Used books near Gresham, Oregon: visit To Be Read in Milwaukie

Gresham has a lot going for it, but a deep, browseable used bookstore — the kind where you lose an hour to the shelves and walk out with a stack — isn’t exactly around the corner. Big-box stores carry this season’s new releases at full price, and that’s about it. If you’re the sort of reader who likes to wander, compare editions, and stumble onto something you weren’t looking for, it’s worth driving a little for the real thing. The nearest one worth the trip sits west and a bit south, in Milwaukie.

To Be Read — west and south to Milwaukie

To Be Read (formerly the Clackamas Book Exchange) has served readers for 45+ years from 7931 SE King Rd, Ste 1 in Milwaukie. To be clear, we’re not in Gresham — we’re a genuine secondhand bookstore in Milwaukie, and well worth the drive. From most of Gresham the simplest route is to take Highway 26 (Powell) west, then drop south on I-205 toward Milwaukie; if you’d rather skip the freeway, Foster Road angles you the same direction. Either way it’s a manageable trip across the southeast side, and there’s free parking waiting when you arrive — no circling the block, no meters.

Worth the drive from the east side

A used bookstore lives or dies by its shelves, and ours stay full and keep turning over. Here’s what makes the trip pay off:

• Thousands of used titles — fiction, classics, romantasy, mystery, sci-fi, kids’, and nonfiction — all at used-book prices, so a full bag costs a fraction of new.
• Trade-in store credit for the books you’ve finished, so the shelves keep refreshing and your next haul costs even less.
• Genuine recommendations from staff who read widely and love matching a reader to the right book.
• Free parking, so the only thing you’re hunting for is your next read.

It also helps to know what kind of trip you’re making. To Be Read isn’t a quick-grab convenience shop; it’s a browsing store, the sort of place where a thirty-minute stop quietly becomes an hour because one good spine leads to the next. If you’ve been driving past chain shelves wishing for something with more depth and character, that’s exactly the gap this trip fills.

Make the trip count

Coming all the way from Gresham, you’ll want the visit to earn the miles — so bring a box to trade and plan to browse a while. Clear a shelf at home first; here’s how trade-in credit works so you arrive ready to swap and walk out with something new. While you’re mapping the area, you’re in good company: readers make the same kind of trip from Canby and Tigard too.

Check our hours and directions before you set out, see why readers across the metro make the drive, then browse the shop or line up picks with the Matchmaker so your stack is ready the moment you walk in.