Grey Matter Books

Huge selection. I especially enjoy and appreciate that there are hardcover editions to many of my favorite authors.
Too often, used bookstores have only one format: paperback, mass market, etc., but NOT with Grey Matter — perhaps the widest selection of books in the area.
Wonderful selection of Library of America hardcover editions.

One of my favorite bookshops anywhere. Fantastic selection of scholarly material in all disciplines, plus loads of less arcane books –all fairly priced. Sam, the owner, is helpful and knowledgeable.
Here in Philadelphia (where I live) we have nothing to compare. All the best shops here have closed, victims of online bookselling and rising rents. That’s true everywhere, which is why we should support the few excellent bookstores that remain.

The best book store ever. You can find everything you need here. For an independently owned business in western Mass., it’s not pretentious (which is a plus). The books are all in great condition. It beats Raven or Amherst Books or Food for Thought or any of those other ones. Grey Matter/​Troubadour is also really large. You get a discount if you bike here (it is a western Mass. business after all). It’s tucked away, so it might be hard to find unless you’re looking for it (which adds to the charm).

Fabulous. This is what a used book store should be in my mind. Books, nothing but books. Huge selection, good prices. Browse worthy.

I moved to this area in part because of all the bookstores, and sadly over the years have seen many of them close. While many are fine, Grey Matter, Troubadour, and Federal Street Books in Greenfield are the three I return to again and again. Now that Troubadour and Grey Matter merged their stock (sort of), this has really become a can’t-miss stop.
If the Montague Book Mill is «Books You Don’t Need in a Place You Can’t Find,» Grey Matter is «Books You Don’t Want to Miss, in a Location that You Might.»
I never have enough time to check out all I need to check, and I always come away with a great find, and a great deal. Add to that the quirky humor and smarts of the owner and staff…
Oh, just go!

Was a loyal customer of this place, and have had many happy experiences here. Today I had a very suspicious and unfortunate experience with the owner.
Today I bought a $ 3.00 book. I pulled out my cash, and had a five dollar bill, so I took it out and set it on the counter, below where the owner could see it. With tax, it came to $ 3.19 so before I handed over the bill, I fished through some change in my pocket to see if I had four pennies. I only found a dime and five pennies, but the owner said, I’ll just take that. So I gave him the 14 cents and he said, I’ll take the three dollars too. So I remembered the five, and set it on the counter in front of him. It landed on its side, and balanced there (since it was folded partially in half). He picked it up and put it in his cash register and handed me the book back and the receipt and just looked at me. No change for the five. I said, in tune with his previous statement, «I’ll take my two dollars’ change, then.»
Long story short, he refused to give me my change, saying I’d given him three ones. Not only had I handed him a five dollar bill, I’d only handed him one bill. He looked again in his register, saw the five, and said, «No, you definitely didn’t give me a five. You can look in your wallet and see if your five is there if you expect to have one.» I pulled out my cash, and I had no five. I’d given him my only one.
I have some, but very little, doubt that I truly did give me a five. He never considered the possibility that he was incorrect, and though it was only two dollars, refused to consider my point of view.
This was with the owner of Grey Matter books, Sam if I’m not mistaken, a man I recognize whenever I go there, and who has helped me many times not only finding books, but also giving me advice. I am not accusing him of intentionally cheating me of two dollars, but he certainly was not gracious about an honest mistake (on either side!) when I was the one who conceded, quickly, without putting up a fight. If, given my certainty of the situation, I would have tried harder if it were for anything more than two dollars. However, it’s quite likely I wouldn’t have bought the book if it were listed as five dollars.

This applies to both grey matter and troubadour since they are connected. I am an avid book collector who recently moved to the springfield, MA area. I have been to Raven books, the old book shoppe and a few of the non used book stores in northampton and Grey Matter is ten times better than any of them. There are a TON of books at this place, on every subject imaginable. They even had a section called weird books. They have a ton of art books, fiction, antique, and other assorted non fiction.
I collect old paperbacks, the pocket book size, not the bigger, newer size, so this review will pertain mostly to that. For these types of books there are two kinds of bookstores. The first is crappy selection but amazing prices. The other is a wonderful selection but high prices. Grey Matter has an AMAZING selection AND AMAZING prices. I went here expecting to spend 30 minutes to an hour. Two and a half hours later i left with an arm full of books.
The staff needs to be mentioned here as well. It was only one man, a friend of the owners, and he was amazingly helpful, chipper and seemed genuinely happy to be there. He chatted with each customer who came in, answered every question asked to him and didn’t pressure you at all to buy anything. He told half the customers to have a free cup of coffee and enjoy browsing, if they got something, even better. He also gave me one of the books I wanted for free. I have no idea why. He just decided it should be free.
I am only living in this area for one year. But for that year Grey matter has a loyal customer who will be spending a lot of money in their store.
The photos the store has attached to their Unilocal page do not do the store justice. It is huge. Just go already!
Wonderful, wonderful store.

GREAT selection, GREAT prices! We go to a lot of used book stores and often times they are over priced or just don’t have anything particularly rare or special. Grey Matter is the opposite, we found more books that we had been long searching for there than we would find all year scouring other shops. GREAT FIND!