Walden Pond Books

I couldn't disagree more with the other review I found posted here. Sounds like that negative reviewer let his/her politics get in the way. (Walden Pond's political book section is a tiny fraction of what this great bookstore offers.) Walden Pond has been an invaluable resource to Bay Area readers for at least 20 years. I used to take BART from San Francisco to Oakland just to shop here. Now I live in Oakland and I browse and buy here at least once a week. This store has improved with age. Their selection of used and new books has grown in size and become more eclectic and I can count on finding gems every time I visit. I also sell and trade (recycle) books here and have always walked away feeling I've gotten a great deal. And I can't say enough good things about their staff, which also seems to have improved over the years. I can phone in a request and have the book (frequently a used cheap copy instead of the new expensive one I thought I'd get) waiting for me when I come in an hour later. And if I can't find what I want, they can order apparently any book in print - and with NO shipping charges (sure beats Amazon!!!). The people who work here REALLY know books! Thanks to the girl in the children's section, when I couldn't find the kid's book I thought I would buy as a birthday present for my niece, I was introduced to the Half Magic books. (When the first book proved a hit, I was happy to tell my niece where she could get the rest in the series.) Then there was the time I mentioned to a friend I was looking for Cyrano de Bergerac in fiction and a worker's voice around the shelf corner immediately sang out "Rostand, drama section, look under R in playscripts." And when I ask about finding a book at the front counter, someone actually immediately leaves the counter and fetches it for me (that's NEVER EVER happened at Borders!) So ignore that negative LibraryThing review (I can't figure out how someone who "neither buys nor sells" at a bookstore can review it!) and check out Walden Pond!

P.S. The children's section even has a PLAYHOUSE!!!