Adorable book store that has more than meets the eye! Two floors of new and used books with a wide variety of genres. Great location and very friendly service

It’s a used book store yet they charge FULL PRICE for most of the used books. What’s the point and benefit of it being a used bookstore then??Unless the book is decades old or shows considerable wear, they charge you full price as if the book were printed the same day. A used book I saw that was maybe $8 on Amazon was $20!!! Even with though it was clearly a used book.If you’re willing to pay full price for books, then just go to a standard bookstore like Barnes & Noble or Politics & Prose where the selections are much bigger and where the pricing makes sense.

Great cosy townhouse atmosphere, an immense selection of books, including science, arts, cooking, psychology, history... I could spend hours in there and still want to come back. The staff is also really nice!

Such a great local bookstore. It’s open until 9PM. They have two floors. They also have a cart outside the store that has books under $5. Definitely worth checking out. The back room is just for kids. The staff recommend great books and they are very knowledgeable. Front section of the store has cards and trinkets. They also sell merchandise!

A really welcoming and bright bookstore. There are new books as well as used, but there are still great bargains to be found.

Beautiful bookstore. Nice book selection and great location!

Adorable bookstore. Great selection and very well organized.

Super cute and cozy place in the middle of a busy street. They had a wide range of types of books and you could also score with some of the prices :)

This store has been in the Adams Morgan area for over 30 years. They sell a variety of used books for half off the price listed on the cover. Cook books, fiction like mysteries & horror, childrens books and rare books are located on the first floor. Craft, science fiction and history are located on the 2nd floor. They take credit cards but I think the minimum to use them is $5. They also sell greeting cards, book marks and a few magazines and records.

Really lovely place. Used to visit before it was remodeled, and its only improved since. It can be a bit of a challenge to find the price sometimes, but theres always fun little books to search out. I also like the odds and ends little gifts near the register; theres always some fun thing you can give someone.

Amazing book store! With the collections of everything and anything new and old! Loved it! Great staff!

Very nice two-storey book store with a high quality selection. They have fascinating books of every variety, and even many works specific to the area such as U.S. government documents released by the Smithsonian museum.

Lovely building, good prices on used, and a fiction selection that features both rare cuts and the pop hits of literature. Good for satisfying a whole spectrum of tastes.

Good collection of used books and quite helpful service.

By far the best book store in the district! Amazing book selection, friendly and helpful staff, and the character of the building ties everything together. I highly recommend you check them out!

Great bookstore, with both new and old books. They also have a really nice selection of greeting and vintage inspired cards.

Great vibe. Great spot to check out books or sit down and chill for a bit. They play good music in the store too.

A fantastic bookstore that I encourage every one check out. Very friendly and helpful staff, a great selection of books. Next time youre looking for a good read, check out Lost City

Awesome selection of books! Definitely will be going back!

Great bookstore with nice prices and in a neighborhood worth visiting.If you cant find books on the shelves, be sure to check the ones on the floor.

Great store! A good mix of used and new books. Lots of stock. Upstairs there is a full room of sci-fi and fantasy books! The wall of used & new sci-fi will definitely have me coming back!

First time visiting and just loved the selection. A really inclusive, diverse, and eclectic collection while still having the big titles you may be looking for. The atmosphere is quintessential classic bookshop and I loved every inch. A must visit for any indie bookstore lover.

Friendly staff, funny greeting cards and a great book selection.

Super nice staff. He helped me find good places to visit in the area and was very knowledgable overall.

Great prices, great selections, great organization, and cozy as heck. One of my favorite indie bookstores in the city!

I hadnt been here in years, but on my last visit, I really like how they rearranged the space to be more open. Excellent selection of used books, with helpful staff picks.

Super cool! Would love to spend my entire day in there just for fun. Its very organized and overall very cozy. Swagalicous

Amazing independent book store. The owner, and employees, will help you leave with something amazing whether you knew what you wanted it or not. I have never been led astray.Support local business, support local bookstores, and have a great time doing it.

Friendly staff. Great selection of books for really great prices.

Awesome neighborhood bookstore. Great customer service, great selection. My wife’s a librarian and I own a business down the street. We both love Lost City.

Friendly and super responsive to email requests during COVID. They also have an incredible breadth of stock, and when they dont have something they are willing to order in. A great independent book store!

Great selection of vintage and new books

Best bookstore in the city. Because it has seniority, no disrespect intended you other lovely ones

Friendly service and a wide selection of interesting books, plus you can order things you dont find.

Its a nice quaint little bookstore with knowledgeable staff. Smack dab in the middle of Adams Morgan. Purchased a book, walked down the street & got a Giro. It was a good day.

While they dont have everything, the selection is hand picked and you can definitely find some great books to peruse.

Nice selection, good place to browse

Wonderful place with wonderful people working there.

Helpful staff, clean updated interior with tidy displays

Great selection of historical books

This place isnt like Barnes & Noble, but thats not a knock on them. They have a good selection of books, used, new, and even some really rare ones. The used books were very reasonably priced. It was quiet when I went in but it was nice to browse at my leisure and pick out the books that I wanted to purchase.

A cornucopia of browsing and buying books I should have read.

What a lovely used bookstore! I have come here multiple times now and every time I have found a few gems. Take them next door to Tryst for a lovely afternoon

Very fine selection, and I didnt even make it past the first floor. Friendly staff. Relaxed vibe.

Worth stopping in for a well organized used bookstore. There are a number of unique book categories. The staff are helpful and the books have a large variety of ages.

Great place to look through and stumble upon an interesting book. Not the best if you are looking for something very specific. Its a cool wander through.Has a section for everything. Has sections on politics, shelves and shelves of books organized by region they are about. Doesnt necessarily have a great selection for anything.Decent amount of vintage editions if you are into that.For a small used book store it is nice and enjoyable.

Very nice bookstore, with a friendly staff!

Lots of choices, thoughtfully organized, and helpful staff. Christian recommended a book for me and I ended up coming back and buying as many books from the same author as they had in stock.

They just remodeled the place, it’s a great improvement to the store. The best used bookstore in DC, in my opinion.

Went for the re-opening. Place is large with a wide selection of books ranging from fictional novels to 1800 history. Place is designed well withstand sections dedicated to specific genres (i.e African american, LGBTQ, etc...). Place looks trendy and would be a good place to find a new book. Definitely plan on going back.

Love this place and the new owners have done an amazing job with expanding the selection and organizing the store, plus I love the new logo!

I always enjoy visiting this book store! I love that there’s a collectible book section. I think this is me second favorite bookstore!

Best books this side of the Mississippi 📚📚📚📚📚📚

Neighborhood gem. So many of our long time Adams Morgan stores and restaurants have left. So grateful the new owners have decided to continue this large, well organized, used book shop.

I thought it looked awesome, so I went inside, and found some old maps. Im a traveler who lives abroad. I enjoy things like old maps. One cool map of Leningrad didnt have a date on it, so I went to pay and asked the guy at the cash register if he knew the date. He started looking too, then this cranky old lady behind him said to him, youve got other stuff to do. if she wants to know the date, she will find it herself. I told her that was quite rude, then she said, well Im stressed. I said, everyone gets stressed, but I am your customer. She told me to use my eyes to find the date on this map. She also told me that I should do things for myself rather than get other people to do them for me. When I left, she cursed at me.While they had some interesting stuff for me in there, I would never go back because I cannot justify giving money to such a horribly managed store.

Looked like a cool spot but inside its just a bunch of older books that nobody wants to read. The staff member I interacted with was rude. I asked where Wayne Dyer works would be and the guy said I dont know who that is. Probably shouldnt work in a book store, hes a very popular author with over 30 best sellers. Would not return.

Nice

Im not much of a reader, but I love Idle time books! It inspires me every time I walk by. The quaint exterior, offers a few titles to peruse and a cozy spot to chat with friends on the street. Inside the smell of old volumes invites you to discover information the old fashioned way, and the knowledgeable staff guides you to the right stacks to take your mind on an instantaneous journey. I stop in every time Im on 18th St. and often make a new friend.

Quaint little bookstore with a surprising variety of books. I enjoy coming here when I am in the area, and have always found books that peak my interest. The prices are priced fairly and are in good/great condition.

Wonderful neighborhood bookstore

Nice

Well priced books that are worth reading, friendly staff, and cozy multi story space.

Very good bookstore. A homey feel without being over crowded and always pretty quiet.

Nice, cozy and interesting little book shop with a surprising variety of used books.

Quaint bookstore, one could spend hours and hours here: the smell, the look, the background music, the BOOKS... found some amazing European philosophy books.

Great selection of rare and used books. Knowledgeable service. Awesome location in AdMo.

Strong

Big selection, easy to just get lost in the aisles. The old book smell is calming and reminds me of the library when I was a kid.

Cozy used bookstore with excellent selection of titles. Friendly and knowledgeable staff.

Excellent selection. I cant find anything like this in Baltimore. And the prices are reasonable.

The owner is not welcoming to bibliophiles and will not let read books be returned. The prices for paperbacks are half off the list price but the collection is well rounded. Very difficult to find items if specific books are demanded. I wish there was another used book store in Adams Morgan.

This place is an institution in Adams-Morgan. I cant imagine the neighborhood without it. Its a bookstore for browsing and finding interesting and esoteric books. This is not Barnes & Noble with industry paid placements on shelves. Its a book lovers bookstore where you come in perhaps searching for one thing but end up finding many, other fascinating things. The owner and the staff have always been incredibly helpful with me and I have found their suggestions excellent; they never disappoint. There is a no cell phone policy, thank God, and that is because there are many rude people who cant grasp the concept that we find treasures like Idle Time as a place of sanctuary, and nobody wants to hear the conversation anyway. For people looking for authenticity this is the place. Idle Time was here before B&N and will be after.

I want to like this place, especially as they have some titles that are otherwise difficult to obtain. The staff is pretty standoff-ish, sometimes bordering on rude; its like a neighborhood business rule to be too cool to serve customers. Sadly, the selection is often incomplete; there will be half the volumes in a set, or random parts of a series. Less useful than I want it to be, and usually not worth the trouble.

Hard to find rare books!

Hate hate hate. Worst, most condescending book or any other kind of store Ive ever interacted with. I called and asked if they had a particular, hardly arcane book. Him: Maybe, you can check in the store yourself. Me: oh hey Im really sorry, but I dont live anywhere near the store, is there any way to look and let me know? Him: We dont have an inventory, youd have to look on the philosophy shelf. Me: Oh I understand, but is there anyway to . . . Him: Thank you very much for your time. [Click]Me: [calls back] Look Im really sprru, I just live five miles away, and wanted to check if it would at all be possible for someone to look at the shelf, since Im far away and youre standing next to the shelf.Him: Sorry no inventory, thank you so much.Me: I ... [Click].

Great place to read about everything. Decent prices

Great fiction sections, particularly for 50s-80s science fiction/fantasy and literature. Lack luster foreign language and history sections though

Great collection of a variety of books.

Great used book shop. I come here whenever Im in town!

Lovely folks!

Adorable little book shop with great finds like books that are hundreds of years old. Staff is also very friendly

Cool bookstore filled with any kinds of books you can imagine

Cool place to wander through, tons of interesting and unexpected books for sale

Used books always attract me, and this ship looks very nice. I was unlucky however, as they didnt had anything I searched for.

Great selection of books in a awesome location

The store is so disorganized. Its a mess to find anything in there

Good book store at finding difficult to find books

Great bookstore but staff arent very helpful.

Great selection

Nice place for books.... But they dont buy books from public.....

Great selection, well organized, interesting finds! Good place to browse and get lost in literary and cultural history.

Staff knows where everything is.

Wonderful space to browse and get lost. Ive always found books here that I could never find anywhere else.

Great Adams Morgan used book store

This store is awesome.....really neat collection and funny experiences. Go check it out!

Great place... so many books!!

Simple, fun to peruse, but does have its share of overpriced items.

Many tomes to browse thu. 2 floors of pages

A true gem of a bookstore hidden well in the bustle of Adams Morgan.

Very good selection