Fully Booked : The Valley is well-stocked with used volumes--the simply secondhand to the really rare.

If your idea of a bookstore is a clean, well-lighted place, filled with unthumbed copies of the new Tom Clancy, this story isn’t for you. This is a guide to the Valley’s other bookstores, the sometimes dark, sometimes dusty places filled with books as old as your parents, out-of-print titles on everything from aerospace to zoology.

The Valley’s many used-book stores are typically visited by two types of people. First, there are the readers--individuals whose best times are had in their heads, exploring other worlds or becoming other people. These are the customers who peruse the shelves with half-smiles on their faces, touching the waiting spines as if engaged in a kind of foreplay.

Second, there are the book collectors. These are people who spend a great deal of time and money seeking a Grail known only to them--an obscure novel to cap their collection of whaling books or the WPA guide to the state of Idaho, the only one they don’t already have. Collectors tend to yelp unself-consciously when they hit it big. They also tend to be male, for reasons known only to God.

Ordinary used books sell for half their cover price or less. But some secondhand prose can cost a bundle. In recent years, book collecting has been roiled by a phenomenon called garping . As Denver book dealer and writer John Dunning explains, garping is the process whereby a relatively new book, and not necessarily a distinguished one, suddenly begins commanding princely sums on the resale market. Often the jump in price leaves even dealers shaking their heads. The term refers to John Irving’s novel “The World According to Garp.” As soon as “Garp” hit the bestseller list in 1978, Dunning says, Irving’s earlier books, which had languished on book-dealer’s shelves, garped, or shot up in value.

John Grisham’s early work has also garped. Dunning recently saw a copy of Grisham’s maiden novel, “A Time to Kill” (1988), for $3,000. That’s what you would pay for a decent first edition of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Go figure.

Some fancy-schmancy antiquarian bookstores have ritzy addresses, but most used-book stores are in neighborhoods where rents are low. The San Fernando Valley offers a surprising range of stores, places where you can find everything from books by L. Frank Baum to back issues of Collier’s magazine. The following is a non-inclusive list. It starts in the east, in Glendale, and ends in the West Valley. Virtually all the stores buy books and many will conduct a search for a particular title. The focus is on stores that carry hardbacks.

Brand Books, 231 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Owner Jerome Joseph estimates he has about 100,000 books, and he and his staff can often help you find a particular title in this large, well-organized shop. One of the best things about Brand Books is its high turnover, much valued by habitual book shoppers. One appreciative regular is Eloisa Mondrus of Mount Washington. She stops by twice a month to check out the Judaica section and books on her native Cuba. With titles in all categories, the store is strong in philosophy, religion and film, and has large, orderly paperback sections as well. Open nightly. “People walk at night here,” Joseph explains.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. (818) 507-5943.

Mystery & Imagination Bookshop, 515 1/2 E. Broadway, Glendale. This is the only used-book store in the Valley that specializes in mystery and suspense, a booming area of book collecting. (Mitchell Books in Pasadena is the premier place for mysteries in the San Gabriel Valley; Mysterious Bookshop, the best of the Westside stores.) Among the 7,500 books on the shelves are literature and fiction of all kinds. Recent goodies included a first edition of “Burning Daylight,” signed by author Jack London. Priced at $550, the book also includes London’s personal bookplate featuring a wolf. Co-owner Christine Bell says interest in book collecting seems to be surging lately. “A great many of our customers are brand new collectors within the last year,” she said.

Hours: noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. (818) 545-0206.

Book City Burbank, 308 N. San Fernando Blvd., Burbank. The offspring of mammoth Book City Hollywood, Book City Burbank is a huge, bright, orderly operation in the middle of the gentrified Burbank mall. According to manager Mitch Siegel, there are 500,000 books at the two Book City locations and their warehouse. Ladders are placed throughout the store so customers can explore the upper shelves. Siegel can’t get over how much the area, now full of restaurants and shoppers in full Gap chic, has changed since the store opened in 1980. “It went from Mayberry to Manhattan,” he says. Book City Burbank is a great place to look for material on the arts, including movie and TV scripts. It has also started selling autographs.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. (818) 848-4417.

Book Castle, 200 N. San Fernando Blvd., Burbank. Co-owner Paul Hunt describes Book Castle on the Burbank mall as “one of the last of the big, old general bookstores.” Big it is--about 10,000 square feet with even Hunt doesn’t know how many books. Book Castle isn’t the best organized store in the world, and some of its stock is tired, but it has something for everyone, including a vast collection of back-issue magazines.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. (818) 845-1563.

Book Castle is the flagship of a modest bibliographic armada. Under the same ownership is much smaller Bond Street Books, nearby at 144 S. San Fernando Blvd., Burbank. Bond Street Books used to be worth checking out for its literature and foreign literature in translation, in particular, if you didn’t mind taking a deep breath when somebody tried to pass you in the narrow aisles. According to co-owner Hunt, most of the good literature titles have been moved to the mall store. The new Bond Street concentrates on politics, military history, true crime, secret societies and the like. “We’re very strong in conspiracy stuff right now,” Hunt says. Conspiracy? “If you’re paranoid,” jokes Hunt, “you’re welcome to our store.”

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. (818) 845-6467.

In the minds of many serious collectors, the best Book Castle is the one at 3604 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. This is a somewhat dark but capacious store, with good offerings in history, including military history, and literature. The emphasis is on solid, scholarly books. Manager Ted Miller is a collector himself, of Irish history and fiction. He also keeps track of his neatly arranged stock. “It’s really nice if somebody calls for a book if you know where it might be.”

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. (818) 842-6816.

Sam’s Book City, 5249 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. This general used-book store is in the process of being revamped by co-owner Craig Klapman. Sam’s Book City is vast, with some 65,000 books on all subjects, and Klapman hopes to expand it to its full 100,000-volume capacity. Klapman has begun to impose order on the store’s shelves, has invested heavily in brighter light bulbs and has introduced such amenities as a children’s book room, with toys. On Saturday mornings at 10:30 a.m., a storyteller will keep the little darlings amused, or at least distracted, for an hour while you browse in peace. Klapman, whose background is theater, says he took the job because it allows him to obey Henry David Thoreau’s admonition to “beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.” As for Sam, there is no Sam, Klapman admits, “although we have different stories for different people.”

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Sunday. (818) 985-6911.

Iliad Book Shop, 4820 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood. “I carry a little bit of everything, but I specialize in literature, the arts and counterculture,” says owner Dan Weinstein. The last, he explains, includes everything from books on body piercing to the novels of Robert Anton Wilson. There are sofas so customers can hang out and a resident collie, Jack the Dog. Weinstein has a decent selection of modern firsts and collectible books. At press time he had a copy of Walt Whitman’s “Autobiographia” for $150 and a special edition of “Alice in Wonderland” illustrated and signed by Salvador Dali for $2,700. There are also 50-cent paperbacks. Weinstein is a one of the younger members of what amounts to a book-dealing dynasty in Southern California. The Westside’s Heritage Book Shop, the area’s finest, is owned by uncles Ben and Lou Weinstein, and the family has ties to bookshops from Ventura to Orange counties. As one competitor says, “The Weinsteins have ink in their blood.”

Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. (818) 509-2665.

Dutton’s Books, 5146 Laurel Canyon Blvd., North Hollywood. Dutton’s is one of the Valley best-known stores with a large, rather disheveled used-book section as well as a good selection of new books. A lot of books spilled onto the floor during the recent quake, but Dutton’s was soon back in business with a “storewide seismic sale,” offering 20% to 50% off. Specialties include literature, classics, humanities, the arts, history and philosophy. Dutton’s has a branch with about half as many books at 3806 W. Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank, which is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m to 6 p.m. Call (818) 840-8003 for further information.

Hours: 9:30 a.m to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. (818) 769-3866.

Bargain Books, 14426 Friar St., Van Nuys. Bargain Books is one of the few shops in the Valley that is strong in technical books. A general bookstore, it also has a good selection of art books, children’s books and cookbooks. This is one of the places you didn’t want to be during the recent quake. The aisles are snug for an anorexic, and books are often double-shelved. “We had over 50,000 books fall,” says Bill Wirt, who owns the store with his sister, Diane Sharrar. Stock is constantly turning over, which makes this shop a terrific place to pass your lunch hour if you’re on jury duty at nearby Van Nuys courthouse. Insiders say the owners pay top prices for good books.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. (818) 782-2782.

The Bookie Joint, 7426 Reseda Blvd., Reseda. After the Northridge earthquake, callers to the Bookie Joint heard a tape describing it as “the epicentric bookshop” and asking for volunteers to help clean up. Almost 20 years old, the store was badly shaken. Owner Rose Blaz reports that 50,000 books on all subjects and another 50,000 magazines were unshelved. Today the signs on the still boarded-up windows read “Trying to be open.” Rose and husband Jerry are in there every day, attempting to bring some order to the chaos. Rose reports progress is being made--all the back issues of Life magazine from 1936 to 1955 have been organized, for instance. But most of the stock is still in boxes. “The doors are open, but people are having a hard time,” Rose admits. “The other day someone wanted an art book, and she spent six hours finding it. I don’t know how she did it.”

The Blazes have been opening at 11 a.m. weekdays, 10:30 a.m. Saturdays and trying to stay open until 6 p.m. (818) 343-1055.

Books Plus, 17812 Chatsworth Ave., Granada Hills. Like many other small businesses in this part of the Valley, Books Plus was whacked by the quake. Owner Mary Watanabe lost 900 feet of shelving. “We were trashed,” she says. Watanabe describes hers as a general used-book store, with strong holdings in literature, children’s books and illustrated books. She is especially grateful to one of her customers, Han Chang-Min, who showed up after the quake and worked for weeks, helping her rescue the hip-high pile of books on the floor. She appreciated his humor, his managerial skills and the fact that he didn’t step on the books as some other would-be helpers did. “He was the one who could cry with me when we found a really good book that was damaged,” she recalls.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. (818) 360-8741.

Brigg’s Books and Records, 21710 Sherman Way, Canoga Park. A regular at Brigg’s described this huge store as “reminiscent of Acres of Books in Long Beach. Its great strength is the sheer number of books they have.” Brigg’s has dark corners, good prices.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. (818) 713-1601.

Sam’s Book Co., 21016 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. Sam’s has the Southwest Valley book trade all to itself. Owner Keith Perez (who is co-owner of Sam’s Book City) has about 25,000 books, with good representation in literature, Western and California history, art, cinema, philosophy and psychology. Perez, who used to be in the wine business, says his typical customer is college-educated, either a collector who buys two or three books a month or simply a person looking for a sophisticated book in a particular area. He prides himself on the shop’s ease of use and its well-informed staff.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. (818) 999-6962.