Top 5 second-hand bookshops

1. Didsbury Village Bookshop (at the back of Art of Tea café )

Eat cake in the warm café and then go through the back door into the Narnia of books. The sheer quantity and quality of the books here make up for the slightly higher prices and seeming disorganisation (the man sitting in the armchair is ready to help you with any questions).

47 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury Village

2. Paramount Books

This local gem is hidden behind the Arndale, next door to the megabus coach station. Allow yourself to be lured in by the loud classical music played on speakers outside the shop and spend hours modelling the art books on the sofa by the window. Beware: it’s only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

25-27 Shudehill

3. Oxfam Withington

Charity shops are the cheapest places for second-hand books. Pop into your local charity shop on a Saturday morning and you will be sure to find something for a pound.

465 Wilmslow Road, Withington

 4. E. J. Morten Booksellers

Wander off down a little cobbled street and into the past. The shop opened in 1959, and John Morten has run the business since 1986. It specialises in 19th- and 20th-century military history studies, as well as travel and sporting books.

6 Warburton Street, Didsbury

5. Oxfam Whitworth Park

There’s another Oxfam, just under our noses, opposite the Stopford building. This one is famous for its cheap second hand textbooks that were too heavy to carry back on the train after graduation, and reading-list books that might have some helpful notes left by the previous owner.

300-302 Oxford Road