Bookseller Review: Edward McKay Used Books

Edward McKay Used Books & More

115 Oakwood Dr.

Winston-Salem, NC

336.724.6133

www.feedyourhead.net/ws

Edward McKay is a used-book store chain in North Carolina. Their Winston-Salem store has over 10,000 square feet of used books, textbooks, audiobooks, CDs, vinyl records, DVDs, VHS, and video games. Their inventory comes mostly from the public, so their stock changes every day. 

What we like: There are certainly a ton of titles, and store is well-organized and easy to browse.

What we don't like: For us, many of the editions are too new, likely many of them being used in recent college courses. And we prefer our used-book stores to not also have "Twilight: Breaking Dawn" movie posters hanging on the wall.

Would we go again? Not likely if we go back to Winston-Salem, but we're not opposed to checking out some of the other Edward McKay stores in North Carolina.

At least we found the Forsyth Library sale, Pt. II

Monday we made the rounds to the four bookstores, and I have to say that we were mostly disappointed by what we found... or rather, didn't find. In short, the first stop -- 2nd Chance Ventures -- wasn't a stop at all. It didn't exist ... at least as a bookstore, if at all. So 0-for-1.

The next stop, Laster's Fine Art and Antiques, was actually pretty cool. It was an antiques/estate sale shop, and they did have a fair number of late 19th- and early 20th-century hardcovers, including one full bookcase devoted entirely to works in other languages. And while fun to browse, many of the books were priced too high for us -- not too high in general, but for us, relative to whether we liked the editions, they just weren't right-- or we recognized them as old but pirated copies of books we'd like, but not enough to pull the trigger.

On to Edward McKay Used Books & More, a North Carolina chain that is as much a music, movie and video games store as it as bookstore. Not much for us there. A lot of titles, but almost all newer editions, the kind of newer editions you'd find in a college bookstore.

Lastly, and without a lot of hope, we headed out past Wake Forest University to Piedmont Books. Again, this was a multi-purpose shop, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a moderately substantial classics section, in which we were able to improve our Anna Karenina collection by getting a Modern Library edition of the Leo Tolstoy work. Our only edition prior was a 2002 paperback, so a c.1934 copy was a much-needed "update."

So five stops total, and seven new additions. Not great, but we had a good time on the hunt, and on our visit to Winston-Salem. We'd definitely go back.

Book added: Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

Publisher:  Random House, Modern Library

Year: c.1934

Where obtained: Piedmont Books, Winston-Salem, N.C.

Price: $4.00