place to visit, even if all you want to do is breathe in the bibliophile atmosphere.

Wow, I love this book store! I have wanted to visit it for quite a while after seeing all the good comments here and various other sites, but I didn’t actually visit until yesterday. The store was smaller than what I had expected, but the selection was varied and extensive. The staff is friendly and will help you try to find what you’re looking for — they all seemed to actually LIKE books rather than simply working there, and although I didn’t request assistance, I saw quite a few other people ask for it, and the staff seemed to go out of their way to help them. The store had quite a few customers, and it seem like they rotate their selection pretty quickly, which makes me want to visit again soon (and I will!)
They are about half a block from the Russell Square tube station, just go up Marchmont and turn right at the Brunswick and you’ll see their shingle. Any book lover should check out this store.

Love this shop and could spend hours in here. As with all second hand book shops, the digging through the stacks is half the fun. They also do a student discount, and often have the new stuff up front.
They also have a selection in the walkway of the Brunswick Centre on Saturdays as well.

I could spend hours in this bookshop. The selection is huge. Everywhere you look you’re surrounded by nothing but piles of books. it seems a bit overwhelming at first and looks a bit messy. But once you figure out how everything is organised (it took me a minute to notice the book section signs) then you realise just how many amazing books that they have hear. Many of the books that they have are out of print or just difficult to find elsewhere. Plus I like that the books are second-​hand. I think it s a great way to recycle your old books and discover some new ones. Its also nice to support an independent book shop.

This store is just jam backed with the written word… of which I must say that I’m a big fan. They have loads of plays and travel books and fiction… particularly older books. I didn’t see too any current best sellers but I might have missed them. Really pleased with this find. My friend and I lost ourselves in this shop for nearly an hour before we realized that the time has passed

This is quite a useful bookshop to visit. Every time I go in here, I always leave with something in my hand. Sometimes I would go to this firm to buy DVDs from
, they guys here are always willing to help out.

Weee! Used books! In a basement! For sale! Welcome to an excerpt from Sarah O’s childhood!
Seriously though, I was a nerd as a child (fine…still a self-​proclaimed nerd… but it’s in style now so it’s all cool) and read books like nobody’s business. When moving across the pond, I had to leave most of mine at my Dad’s (undoubtedly they got tossed in the dumpster the moment the car left) but thanks to Skoob, I replaced the most necessary of them for relatively cheaply. And, I got them same day IN my hand for my reading pleasure, which is why I love actual bookstores as opposed to online.
The staff seemed quite willing to find books in the back if the wanted tome was not already in the wide selection. They also had a great sense of humour, as some really really idiotic sounding Americans came in and started throwing a Texas sized tantrum about the price of a book (and the rest of the world hates us WHY?). I apologized on behalf of my country and they joked around with me about the former colonies. Great guy, whoever the staff member was.
Now excuse me as I re-​read ‘Animal Farm’ for the 5,362^nd time.

A fair sized subterranean bunker of a place, with miles of browsable shelves covering the full gamut of «regular» bookshop sections, plus the rarer genres other reviewers have alluded to; a place for hours of happy browsing. Generally a better and more heterogenerous selection than the remainder-​heavy competiton on the Charing Cross road, or the slightly seedy places round the corner on Euston Road.

A first edition, first printing in 1906, of Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill for ten pounds??? amazing…
after spending an afternoon in this glorious little heaven, the thought of having to return a city where the only bookstore option in my city consist of Barnes & Nobles, I felt terribly heartbroken.

Skoob Books is a second hand bookstore… and books are still my number one passion… despite the advent of the iPad (the next version of which I am assured will have wings).
Skoob Books is not your typical book store.
Here you will find musty dusty second hand books which are a pleasure to hold… flick through and feel the cool old course paper between your fingers… open… and finally inhale the mustyness of the spin and the bindings. Ahhhh… yes.
Be warned as with all places of this nature this place is hit and miss and you are never guaranteed to find what you are looking for but more often than not you will find something.
Prices are not crazy.

Ah, the second hand bookshop, how you have died a death. In my university town they all went the way of the dodo being replaced by Amazon Marketplace and cookie-​cutter chain bookshops. But there is hope!
Skoob Books is pretty low-​key inside, there are no built-​in cafes, no upholster leather couches. Just books and stepladders so you can reach more books! Being in university land there are plenty of heavyweight academic tombes (that I thankfully no longer have to read) and plainer fiction and non alike.
Prices aren’t bad, certainly far less than you’d pay new but not as cheap as online. The staff are friendly and know their stuff. Go on, have a browse.

I’m actually quite shocked that Scoob hasn’t been Unilocaled yet! I suppose I shouldn’t be overly surprised given the location. The Brunswick Center is a hopping shopping centre. Located in back of the building with a much less obvious entrance, Scoob can feel like a bit of a best kept secret. This used bookshop is quite large with not-​bad prices and a surprisingly good selection of fiction. Located downstairs, with its own sort of ‘broken in’ type look, this is a comfortable lived-​in type place to have a browse. Don’t expect Scoob to have things perfectly alphabetized. It’s more of a hit or miss type of a shop. I recommend that you grab a few literary gems and head to the pub across the street to enjoy them.

Skoob Books is located on the backside (northern side) of the Brunswick Centre, to the side of the secondary entrance to Waitrose. It’s a bit tucked away and therefore overlooked, but it offers a good selection of used titles of all kinds.
Once you walk in the door, you walk down a flight of stairs to the basement (there’s also a lift), and the shop opens up. Entire bookshelves at the front of the shop are devoted to Penguin, Penguin Classics, and Everyman titles. The shop has a good balance of academic and non-​academic titles.
Skoob offers a 10% discount to students. And the sales people behind the counter are friendly, not surly, which is a plus. The store is never generally very busy, which gives you more room to browse without feeling as though you are in the way. The prices are generally reasonable for used out-​of-​print titles, although as used books go the prices aren’t ‘inexpensive’.

Now this is more like it! Skoob is what a book store should be.
This store is filled of used books and used books alone. the best kind.
They have a great section of books about alternative sexuality, sociology and all around an interesting cocktail of books. You’ll find whatever you didn’t know you wanted here!
This store is all spread out on one lower level of great books, on shelves that snake around into corners.
This is one of the best bookstores around!

This is quite a good second-​hand bookshop. They have tonnes of books, a HUGE! selection, and there are seats tactically placed around he shop so that you can sit down and read for a while. My only problem is that it is either too hot, or too cold here in the winter, depending on wether the heating is on, and the staff aren’t that nice either!

This place is brilliant, particularly if you are a poor drama student looking for cheapish plays. The selection is enormous and half the price of french’s. There is also a piano if you fancy trying out the sheet music available. I spotted a play about lee Harvey Oswald that probably isn’t in print any more, and a good few copies of a Sam Sheperd one whose title escapes me at the moment. On the sci fi front they had a very rare John Wyndham novel that I hadn’t even heard of before. And for cinema buffs how about the For Your Consideration Screenplay, printed exclusively for academy members and presumably as rare as a hen’s tooth, for wes anderson’s The Life Aquatic?
I’ll race you there! (huge selection of shakespeare plays too)

Now relocated in the side of the renovated Brunswick Centre, Skoobs remains one of the best priced and best-​for-​browsing local second hand bookshops. I recently went in there looking for something by an obscure Welsh author, and found two of his novels within minutes. Choice ranges from the rarer editions to fiction paperbacks. There are also used audio books and good academic sections. The staff are friendly and helpful. The only downside of the shop is that it’s hard to leave once you’ve started browsing.