_{PHOTO: Good Dog Records & Books at 1187 Centre Street offers a variety of used books, albums and other rare finds. Photo by Daniel Dern}

Where new bookstores can be the place to go for new and always-popular books (and often coffee, tea and noshes), used bookstores are where to go for a mix of older, harder to find ones that you’re looking for—and for books (and records) you weren’t looking for but are excited to find.

So as a used-bookstore-phile who has, over the past six decades, happily browsed-and-bought everywhere from Harvard Square and Boston Back Bay to Maine, San Francisco, and London, I was happy to learn relatively recently from a friend that a new used-book-and-record store had opened up in Newton Centre: Good Dog Records & Books (https://gooddognewton.com).

Good Dog is conveniently located at 1187 Centre St., next to the Subway and opposite a Citizens Bank. And it’s just a few blocks from the Newton Centre T stop, the 52 bus’s Centre & Beacon stop, and the Langley Road, Pelham Street and Pleasant Street city parking lots. Not to mention block-or-three walking-proximate to Rosenfeld’s Bagels, Blackbird Donuts, other coffee shops, restaurants and fooderies, and to Newton Center’s new-books purveyor, Newtonville Books (which relocated in early 2012 from its now-previous Walnut Street, Newtonville, location).

With, according to store owner Barry Tilles, somewhere around 20,000 books and 2,500 records in the store proper, and “probably another seven to ten thousand books and 4,000 records in the store’s back and basement,” odds are good you’ll find something to pique your interest (or to give to a friend).

What’s in the store

Good Dog has bargains starting at $1 on the table outside the front door on good enough weather days. There are paperback, trade and hardcovers from the $10-and-under range as well as older and rare books and atlases for the aficionados.

“I’ve got an anatomy book from the late 17th century,” notes Tilles.

There are also contemporary fiction and non-fiction works.

Perusing the shelves and stacks, it’s easy to see many of the books I know and loved (and own or have owned) along with others I recognize, and still others to peruse and ponder. One example of the unexpected: in a recent browse-visit I just spotted a Steven King pop-up book in the window, “The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon.”

Not my 3-D jam, but I’ve got friends who do collect pop-uppers.

Tilles has organized, categorized and labelled Good Dog’s offerings in a mix of traditional and idiosyncratic ways (which Tilles periodically tweaks). For example, the Language shelf includes areas labelled Linguistics, Slang, Swear Words, and Synonym Rolls.

Notable book categories, along with canonical categories and areas of general fiction, mystery/thriller and science fiction, Good Dog’s notable specialty areas such as:

• vintage paperbacks
• signed by the author
• atlases, map books and reference books
• math and science (from popular/general through advanced)
• physics, animal and human cognition)
• dogs, cats and other animals.

On the vinyl side, Good Dog’s record bin categories include surf/instro (which isn’t just songs
like “Telstar” from the ’60s, there’s new stuff from all over the world).

“We have the largest selection of surf/instro in New England,” according to the store’s web site—along with folk, bluegrass, jazz, classical, world music, rautalanka, eleki, south Asian a-go-go, soundtracks, spoken word, vintage jazz and blues, and, of course, rock.

Additionally, Good Dog has a few racks, stacks and displays of CDs and cassette tapes, magazines, sundry ephemera, and a few turntables and other stereo gear for sale.

A store by and for collectors

Good Dog is owned and run by Barry Tilles, a bibliophile who’s been living in the greater Boston area for almost 50 years.

“Back in the late 1980s, I went to a dog show in Copley Square, where I was fascinated by a display of antiquarian books. That led to a fun—but expensive—hobby, learning about first editions and bindings and print numbers. I’m still learning.”

Around 2014, when he owned and was driving an independent cab in Boston, he kept encountering and rescuing books being discarded by a nearby bookstore (as recounted in Kimberly Gladman’s May 6, 2024 Fig City News article).

As Tilles learned more about book collecting—and continued to buy or otherwise accumulate more books, he decided to turn his interest into a business. “I began thinking about opening a store in 2015, but I wasn’t quite ready…it wasn’t until May 2023 that everything came together, including finding and getting the Newton Centre location offering convenient access to parking, public transit, food—and customers.

“It was plain luck,” says Tilles. “When I got the opportunity in Newton, I jumped at it.”

Why a storefront rather than selling via the Internet?

“Selling that way isn’t very personal,” says Tilles. “I like contact with people.” (Although he does use the Internet to research and acquire some books.)

Hours for not-so-early birds

Good Dog is open six days a week (closed on Tuesdays), with the door opening sometime after noon, staying open until between 8 and 10PM (check the door or web site for specific hours) except on Sundays (closing at 6PM), making it an ideal lunchtime, after-work (or after-school) or weekend stop.

Good Dog’s digital presence includes the web and Instagram, currently informational but no digital commerce.

For me, perfect hours to make progress on looking through the currently visible inventory (to give to friends, of course).