Bell's Books

Hello friends!

We are still working to get the store ready for you, and we are very, very close. We are cleaning up the last few sections, making sure we have signs posted and hand sanitizer by the door, and getting used to our new layout. We are so looking forward to welcome you all back in! Thank you for your patience during this time.

We will have health protocols in place when we reopen, just like any other business should. Here’s what to expect:

1. Face coverings will be required to enter the store. Your nose and mouth must be covered.
2. We will ask everyone to maintain six (6) feet of distance between each other while browsing. Our new layout will make it much easier for staff and customers alike to be physically distant.
3. Hand sanitizer will be provided at the door. Since we cannot clean 300,000 books at the end of everyday, your use of hand sanitizer will help us keep everyone healthy.

We thank you ahead of time for following these procedures to keep everyone healthy!

At this time we do not have a specific date for reopening. As soon as we know, we will announce it clearly here on our website as well as over on our Instagram.

See you soon!

A huge hello to all of the wonderful people out there! We hope you are all doing well, staying healthy, keeping informed. We are thinking of you, and we are grateful to all of you who have been thinking of us.

Staff have been in the store for about three weeks now doing a major overhaul of the layout of the main room. We want to make sure that our space will be safe for browsing in person (plus it was a good opportunity to make some long-wished-for changes). After 85 years, everyone could use a little TLC, and Bell’s is no different.

Therefore, we are still CLOSED, but only temporarily. We WILL be back soon! At this point, we are expecting to reopen in July with a fresh new look.

Although we at Bell’s Books would love to supply you with books during your home stay, in the interests of universal safety we feel it is important to spare warehouse fulfillment workers, postal carriers, store staff, and, ultimately you, by simply ceasing operations temporarily. All of our staff members are staying home, with full pay, and are in good health. We wish you the same, and miss getting to see you. Here’s to a brighter future.

We will be giving out awards to those of you who read the most books, and the quirkiest books during this time, so keep a list!

Why not read?!

To comply with recommendations from Governor Newsom and The Centers for Disease Control, Bell’s Books will be closed from March 16th until further notice..  We will miss seeing you!

Lie (pronounced “Lee”) algebra, monster sets, and moonshine theory are but a few of the topics that Bell’s Books has recently acquired as part of a generous collection of advanced mathematics books. Finite simple groups and their interaction with modular functions, monster group M (also known as the “friendly giant”), and smooth manifolds are another of way of describing some of the topics, but there may yet be some mathematical moonshine in that monster!

Come in and see for yourself if you’d like to take on the challenge of these and a manifold of other advanced mathematical issues.

It’s not too late to find something special for the book lover in your family.

Here are a few ideas:

How about Where the Wild Things Are socks for little feet, or perhaps a Where the Wild Things Are mug?

Bell’s also has a signed copy of The French Lieutenant’s Woman from the Franklin Press in a very decorative binding.

There’s also Smuggler’s Cove, a book full of tropical drink recipes from San Francisco’s own nationally-recognized adult libation establishment.

These are just a few of the many treasures you may find here at Bell’s Books, the only bookstore in downtown Palo Alto.

Need your holiday books giftwrapped? We can do that! We’ll wrap your Bell’s purchases free, and we have a beautiful variety of paper from which to choose.

Little known secret: Bell’s has free giftwrapping all year round.

Bell’s has recently acquired a collection of numerous books that center around physics, math, and quantum mechanics. Titles include A Guide to Feynman Diagrams in the Mind-Body Problem; Time – the Familiar Stranger; Prologue to Super Quantum Mechanics: Something Is Rotten in the State of Quantum Mechanics; Angular Momentum in Quantum Mechanics; and many more! If those titles prove too massive for you, we even have Baby Loves Quantum Physics for lighter reading.

Bell’s has recently acquired a collection of books published by the Folio Society. The Folio Society prints high-quality editions of all your favorite titles and more with wonderful illustrations. Coming from a previous owner, most of our newest acquisitions are historical non-fiction, but our selection includes fiction titles as well.

A gem in the collection is a number of Folio Society’s series on ancient civilizations, including a four-volume box set Empires of the Ancient Near East: Babylonians, Hittites, Persians, and Egyptians. Additionally, we now have The Incas, The Mayas, and The Aztecs in their own slipcases individually sold. Placed together on the shelf, the spines create a charming gilded parade through history!

Highlights of our broader collection of Folio Society editions include:

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales with wood cut illustrations by various artists

Homer’s Iliad (translated by Robert Fagles) illustrated by Grahame Baker

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (translated by Gregory Rabassa) illustrated by Neil Packer

Additionally, we have a wonderful grouping from the Folio Society of The Letterpress Shakespeare. See the listing in our Featured Selections for more information.

Stop by today to see them in person!

Bell’s Books will be Closed to Celebrate International Women’s Day.

We invite you to take time to remember and honor the women and men throughout history who have struggled for equal rights, and to support “A Day Without a Woman” by encouraging our government to respect and recognize the need for equal protection under the law.