What are your favorite books? "I don’t have any."
August 17, 2015 7:36 AM Subscribe
I loved that place back when I lived in the neighborhood, and I'm a little sadder knowing it will be gone soon.
But mostly I'm pleasantly surprised to hear it's lasted this long, and, I mean, $5.5 million? Hell yeah he should sell out. He'd be a damn fool not to.
posted by dersins at 7:52 AM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
But mostly I'm pleasantly surprised to hear it's lasted this long, and, I mean, $5.5 million? Hell yeah he should sell out. He'd be a damn fool not to.
posted by dersins at 7:52 AM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
I love that it opened at night " hey what do you sell here? " n I g h t b o o k s"
posted by The Whelk at 8:07 AM on August 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 8:07 AM on August 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
I remember the first time I wandered in there as a teenager in the late 90s/early 00s and it was one of the reasons I really, really wanted to live in Cobble Hill.
posted by griphus at 8:08 AM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by griphus at 8:08 AM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah, there used to be some messy used bookstores around here - though none quite like that one - and they all got driven out so that developers could put in fancy student housing. The student neighborhood near the university went, over the course of about five years, from mostly independent business to mostly chains and a bunch of giant luxury apartments. It used to be a place I'd go all the time and now I never stop by because there's nothing left that I'd want to see or do.
One of the bookstores had lots of pets - two cats and some fish and a little dog and a bunch of birds. All the stores were piled high with books.
One of the used bookstores moved into an upstairs location. It's nice enough - probably the best used bookstore in town, now - but it has far fewer books and definitely far fewer really old books.
I used to go used book-shopping all the time - every couple of weeks. But now I go to these places and there just isn't much I want anymore. It's all remaindered contemporary literary fiction and coffee table design books.
posted by Frowner at 8:11 AM on August 17, 2015 [7 favorites]
One of the bookstores had lots of pets - two cats and some fish and a little dog and a bunch of birds. All the stores were piled high with books.
One of the used bookstores moved into an upstairs location. It's nice enough - probably the best used bookstore in town, now - but it has far fewer books and definitely far fewer really old books.
I used to go used book-shopping all the time - every couple of weeks. But now I go to these places and there just isn't much I want anymore. It's all remaindered contemporary literary fiction and coffee table design books.
posted by Frowner at 8:11 AM on August 17, 2015 [7 favorites]
It used to be a place I'd go all the time and now I never stop by because there's nothing left that I'd want to see or do.
This is a serious side effect of internet selling, I think -- almost all the small shopping areas in my town have changed from a) a bunch of chains I didn't care about, b) a few independent stores I did, and c) restaurants to a) a few chains and b) restaurants. I used to go to these neighborhoods to shop at b), sometimes grab something from a) and get a meal or coffee or a drink at c). Now I mostly stay home, so none of them get my money. I get that retail is a hellish business, but this is a really poor model for a thriving economic and social life of a neighborhood. Eventually we will all just sit at home, waiting for shipments from Amazon, while drinking coffee through an Sbuxtap.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:20 AM on August 17, 2015 [11 favorites]
This is a serious side effect of internet selling, I think -- almost all the small shopping areas in my town have changed from a) a bunch of chains I didn't care about, b) a few independent stores I did, and c) restaurants to a) a few chains and b) restaurants. I used to go to these neighborhoods to shop at b), sometimes grab something from a) and get a meal or coffee or a drink at c). Now I mostly stay home, so none of them get my money. I get that retail is a hellish business, but this is a really poor model for a thriving economic and social life of a neighborhood. Eventually we will all just sit at home, waiting for shipments from Amazon, while drinking coffee through an Sbuxtap.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:20 AM on August 17, 2015 [11 favorites]
It's all just preparing us for never being able to go outside anyway
posted by The Whelk at 8:26 AM on August 17, 2015 [18 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 8:26 AM on August 17, 2015 [18 favorites]
John Scioli: "A lot of young people can’t handle this type of store. They want everything to look like a supermarket, like Barnes & Noble. Very neat."
For the last few years, I have been mulling my own resistance to what I call the Pottery Barn aesthetic: Everything tidily and precisely displayed in a quietly utilitarian and sterile environment that is in no way human. No messiness; no complexity; no whimsy; no room for the serendipitous amid the ruthlessly ordered. I say this as one who loves order, but also as one who appreciates objects that show the material work of the human hand and mind. I love the idea of Ikea, but being there gives me the heebie jeebies. To my mind, a good book store is one where I feel like people have been involved in the reading, categorizing, and display of items, and there's a happy randomness within the planning. Cheers to John Scioli, and others like him, for keeping the human--and the messy--in the store.
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:29 AM on August 17, 2015 [17 favorites]
For the last few years, I have been mulling my own resistance to what I call the Pottery Barn aesthetic: Everything tidily and precisely displayed in a quietly utilitarian and sterile environment that is in no way human. No messiness; no complexity; no whimsy; no room for the serendipitous amid the ruthlessly ordered. I say this as one who loves order, but also as one who appreciates objects that show the material work of the human hand and mind. I love the idea of Ikea, but being there gives me the heebie jeebies. To my mind, a good book store is one where I feel like people have been involved in the reading, categorizing, and display of items, and there's a happy randomness within the planning. Cheers to John Scioli, and others like him, for keeping the human--and the messy--in the store.
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:29 AM on August 17, 2015 [17 favorites]
It's all just preparing us for never being able to go outside anyway
The Singularity will actually be everyone being trapped in a VR version of a SkyMall catalog, but with e-lattes.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:32 AM on August 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
The Singularity will actually be everyone being trapped in a VR version of a SkyMall catalog, but with e-lattes.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:32 AM on August 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
My retirement dream is to open a bookstore just like that and live above it. I would have a wine tasting bar and sell bottles to go. I would have a cigar bar and a smoking lounge where you could take your books. Some people tell me I should do this now. But I always say, "If I do this now what would I have for a retirement dream?"
Also, 5.5 million? Damn, I'm never going to save enough to buy a bookstore in retirement.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:51 AM on August 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, 5.5 million? Damn, I'm never going to save enough to buy a bookstore in retirement.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:51 AM on August 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
This bookstore reminds me of the bookstore that used to be right next to the Va-Hi location of Aurora Coffee in Atlanta, GA. The owner, Charles, owned that one, and the one next to the laundromat further up Ponce, across from Manuel's. They were super crowded, arbitrarily indexed, well-loved. The one next to the coffee shop was manned by Jim, a gruff opinionated fella who had Tourette's and always ordered the same thing: everything bagel with double cream cheese, large coffee. He lived for the one month of summer where he got to go on vacation; he'd always go to the same small town in Scotland to visit friends and drink whisky every night. Sadly, one of my co-workers found him dead of a heart attack when he went next door to ask for change. All these years later and I still remember these things about this brusque old man. I don't know if either of those bookstores are open anymore. I hope so. There is a bookstore here in Kingston which is exactly like the store in the article and the ones I knew: haphazardly piled books in the aisles, no a/c, and that unmistakable scent of musty books. Long live the neighbourhood bookstores. A place becomes poorer for it when they shut the doors.
posted by Kitteh at 8:53 AM on August 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 8:53 AM on August 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
the one next to the laundromat further up Ponce, across from Manuel's.
Has this one shut down? I can't remember the name, but I've bought my share of books there.
posted by dortmunder at 9:01 AM on August 17, 2015
Has this one shut down? I can't remember the name, but I've bought my share of books there.
posted by dortmunder at 9:01 AM on August 17, 2015
My retirement dream is to open a bookstore just like that and live above it.
Read the article, first buy a building.
posted by sammyo at 9:02 AM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
Read the article, first buy a building.
posted by sammyo at 9:02 AM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
Ha! I love this guy! A few gems:
And they all take pictures of the store, even if they don’t buy anything! It’s because they never saw a messy bookstore. There used to be a lot of used bookstores in New York, for many years, on Fourth Avenue. People come by and say, "Oh you’re still here! Thank God, you’re the last of the breed."
A lot of customers are in their 20s and 30s now. They say, “I used to come in here as a kid, play Ninja Turtles”—in the beginning, we had a lot of toys—and they find the leftover toys and they show their girlfriends. And the girls are totally bored when they do that.
For all the people who’ll miss the store, I’m sure they’ll be sad if a Prada or something comes in, some kind of boutique. But some people will think, thank God that bookstore’s gone—now we can buy handbags.
posted by pravit at 9:02 AM on August 17, 2015
And they all take pictures of the store, even if they don’t buy anything! It’s because they never saw a messy bookstore. There used to be a lot of used bookstores in New York, for many years, on Fourth Avenue. People come by and say, "Oh you’re still here! Thank God, you’re the last of the breed."
A lot of customers are in their 20s and 30s now. They say, “I used to come in here as a kid, play Ninja Turtles”—in the beginning, we had a lot of toys—and they find the leftover toys and they show their girlfriends. And the girls are totally bored when they do that.
For all the people who’ll miss the store, I’m sure they’ll be sad if a Prada or something comes in, some kind of boutique. But some people will think, thank God that bookstore’s gone—now we can buy handbags.
posted by pravit at 9:02 AM on August 17, 2015
cjorgensen: My retirement dream is to open a bookstore just like that and live above it. I would have a wine tasting bar and sell bottles to go. I would have a cigar bar and a smoking lounge where you could take your books. Some people tell me I should do this now. But I always say, "If I do this now what would I have for a retirement dream?"
Route 741 in Strasburg, PA is home to Moyers Book Barn, which is the retirement project of local physician Dr David Moyer. It's exactly as the name implies: an old barn full of books. Most days, it's Doc, the cat, and an AM radio. There's no internet presence or computer POS, all sales are written up by hand. The shelves have logically laid out with a few quips along the way (ie the medical section has the sign: "save money, do it yourself!").
If there ever was a booklovers retirement fantasy, this is it.
posted by dr_dank at 9:09 AM on August 17, 2015 [15 favorites]
Route 741 in Strasburg, PA is home to Moyers Book Barn, which is the retirement project of local physician Dr David Moyer. It's exactly as the name implies: an old barn full of books. Most days, it's Doc, the cat, and an AM radio. There's no internet presence or computer POS, all sales are written up by hand. The shelves have logically laid out with a few quips along the way (ie the medical section has the sign: "save money, do it yourself!").
If there ever was a booklovers retirement fantasy, this is it.
posted by dr_dank at 9:09 AM on August 17, 2015 [15 favorites]
Last time I was there, when it was time to check out he set down his deli coffee cup and I realized, holy smokes, he just set it down on top of a huge stack of other, empty deli coffee cups, three tall and three deep. "Are those all from today?" I asked.
"No, this is all week," he replied. "I've got attachment issues."
No shit.
This was also where we found this which we will treasure forever
posted by phooky at 9:33 AM on August 17, 2015 [9 favorites]
"No, this is all week," he replied. "I've got attachment issues."
No shit.
This was also where we found this which we will treasure forever
posted by phooky at 9:33 AM on August 17, 2015 [9 favorites]
Free E-Book: Turn Your Struggling Used Bookstore Into A Thriving Sit-Down Pizzeria Today!
posted by acb at 9:53 AM on August 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by acb at 9:53 AM on August 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
I went to that place by accident once while looking for travel guides. It immediately reminded me of the basement of 101 Music on Grant Street in SF - total death trap, filled with treasure, strangely over-populated by Phil Collins.
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:15 AM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:15 AM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
I worked in the used book business for years, and shopped in them for much longer, I had no patience then or now for the "bookstore as a big, filthy, chaotic pile of random shit staffed by an ornery middle-aged white guy" school of bookselling. Yes, there were sometimes mindblowing serendipitous discoveries that you could never make elsewhere, but they were few and far between compared to the MANY HOURS spent crawling around on your hands and knees, working your way up to a hideous, mold-induced allergy attack while the owner sat in a decaying office chair chain smoking, just to fail to find anything interesting.
When abebooks, alibris, etc., first came along, I was elated, and I rarely shop in brick-and-mortar used shops now, and don't really miss it. More time to invest in reading, less spent trying and failing to find the books I really want to read. The shops that I do stop in when I'm nearby have some respect for the customer's time and actually make an effort to impose some kind of parsable order on their stock.
posted by ryanshepard at 10:33 AM on August 17, 2015 [20 favorites]
When abebooks, alibris, etc., first came along, I was elated, and I rarely shop in brick-and-mortar used shops now, and don't really miss it. More time to invest in reading, less spent trying and failing to find the books I really want to read. The shops that I do stop in when I'm nearby have some respect for the customer's time and actually make an effort to impose some kind of parsable order on their stock.
posted by ryanshepard at 10:33 AM on August 17, 2015 [20 favorites]
A science fiction TV series where these places are all portals to a dimension full of mystical weapons and the retirees who run them have a secret society that battles the creatures that emerge from the abandoned corners of old racetracks.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:35 AM on August 17, 2015 [13 favorites]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:35 AM on August 17, 2015 [13 favorites]
I would watch that so hard that I'm pissed at myself for not watching it right now.
posted by Etrigan at 10:45 AM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Etrigan at 10:45 AM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
I get that retail is a hellish business, but this is a really poor model for a thriving economic and social life of a neighborhood. Eventually we will all just sit at home, waiting for shipments from Amazon, while drinking coffee through an Sbuxtap.
I think the poor model here is the idea that third spaces should be subsidized by retail. Online shopping made it possible to decouple the third space from the retail and it turns out that people like that a lot.
But we could create more third spaces: more and better libraries, parks, amateur athletic facilities, arts facilities, etc. It makes me sad that we focus so much on shopping as leisure. We seem to have this idea that the in-person interaction you have with a guy who sells you a book is very important, but that other interactions with people are not so highly valued and are best avoided.
posted by ssg at 10:55 AM on August 17, 2015 [17 favorites]
I think the poor model here is the idea that third spaces should be subsidized by retail. Online shopping made it possible to decouple the third space from the retail and it turns out that people like that a lot.
But we could create more third spaces: more and better libraries, parks, amateur athletic facilities, arts facilities, etc. It makes me sad that we focus so much on shopping as leisure. We seem to have this idea that the in-person interaction you have with a guy who sells you a book is very important, but that other interactions with people are not so highly valued and are best avoided.
posted by ssg at 10:55 AM on August 17, 2015 [17 favorites]
I'll have to complain to cortex that my "save to Netflix queue" mefi button isn't working, Potomac Avenue.
posted by dr_dank at 11:09 AM on August 17, 2015
posted by dr_dank at 11:09 AM on August 17, 2015
...total death trap, filled with treasure...
I once had a couple of two-foot tall stacks of VHS tapes collapse on me while i was looking through them in one of those tiny, dank Brooklyn video stores that don't exist anymore. Nobody cared and it was hilarious.
posted by griphus at 11:16 AM on August 17, 2015
I once had a couple of two-foot tall stacks of VHS tapes collapse on me while i was looking through them in one of those tiny, dank Brooklyn video stores that don't exist anymore. Nobody cared and it was hilarious.
posted by griphus at 11:16 AM on August 17, 2015
We seem to have this idea that the in-person interaction you have with a guy who sells you a book is very important, but that other interactions with people are not so highly valued and are best avoided.
I think the point is that the consumer-retailer relationship facilitates interaction by creating context. That's how I make friends in a new neighborhood - patronize local businesses, where talking is part of the process. Other interactions are not less highly valued, they're just not as easy. I'm not going to go up to a stranger on the street or in a park and say "Hey pal, let's see if we have anything in common!" but I might ask another person at a bookstore for a recommendation.
posted by grumpybear69 at 11:18 AM on August 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
I think the point is that the consumer-retailer relationship facilitates interaction by creating context. That's how I make friends in a new neighborhood - patronize local businesses, where talking is part of the process. Other interactions are not less highly valued, they're just not as easy. I'm not going to go up to a stranger on the street or in a park and say "Hey pal, let's see if we have anything in common!" but I might ask another person at a bookstore for a recommendation.
posted by grumpybear69 at 11:18 AM on August 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
"bookstore as a big, filthy, chaotic pile of random shit staffed by an ornery middle-aged white guy"
Yeah, this. I've ALWAYS loved books, loved reading, loved used bookstores, but I've never understood 1) people who are obsessed with the smell of books, it smells like filthy mold! or 2) people who fetishize these kinds of places. Maybe it's just my bad dust/mold allergies speaking for me but I would rather shop in an air-filtered Ikea equivalent any day.
I used to buy so many books from the used bookstore, because I was broke-- now that I have money on occasion I actually much prefer being able to find exactly what I'm looking for. Serendipity be damned.
posted by easter queen at 11:25 AM on August 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Yeah, this. I've ALWAYS loved books, loved reading, loved used bookstores, but I've never understood 1) people who are obsessed with the smell of books, it smells like filthy mold! or 2) people who fetishize these kinds of places. Maybe it's just my bad dust/mold allergies speaking for me but I would rather shop in an air-filtered Ikea equivalent any day.
I used to buy so many books from the used bookstore, because I was broke-- now that I have money on occasion I actually much prefer being able to find exactly what I'm looking for. Serendipity be damned.
posted by easter queen at 11:25 AM on August 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
A science fiction TV series where these places are all portals to a dimension full of mystical weapons and the retirees who run them have a secret society that battles the creatures that emerge from the abandoned corners of old racetracks.
Have you met any booksellers? Most are crazy, most are alcoholics, and a fair number are alcoholic and crazy. Honestly, it's a lot like Black Books, except no one thinks the shenanigans are whimsical. I spent a decade in the book trade and, while I would never trade those memories away, I am glad I left while I still could. A secret society of booksellers battling anything would be... not convenient to describe.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:25 AM on August 17, 2015 [9 favorites]
Have you met any booksellers? Most are crazy, most are alcoholics, and a fair number are alcoholic and crazy. Honestly, it's a lot like Black Books, except no one thinks the shenanigans are whimsical. I spent a decade in the book trade and, while I would never trade those memories away, I am glad I left while I still could. A secret society of booksellers battling anything would be... not convenient to describe.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:25 AM on August 17, 2015 [9 favorites]
> the "bookstore as a big, filthy, chaotic pile of random shit staffed by an ornery middle-aged white guy" school of bookselling.
There's a place like that in Toronto; good lord does the guy who runs it ever seem to hate his customers. There's also a book/record store like that in Kingston; the fellow there is nice enough, but the last time I went in there the entire store was coated in an inch of dust and there were so many records in the bins that the ones on the outside were bent.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:26 AM on August 17, 2015
There's a place like that in Toronto; good lord does the guy who runs it ever seem to hate his customers. There's also a book/record store like that in Kingston; the fellow there is nice enough, but the last time I went in there the entire store was coated in an inch of dust and there were so many records in the bins that the ones on the outside were bent.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:26 AM on August 17, 2015
But we could create more third spaces: more and better libraries, parks, amateur athletic facilities, arts facilities, etc
Pity that the same urge that creates Amazon and similar ventures also works against any third spaces at all. Why have better libraries? If you can afford them, buy the books, and, if you can't, you are just surplus. It's the capitalist way!
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:28 AM on August 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Pity that the same urge that creates Amazon and similar ventures also works against any third spaces at all. Why have better libraries? If you can afford them, buy the books, and, if you can't, you are just surplus. It's the capitalist way!
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:28 AM on August 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
John Scioli: "A lot of young people can’t handle this type of store. They want everything to look like a supermarket, like Barnes & Noble. Very neat."
This is sad. I pretty much grew up with the Internet - since I was five or six at least though I guess e-commerce didn't really come along for a few more years - and I still love messy used bookstores. It's Barnes & Noble that seems pointless when Amazon exists .
posted by atoxyl at 11:30 AM on August 17, 2015
This is sad. I pretty much grew up with the Internet - since I was five or six at least though I guess e-commerce didn't really come along for a few more years - and I still love messy used bookstores. It's Barnes & Noble that seems pointless when Amazon exists .
posted by atoxyl at 11:30 AM on August 17, 2015
I worked in the used book business for years, and shopped in them for much longer, I had no patience then or now for the "bookstore as a big, filthy, chaotic pile of random shit staffed by an ornery middle-aged white guy" school of bookselling.
Me too & me too. One of these exact kind of places closed earlier this year, out in the country near where I live (Ithaca NY), and folks were getting all misty-eyed and nostalgic over it. I kept wondering if these people had been in there in the last decade -- he hadn't put anything new out on shelves in years and when you went to the counter with a purchase he glared at you and treated you like you'd tracked in a dog turd on your shoe. I'm no social butterfly myself but at some point even I had to call bullshit on that kind of self-indulgent misanthropic nonsense.
posted by aught at 11:40 AM on August 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Me too & me too. One of these exact kind of places closed earlier this year, out in the country near where I live (Ithaca NY), and folks were getting all misty-eyed and nostalgic over it. I kept wondering if these people had been in there in the last decade -- he hadn't put anything new out on shelves in years and when you went to the counter with a purchase he glared at you and treated you like you'd tracked in a dog turd on your shoe. I'm no social butterfly myself but at some point even I had to call bullshit on that kind of self-indulgent misanthropic nonsense.
posted by aught at 11:40 AM on August 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
I just want to say that the messy bookstore owners with whom I was familiar in MPLS were all very nice. The worst thing I can think of was one really jerky hipster employee who made me feel bad about my reading choices (when they were classic and important! but girl books!). And he was just staff. One can have a messy bookstore and be a perfectly decent person.
posted by Frowner at 11:45 AM on August 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 11:45 AM on August 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
I spent a decade in the book trade and, while I would never trade those memories away, I am glad I left while I still could.
Was it before or after the wealthy, eccentric occult book collector set himself on fire?
posted by griphus at 11:48 AM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
Was it before or after the wealthy, eccentric occult book collector set himself on fire?
posted by griphus at 11:48 AM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
One can have a messy bookstore and be a perfectly decent person.
Certainly true, but especially in big cities and maybe especially especially in the East, the anti-social hoarder type has been all too common. Last time I was wandering around NYC bookstores a year or two ago maybe 3 of the 5 used bookstores I went to fit the bill? Though I have to say some clean and new indy bookstores are also not terribly friendly (I avoided St Mark's in the E Village for a long time despite their great poetry selection; I wonder if they are nicer since moving), and I certainly find big box bookstores alienating and vacant (and their stock entirely useless).
Maybe I have a lower threshold for being glared at than I did 25 years ago? Or maybe the surprisingly pleasant Minnesotan cluttered-bookstore owner is like all the other nicer-than-elsewhere Minnesotan things?
posted by aught at 12:04 PM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Certainly true, but especially in big cities and maybe especially especially in the East, the anti-social hoarder type has been all too common. Last time I was wandering around NYC bookstores a year or two ago maybe 3 of the 5 used bookstores I went to fit the bill? Though I have to say some clean and new indy bookstores are also not terribly friendly (I avoided St Mark's in the E Village for a long time despite their great poetry selection; I wonder if they are nicer since moving), and I certainly find big box bookstores alienating and vacant (and their stock entirely useless).
Maybe I have a lower threshold for being glared at than I did 25 years ago? Or maybe the surprisingly pleasant Minnesotan cluttered-bookstore owner is like all the other nicer-than-elsewhere Minnesotan things?
posted by aught at 12:04 PM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
There's a place like that in Toronto; good lord does the guy who runs it ever seem to hate his customers.
Used book and record stores are the SRO hotels of retail, employing and giving shelter to people who could not make it - hell, would barely be tolerated - in almost any other context.
If there's one thing that makes me sad about the coming demise of this entire class of retail it's that - as w/the elimination of the SRO - there is now just that much less space for very eccentric / neurotic / damaged / otherwise unfit for conventional employment people to make it in the world. Even the successful Amazon Direct used sellers, at least the ones that are making an actual living at it, are hustling fairly hard, hitting tons of sales with their smartphone-linked barcode readers, sorting relentlessly for high value items, etc. They're still usually weird and malodorous, but they're together enough to be "professional" about things. Every aspect of the used book business is just faster and more labor intensive, with none of the long, aimless, stoned afternoons of communing with freaks over piles of books and LPs that made it both great and totally insanity-inducing when I was doing it full time.
I love the ease with which I can find used books now, but I know that on some level I'm contributing to the neoliberalizing of an entire class of weirdos even further and more painfully onto the margins. Are they going to end up thrown completely onto the US social garbage heap as SRO dwellers were before them? Seems likely.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:25 PM on August 17, 2015 [15 favorites]
Used book and record stores are the SRO hotels of retail, employing and giving shelter to people who could not make it - hell, would barely be tolerated - in almost any other context.
If there's one thing that makes me sad about the coming demise of this entire class of retail it's that - as w/the elimination of the SRO - there is now just that much less space for very eccentric / neurotic / damaged / otherwise unfit for conventional employment people to make it in the world. Even the successful Amazon Direct used sellers, at least the ones that are making an actual living at it, are hustling fairly hard, hitting tons of sales with their smartphone-linked barcode readers, sorting relentlessly for high value items, etc. They're still usually weird and malodorous, but they're together enough to be "professional" about things. Every aspect of the used book business is just faster and more labor intensive, with none of the long, aimless, stoned afternoons of communing with freaks over piles of books and LPs that made it both great and totally insanity-inducing when I was doing it full time.
I love the ease with which I can find used books now, but I know that on some level I'm contributing to the neoliberalizing of an entire class of weirdos even further and more painfully onto the margins. Are they going to end up thrown completely onto the US social garbage heap as SRO dwellers were before them? Seems likely.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:25 PM on August 17, 2015 [15 favorites]
Middle-aged, ornery, white guy used bookseller here. Thanks for all the insults. Fuck you.
But seriously, those who have never inhabited the M.A.O.W.G.U.B. universe have no idea of what a thrill it is (within the context of not making living inside of a dying industry) to be able to tell anybody who bothers you to piss off.
There's only one real benefit to this kind of life, and it consists of two words, six letters.
NO.
BOSS.
posted by crazylegs at 12:44 PM on August 17, 2015 [19 favorites]
But seriously, those who have never inhabited the M.A.O.W.G.U.B. universe have no idea of what a thrill it is (within the context of not making living inside of a dying industry) to be able to tell anybody who bothers you to piss off.
There's only one real benefit to this kind of life, and it consists of two words, six letters.
NO.
BOSS.
posted by crazylegs at 12:44 PM on August 17, 2015 [19 favorites]
Honestly, it's a lot like Black Books, except no one thinks the shenanigans are whimsical.
This. I found myself unable to enjoy Black Books because they made Bernard Black too much of a grumpy-yet-cuddly teddy bear, completely ruining the character's plausibility. I have known actual misanthropic bastard booksellers, and Bernard Black is as much one of their kind as Noel Fielding is a plausible IT Goth.
posted by acb at 12:49 PM on August 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
This. I found myself unable to enjoy Black Books because they made Bernard Black too much of a grumpy-yet-cuddly teddy bear, completely ruining the character's plausibility. I have known actual misanthropic bastard booksellers, and Bernard Black is as much one of their kind as Noel Fielding is a plausible IT Goth.
posted by acb at 12:49 PM on August 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
I love the way I can find obscure stuff I want right away online - particularly since I live in a tiny, remote town.
But finding new stuff serendipitously isn't really well served by an Amazon or Netflix algorithm , and it isn't just a random walk either. These "messy" places always follow some organizational paradigm - obscure and peculiar - that makes discovery likely and exciting. The "strange attractor" quality of the environment also amps the odds that strangers, especially the one standing next to your browsing space, might have good suggestions.
It is the arrogance of teh youngz that this is not so, to our collective loss.
posted by Alter Cocker at 12:58 PM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
But finding new stuff serendipitously isn't really well served by an Amazon or Netflix algorithm , and it isn't just a random walk either. These "messy" places always follow some organizational paradigm - obscure and peculiar - that makes discovery likely and exciting. The "strange attractor" quality of the environment also amps the odds that strangers, especially the one standing next to your browsing space, might have good suggestions.
It is the arrogance of teh youngz that this is not so, to our collective loss.
posted by Alter Cocker at 12:58 PM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
Okay, everyone, I think we all know the first app that we are supposed to build for Occulus Rift: a creative interface to the Amazon/Abe and Alibris used book inventories that stimulates the experience of pile-of-books cranky-dude-on-stool-at-register experience, serendipity included but not essential.
posted by MattD at 1:27 PM on August 17, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by MattD at 1:27 PM on August 17, 2015 [7 favorites]
Holy shit there's a documentary about Barbarian Bookstore in Wheaton MD from 1992 on Youtube. Nobody steal this, I'm going to post it tomorrow.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:47 PM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:47 PM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
Holy shit there's a documentary about Barbarian Bookstore in Wheaton MD from 1992 yt on Youtube. Nobody steal this, I'm going to post it tomorrow.
I loved, loved, loved Barbarian as a teenager, because it was the one place in metro DC where you could regularly find Japanese models kids and soft vinyl toys in the 80s and early 90s. That, and the fact that Carl and his various henchmen were usually willing to at least try and navigate the chaos, recommend stuff that you hadn't thought about or noticed, and otherwise often seemed to be borderline gleeful to be presiding over a musty mountain of geek artifacts being picked over by socially awkward, twitchy adolescents. It had the mess in spades, but the access and the mutant camaraderie made that negligible. I'm grateful to Dave Nuttycombe for capturing it in its cobwebby, Mothra-festooned glory.
posted by ryanshepard at 2:17 PM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
I loved, loved, loved Barbarian as a teenager, because it was the one place in metro DC where you could regularly find Japanese models kids and soft vinyl toys in the 80s and early 90s. That, and the fact that Carl and his various henchmen were usually willing to at least try and navigate the chaos, recommend stuff that you hadn't thought about or noticed, and otherwise often seemed to be borderline gleeful to be presiding over a musty mountain of geek artifacts being picked over by socially awkward, twitchy adolescents. It had the mess in spades, but the access and the mutant camaraderie made that negligible. I'm grateful to Dave Nuttycombe for capturing it in its cobwebby, Mothra-festooned glory.
posted by ryanshepard at 2:17 PM on August 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oooooh, you know what Minneapolis's real, true messy bookstore is? Uncle Hugo's. Note that the pictures make it look far neater and less crowded than it actually is. The owner looks exactly like a teenage boy who has somehow got white hair and a beard - extremely fresh-faced and bright-complected. That is, like an awkward teenage boy who is a bit grumpy.
What a treasure house of SF ephemera that place is! There are boxes of filk cassettes from thirty years ago sitting right up by the counter just in case you'd like to buy some. (I'm always tempted.) There's a display of these incredibly grotty seventies fantasy posters by the guy who did many of those yellow-spined seventies Daw paperbacks. And there's heaps and heaps and heaps of new and used science fiction, to the point where it's actually a bit difficult to get at the actual shelves because "Tanith Lee is in boxes on the floor" as the helpful little sign says.
Uncle Hugo's is like something from another continuum with a much more benign version of capitalism. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I'd take it over just about any other bookstore any day, especially since they recruited a buyer from MPLS's other science fiction bookstore and started upping their game in terms of books by women and POC.
Oh, Uncle Hugo's! I'm sure it's a hell of a tough living and I'm sure it can't last forever, but what a place. That is one actual fleshly bookstore I visit all the time, and I should stop by there again this week just because I need to visit lots against the inevitable day when time and the gods take it down.
posted by Frowner at 2:55 PM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
What a treasure house of SF ephemera that place is! There are boxes of filk cassettes from thirty years ago sitting right up by the counter just in case you'd like to buy some. (I'm always tempted.) There's a display of these incredibly grotty seventies fantasy posters by the guy who did many of those yellow-spined seventies Daw paperbacks. And there's heaps and heaps and heaps of new and used science fiction, to the point where it's actually a bit difficult to get at the actual shelves because "Tanith Lee is in boxes on the floor" as the helpful little sign says.
Uncle Hugo's is like something from another continuum with a much more benign version of capitalism. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I'd take it over just about any other bookstore any day, especially since they recruited a buyer from MPLS's other science fiction bookstore and started upping their game in terms of books by women and POC.
Oh, Uncle Hugo's! I'm sure it's a hell of a tough living and I'm sure it can't last forever, but what a place. That is one actual fleshly bookstore I visit all the time, and I should stop by there again this week just because I need to visit lots against the inevitable day when time and the gods take it down.
posted by Frowner at 2:55 PM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
Uncle Hugo's is great, and there used to be a decent used bookstore or two in Dinkytown. My suburban town here in Maryland is severely lacking in that area.
posted by wintermind at 3:16 PM on August 17, 2015
posted by wintermind at 3:16 PM on August 17, 2015
It's all remaindered contemporary literary fiction and coffee table design books.
Bad buying on the bookstore's part, and generally a sign that the business is heading in the wrong direction. During my sojourn in the trade, such books were streng verboten. The store owner knew that this was the road to full shelves of books that would never sell. (There were exceptions, and it was your job as buyer to figure out what they were.)
Of course, this was long before the advent of this guy. I see him and his colleagues at the library book sales in my area. By his own admission he will miss out on the pre-barcode stuff which, from time to time, is where the real money is. (Personal brag - I picked up a pristine hardcover copy of How and Wells Commentary on Herodotus for a dollar last month. Superceded, yes, but still valuable both intrinsically and financially. Had I not taken it, chances are good it would now be landfill.)
I have to wonder if the trade isn't sliping into two groups, the High Net Worth provisioners and the scanners, leaving the mass of mid-range old books of limited, quirky interest, out in the cold. Or at least out in the boondocks, where the real estate is cheaper and the customers less likely to bother you and the cat.
As to booksellers, well, John Locke had thoughts on this, recalled and illustrated by bibliophile Edward Gorey.
posted by BWA at 4:06 PM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
Bad buying on the bookstore's part, and generally a sign that the business is heading in the wrong direction. During my sojourn in the trade, such books were streng verboten. The store owner knew that this was the road to full shelves of books that would never sell. (There were exceptions, and it was your job as buyer to figure out what they were.)
Of course, this was long before the advent of this guy. I see him and his colleagues at the library book sales in my area. By his own admission he will miss out on the pre-barcode stuff which, from time to time, is where the real money is. (Personal brag - I picked up a pristine hardcover copy of How and Wells Commentary on Herodotus for a dollar last month. Superceded, yes, but still valuable both intrinsically and financially. Had I not taken it, chances are good it would now be landfill.)
I have to wonder if the trade isn't sliping into two groups, the High Net Worth provisioners and the scanners, leaving the mass of mid-range old books of limited, quirky interest, out in the cold. Or at least out in the boondocks, where the real estate is cheaper and the customers less likely to bother you and the cat.
As to booksellers, well, John Locke had thoughts on this, recalled and illustrated by bibliophile Edward Gorey.
posted by BWA at 4:06 PM on August 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
I was gonna post about Uncle Hugo's as well. I have vivid memories of "adventures" when I was in middle school taking the lipstick red 21 bus down Lake Street, blow my allowance on a couple of ridiculously arcane sci-fi books at Hugo's, pick up a sack of Swedish Fish at Sears, and get back on the bus with the transfer. My buddy used to get mad at me because he had bad motion sickness and couldn't read on the bus ride back.
I think they actually ended up closing The Book House, but I haven't been over that way (Surly notwithstanding) in a while. There's a giant Target + Condo bit where Marshall U used to be, and it makes me sad. And old.
posted by Sphinx at 4:11 PM on August 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
I think they actually ended up closing The Book House, but I haven't been over that way (Surly notwithstanding) in a while. There's a giant Target + Condo bit where Marshall U used to be, and it makes me sad. And old.
posted by Sphinx at 4:11 PM on August 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
Anyone have one of these to recommend in Portland OR? Or has Powell's eaten them all? (Nothing against Powell's -- I love it -- but it's so clean and brightly-lit, it's just not the same.)
posted by rifflesby at 6:11 PM on August 17, 2015
posted by rifflesby at 6:11 PM on August 17, 2015
> But seriously, those who have never inhabited the M.A.O.W.G.U.B. universe have no idea of what a thrill it is (within the context of not making living inside of a dying industry) to be able to tell anybody who bothers you to piss off.
Wouldn't this be easier if you weren't bothering with the upkeep of a business? Or would the problem then be that you would have to seek out the people who bother you so you can tell them to piss off?
I mean, I realize that no-one's life is simple, and you have to keep yourself busy somehow.
posted by cardioid at 6:23 PM on August 17, 2015
Wouldn't this be easier if you weren't bothering with the upkeep of a business? Or would the problem then be that you would have to seek out the people who bother you so you can tell them to piss off?
I mean, I realize that no-one's life is simple, and you have to keep yourself busy somehow.
posted by cardioid at 6:23 PM on August 17, 2015
My retirement dream is to open a bookstore just like that and live above it. I would have a wine tasting bar and sell bottles to go. I would have a cigar bar and a smoking lounge where you could take your books. Some people tell me I should do this now. But I always say, "If I do this now what would I have for a retirement dream?"
If there was wine by the glass and the books didn't all smell like cigars (yuck!), I would be there everyday.
Read the article, first buy a building.
From what I can tell, a lot of the quirky and obviously not economically successful businesses I see have followed this advice. If you own the building, and especially if you can rent out the rest of it, you are free to open the weirdest and niche-iest business imaginable. If you are paying market-rate rent, you had better have a serious business plan and be prepared to play capitalism on the hard setting.
One of these exact kind of places closed earlier this year, out in the country near where I live (Ithaca NY), and folks were getting all misty-eyed and nostalgic over it. I kept wondering if these people had been in there in the last decade -- he hadn't put anything new out on shelves in years and when you went to the counter with a purchase he glared at you and treated you like you'd tracked in a dog turd on your shoe.
I went in that place exactly once, was treated rudely, and never returned, which I think was a common experience. From an article about that place's closing, it sounds like he did basically none of the things that allow small bookstores to be successful these days, such as selling online:
If there was wine by the glass and the books didn't all smell like cigars (yuck!), I would be there everyday.
Read the article, first buy a building.
From what I can tell, a lot of the quirky and obviously not economically successful businesses I see have followed this advice. If you own the building, and especially if you can rent out the rest of it, you are free to open the weirdest and niche-iest business imaginable. If you are paying market-rate rent, you had better have a serious business plan and be prepared to play capitalism on the hard setting.
One of these exact kind of places closed earlier this year, out in the country near where I live (Ithaca NY), and folks were getting all misty-eyed and nostalgic over it. I kept wondering if these people had been in there in the last decade -- he hadn't put anything new out on shelves in years and when you went to the counter with a purchase he glared at you and treated you like you'd tracked in a dog turd on your shoe.
I went in that place exactly once, was treated rudely, and never returned, which I think was a common experience. From an article about that place's closing, it sounds like he did basically none of the things that allow small bookstores to be successful these days, such as selling online:
However, perhaps the biggest reason the store has not received the amount of business it should is a lack of organization, or at least the type of digital organization that is expected in the year 2015.posted by Dip Flash at 6:30 PM on August 17, 2015
“A lot of bookstores list their stock online,” Schillinger said, “especially newer bookstores. If I had started this bookstore 10 years ago instead of 30 years ago when it started – I bought it from the woman who started it 10 years in – all of my stock would be listed. I would have an inventory. But this started before computers were a viable option. To go back through 80,000 books and put that inventory online, that’s all I’d be doing for five years. I don’t know what I have. There’s just tons of stuff.”
Regarding the Twin Cities: Midway Books is still at Snelling and University in Saint Paul, aren't they? I got peeved at them when they had a cranky fit about light rail construction (including signs in their windows) and haven't forgiven them yet.
St. Croix Antiquarian in Stillwater is apparently up for sale, according to reports this summer.
posted by gimonca at 8:37 PM on August 17, 2015
St. Croix Antiquarian in Stillwater is apparently up for sale, according to reports this summer.
posted by gimonca at 8:37 PM on August 17, 2015
A local bookseller told me that there's decent money to be made in it, but not from storefront sales: he lists everything he gets on a bunch of Internet sites (e.g., Abebooks, which is not the most profitable for him) and makes money that way. And the things that make money surprised me: recipe books, for instance, are big sellers.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:02 PM on August 17, 2015
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:02 PM on August 17, 2015
I used to love used bookstores, but I just... can't anymore. I don't think I ever loved a bookstore that messy, but there were a bunch of great ones in Vancouver in the 90s that I adored. They were generally pretty tidy, though, and finding stuff was relatively easy--and the grumpy old white dude owners weren't SO grumpy, plus they magically knew exactly where everything was.
I spent probably twenty years of my life in used and independent bookstores. The first thing I would do when I was on vacation was find the cool bookstore. My university boyfriend and I would plan roadtrips built around visiting cool bookstores. But now, meh. I don't need my bookbuying to be an experience. I don't need it to be steeped in authenticity. I just want the damn books.
There's a used bookstore where I live now, adjacent a rep/art film cinema. I remember 15 years ago when I lived here briefly, it was one of my favourite shops. I can look at my bookshelf here and remember books I bought there (like pretty much all of Jeanette Winterson). At the time he was selling a mix of new and used and I always felt like I could just shake my wallet out on the counter and walk away with armfuls. I was always happy to show up 45 minutes early for a movie to browse in the bookstore. The owner wasn't exactly friendly, but he was dour in that quirky appealing way.
Now, though, the place is a dump. He drags a few tables out to the sidewalk every day, stacked with books. I've peeked in the door, but it's just messy, dark and cramped inside, and since I've never seen a book on the table that was interesting to me, I can't be bothered to cross the threshold. And he looks just terrible. It makes me sad.
So you know, a few years ago, after secretly and ashamedly buying my books online for some time, I realized, fuck it. I like buying books online! I like hearing about something on the radio and adding it to a wish list I can purchase from when the urge strikes. I like getting stuff in the mail! And I refuse to feel bad about reading for fuck sake. (Full disclosure, I got a big box of books in the mail just this afternoon. I'm stoked!)
It's not entirely guilt-free, I have three people in my circles who own bookstores. Actually, one of their stores closed about a year ago and she is so bitter and angry about it. And I just don't know what to say--that's not how people want to buy books now. I'm a big local shopper, I like going out to eat and I buy my frocks from a small indie shop. But buying books online is just a really simple pleasure.
posted by looli at 9:25 PM on August 17, 2015
I spent probably twenty years of my life in used and independent bookstores. The first thing I would do when I was on vacation was find the cool bookstore. My university boyfriend and I would plan roadtrips built around visiting cool bookstores. But now, meh. I don't need my bookbuying to be an experience. I don't need it to be steeped in authenticity. I just want the damn books.
There's a used bookstore where I live now, adjacent a rep/art film cinema. I remember 15 years ago when I lived here briefly, it was one of my favourite shops. I can look at my bookshelf here and remember books I bought there (like pretty much all of Jeanette Winterson). At the time he was selling a mix of new and used and I always felt like I could just shake my wallet out on the counter and walk away with armfuls. I was always happy to show up 45 minutes early for a movie to browse in the bookstore. The owner wasn't exactly friendly, but he was dour in that quirky appealing way.
Now, though, the place is a dump. He drags a few tables out to the sidewalk every day, stacked with books. I've peeked in the door, but it's just messy, dark and cramped inside, and since I've never seen a book on the table that was interesting to me, I can't be bothered to cross the threshold. And he looks just terrible. It makes me sad.
So you know, a few years ago, after secretly and ashamedly buying my books online for some time, I realized, fuck it. I like buying books online! I like hearing about something on the radio and adding it to a wish list I can purchase from when the urge strikes. I like getting stuff in the mail! And I refuse to feel bad about reading for fuck sake. (Full disclosure, I got a big box of books in the mail just this afternoon. I'm stoked!)
It's not entirely guilt-free, I have three people in my circles who own bookstores. Actually, one of their stores closed about a year ago and she is so bitter and angry about it. And I just don't know what to say--that's not how people want to buy books now. I'm a big local shopper, I like going out to eat and I buy my frocks from a small indie shop. But buying books online is just a really simple pleasure.
posted by looli at 9:25 PM on August 17, 2015
A 69-year-old chainsmoker? Yeah, he'd better retire.
posted by markkraft at 5:34 AM on August 18, 2015
posted by markkraft at 5:34 AM on August 18, 2015
That bookstore is gross. I love the way it looks and I want to spend all day in there, but not without a respirator.
posted by GrapeApiary at 5:46 AM on August 18, 2015
posted by GrapeApiary at 5:46 AM on August 18, 2015
I loved this bit from the interview:
Do you have any regulars who stuck around for decades? Yeah.
What are they like? They’re all right—they get older and then they die.
Oh.
I live in the neighborhood, and I confess that while I'm a little sad to see it going away I never did spend a ton of time in there. It reminded me a lot of the now-closed Forever After Books on Haight Street in San Francisco, huge disorganized piles of books and overall a lot of mess and almost no curation. There are still some great bookstores around, thankfully, Book Court just a few blocks to the north has lots of biggish authors come through, and Unnameable has awesome little poetry readings in the backyard and the strong sense that every book on the shelves has been carefully selected by the staff.
posted by whir at 6:37 AM on August 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Do you have any regulars who stuck around for decades? Yeah.
What are they like? They’re all right—they get older and then they die.
Oh.
I live in the neighborhood, and I confess that while I'm a little sad to see it going away I never did spend a ton of time in there. It reminded me a lot of the now-closed Forever After Books on Haight Street in San Francisco, huge disorganized piles of books and overall a lot of mess and almost no curation. There are still some great bookstores around, thankfully, Book Court just a few blocks to the north has lots of biggish authors come through, and Unnameable has awesome little poetry readings in the backyard and the strong sense that every book on the shelves has been carefully selected by the staff.
posted by whir at 6:37 AM on August 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
The last used bookstore in my area shut down about six years ago; I went in there before they put the going out of business signs up, for the last time. It was mostly romance novels and a small section of kids books and coffee-table books.
I had a great chat with the owner about the gem I did find - a lovely book of Disney illustrations. Turns out she used to be one of the large stable of animators Disney employed down in Miami.
Lovely chat, lovely time, I miss being able to just chill in a used bookstore. But it's nice to be able to find stuff more than Serendipitously, I must agree.
posted by tilde at 7:07 AM on August 18, 2015
I had a great chat with the owner about the gem I did find - a lovely book of Disney illustrations. Turns out she used to be one of the large stable of animators Disney employed down in Miami.
Lovely chat, lovely time, I miss being able to just chill in a used bookstore. But it's nice to be able to find stuff more than Serendipitously, I must agree.
posted by tilde at 7:07 AM on August 18, 2015
About buying books online: I actually buy some books online myself, because Uncle Hugo's is the only bookstore where I feel relatively confident that I can go in looking for a particular book and find it. Up to a point, this used to be true of the large used bookstores (and was generally true in the halcyon early nineties days of Borders).
Basically, there's a bunch of new, cute lil' bookstores in town now (Boneshaker, Moon Palace) but they are so "carefully curated" that they almost never have any book I'm actually seeking. They're great places to find something I hadn't been considering, but they really only have a small selection of whatever is fashionable right now. That was why I liked the old bookstores that had lots of books - if you were looking for something, the odds were good that they had it.
I used to volunteer at a place (now closed) and we made the changeover from having lots of books to having a "curated" collection, basically getting rid of about half of our stock so that our shelves were much emptier. It "looked better" - that was the decision. Seeing a lot of books at once made it, supposedly, too difficult for customers to find anything. (And we were pretty well organized - it wasn't just a giant undifferentiated heap or anything, plus we had online inventory.) Our old customers used to come in and ask, quite seriously, what we'd done with all the books and whether we were selling out and closing.
It's the same with libraries - where you used to go in back in the eighties and nineties and the shelves would be full and you could actually find a goddamn book published more than five years previously, now it's "easier" if patrons don't have that much choice and the shelves are kept half-full with a curated selection of contemporary material.
My point being - I never go to bookstores looking for a specific book anymore, because that's not what bookstores are for now. (Unless you're looking for a contemporary best-seller/popular work of literary fiction.) I order online when I want specific books and I go to bookstores when I want to have the "curated" experience. Of course, unfortunately, no one "curates" exactly to my taste.
So anyway, that's why I drop the most money at Uncle Hugo's and on eBay - I used to spend a lot more in bookstores back before the stock was so carefully focus-grouped.
posted by Frowner at 7:07 AM on August 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Basically, there's a bunch of new, cute lil' bookstores in town now (Boneshaker, Moon Palace) but they are so "carefully curated" that they almost never have any book I'm actually seeking. They're great places to find something I hadn't been considering, but they really only have a small selection of whatever is fashionable right now. That was why I liked the old bookstores that had lots of books - if you were looking for something, the odds were good that they had it.
I used to volunteer at a place (now closed) and we made the changeover from having lots of books to having a "curated" collection, basically getting rid of about half of our stock so that our shelves were much emptier. It "looked better" - that was the decision. Seeing a lot of books at once made it, supposedly, too difficult for customers to find anything. (And we were pretty well organized - it wasn't just a giant undifferentiated heap or anything, plus we had online inventory.) Our old customers used to come in and ask, quite seriously, what we'd done with all the books and whether we were selling out and closing.
It's the same with libraries - where you used to go in back in the eighties and nineties and the shelves would be full and you could actually find a goddamn book published more than five years previously, now it's "easier" if patrons don't have that much choice and the shelves are kept half-full with a curated selection of contemporary material.
My point being - I never go to bookstores looking for a specific book anymore, because that's not what bookstores are for now. (Unless you're looking for a contemporary best-seller/popular work of literary fiction.) I order online when I want specific books and I go to bookstores when I want to have the "curated" experience. Of course, unfortunately, no one "curates" exactly to my taste.
So anyway, that's why I drop the most money at Uncle Hugo's and on eBay - I used to spend a lot more in bookstores back before the stock was so carefully focus-grouped.
posted by Frowner at 7:07 AM on August 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Why yes, I am intensely bitter about this.
posted by Frowner at 7:09 AM on August 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 7:09 AM on August 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
If you're in Milwuakee, there's this one, where the "checkout desk" is an old lady in a bad wig, sitting on a pile of books just inside the doorway. She has a magnifying glass to review what you're purchasing and establish a price. Prices vary wildly, there's a lot of junk, but boy is it fun. Last time we were there one aisle was entirely blocked by giant stuffed animals, the kind you get as a grand prize at the fair, and there was a part of the store where you could see other aisles through the bookshelves, but like a hedge maze with moving walls that part of the store seemed to have been cordoned off by other bookshelves.
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:25 PM on August 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:25 PM on August 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
Why yes, I am intensely bitter about this.
posted by Frowner at 12:07 AM
Eponywrathful!
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:35 PM on August 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Frowner at 12:07 AM
Eponywrathful!
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:35 PM on August 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
like a hedge maze with moving walls
They do that to protect you from other... um... browsers.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:37 AM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
They do that to protect you from other... um... browsers.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:37 AM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
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This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
A: Yeah, I hate that. “What should I get my father for Father’s Day?” I don’t know your father.
I love this man. This is the most delighted and uplifted I have ever felt after reading an article about an imminent (and well-earned) cashing out.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 7:50 AM on August 17, 2015 [11 favorites]