“And now for something completely different…”

Being a used and rare book dealer and collector I have a rule that when I go to a used book shop I like I will ALWAYS buy at least one book.  Although this weekends visit wasn’t to a used book shop, I did visit a decent enough new book shop, independently owned and operated (a true rarity these days), so I still apply my rule.  Friday evening I bought a trade-paper copy of Larry McMurtry’s autobiographical work “Books”, his story of his time as a used book dealer (something he did long before he became an accomplished author (Lonesome Dove being his most famous work).  His shop, Booked Up, was in Georgetown for 32 years, being moved to his hometown of Archer, Texas in 1998.

From an historical point of view this is an interesting book (I am about 75% finished with it as of this writing).  McMurtry gives some interesting insights into some DC personalities, as well as a lot of interesting literary references, etc.  For example, in Chapter 54 he recounts dealing with Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of TR, and Joanna Sturm, her granddaughter. 

“One day Joanna Sturm walked into the bookshop and asked if we’d like to buy any more of Granny’s books.  Of course we would, we said.  It seems – I have no idea if this is true – that Joanna wanted to buy a BMW motorcycle, cost about $7,500. We happily gave her that amount and I spent a happy day rummaging under stairwells and in closets, until I had a carful more of Mrs. Longworth’s books.”

So other than an odd reference to selling books what does this have to do with business and / or economics?  McMurtry talks about his planned move to Archer in the mid-90s.  “Our need for enough stock to fill a book town coincided with the beginnings of a downturn in the fortunes of American booksellers generally.”  This points to an interesting shift in the business of books, used and rare books in this case but the book business in general, that has been taking place over the past 15 years or so.  Perhaps no business has been so radically impacted by the rise of the internet as the used book business.  

For those of us who are avid book people (I am betting I am not the only book person in our little history class) it is obvious that the used book store is almost extinct.  20 years ago there were maybe 20 used book shops in Georgetown alone.  Now I am aware of perhaps 2, those being open irregular hours at best.  Northern Virginia, once home to several decent used shops, now has, to my knowledge, one in McLean, run by a retired CIA person who seems more interested in having something interesting to do in his retirement than really making a living at it.

Similar stories are true throughout the country.  Even classic shops, such as Heritage in Hollywood, are now closed.  (As an aside, there are 3 decent used book shops in the downtown mall of Charlottesville, a truly rare concentration these days).  This has been a result of several factors, increased gentrification of areas that would support such shops resulting in vastly increased rents being one.  But the more important factor has been the rise of e-commerce.  I know I purchased my books for this class from Amazon, which recently purchased the largest on-line used book site (www.abe.com, Advanced Book Exchange from Vancouver, BC).  Listing on ABE is almost trivial and requires only a handful of items to make it worthwhile.  

The other role the internet has played is the availability of research resources.  Previous, it was the knowledge of the book dealer that was a jealously guarded resource.  Being able to spot the rare first-edition of some obscure book, priced at $2 on a shelf of random fiction.  Now it is trivial to research most books by a simple search or two on the web (again, ABE is the market maker for used book prices).  There are even scanners available for cell phones that read a barcode then immediately quote a sale price for the book (go to a library sale anytime and you will see folks useing such tools to decide what books to buy at $5 a bag). This method leaves anything without a barcode available to the people who really know what they are doing, hence the ability to spot a rare 1920s childrens book (worth more than 20 bags of picked over barcoded moderns).

So in many ways the elimination of information as an advantage, and the resulting ability for books to be sold without any real overhead (my sister lists and sells our current inventory of 9,000 books from her small home in Grand Rapids, Michigan) has transformed the market in used and rare books.

Of course there are still a handful of high end dealers who don’t have sales persons. They have client managers, who buy for those with more money than time or possibly good sense (Bowman’s in Philadelphia is the outfit I am most familiar with, and who, over the years, I have conducted not a small amount of business with). But the decent shop in the somewhat sketchy neighborhood with the strange little guy hiding behind the desk, buried behind books that have no obvious price or even purpose is near extinct, and that is a tragedy, in my mind.  My solution is to make sure I visit such shops as still exist and make sure I spend at least a few dollars on every visit!

Comments

[Dianne Schmidley]

Wayne as ususal, a facinating account. I have felt that the used book stores had acquired new life from the Internet. I have tracked down many old books using Amazon's network, and have sold a few myself via Amazon, although I am neither inclined nor or equipped to deal with the packaging, postage, etc. these days.

I recently bagged up hundreds of books, and made my husband clean out his book shelves too. When we arrived at Goodwill to drop them off, two older women working that day immediately went through them. 'Wow, I'm keeping this one,' said one woman. They mostly liked the fiction, not my hundreds of old sociology and statistics books.

To a great extent, I have passed on fiction in recent years finding it trivial and boring for the most part. History is much more interesting, especially history I can sink my teeth into. I also read controversial books, which means in recent years, I have begun to read some of those right-wing books folks condemn without reading. Having finished 'Liberal Facism' last year, I then took a history course on 19th-20th century European history (606) because I am tring to understand how do supposedly good people do such dastardly things. Sure enough, one of the books was on Nazi Germany.

I read another book in that course that trashed both John LeCarre and Agatha Christie as empiricists (as in nasty evil lovers of Empire and orientalism). So, I am re-reading some of LeCarre's books. I read the Raj Quartet a few years ago and had a graduate history classmate tell me that these books were terribly biased. She hadn't read the books, she just quoted what she heard in her classroom.

This scares me. I think we all need to read more books, old and new. As one of my undergradute sociology professors said, it isn't who wrote them, its what they said that counts. So good for you keeping the flame alive.

[Adrienne]

You are correct and I too love books, and as I posted in my blog information technology has indeed changed the world. On the one hand I am quite pleased, as I gear up for my comps to have search engines, electrical abstracts AND most importanlty automated footnotes (Zotero rocks!). That said, I weep over the closing of Gourmet Magazine (I was devestated) and struggle with paying $6.00 for the Sunday Times when I can read it for free online. Also, I too own many books and very little space and am always torn when having to choose which ones have to go.

Finally, friends have been urging me to get a Kindle - a Kindle! I have not yet succumb - is electronic media going to take over, and does it make a difference? (I think it does) It does provide the knowledge although not the same experience. I have trained myself to read the news online, perhaps I will get used to reading solely from a screen although - I hope not.

[Wayne Z.]

I too have friends that push the Kindle. But since you can't scribble notes on it I can't see me using it for much! ;-)
I have tried to do something as simple as reading journal articles on my computer, but it just doesn't work. Besides, if I took a Kindle into the tub for a nice leisurely read I fear I would ruin it with a splash!
Push come to shove I love going into a book shop with no real clue of what I am going to buy. This is what happened with the McMurtry book. I had heard it was out a while ago, thought about it, then quickly forgot about it until I walked into the shop on Friday. Serendipity is a wonderful thing and I don't see it happen to me much when I browse books on-line.

[Dianne Schmidley]

Well, I am still in the Retro crowd too. I wonder how many of those folks who buy a Kindle really are book lovers? Seems so elitist to me. But then I live with a husband who refuses to own a cell phone and my Aunt will not give into owing a microwave. What would I do all day? she says. She loves the talking books I send her and passes them along to my other old Aunts and then they go to the "continuing care" organizations. I have passed my mystery books on to my granddaughters and my daughter's 95 year-okd MIL who still reads books. She reads the same ones over and over. They are old friends.

[TJD]

I am a dedicated Kindle reader. I generally have a number of books going at once--1 or 2 for school, a fiction (currently Dan Brown, and no, I am not ashamed) on my Kindle, a non-fiction (currently Legacy of Ashes, on my iPhone Kindle reader), and an audio book (just for fun or at the gym). I also keep the Sunday Times and a few magazines on the Kindle (New Yorker, Atlantic). I do not think it is elitist, any more than not using one is Luddite. It's efficient, cheaper (after the sunk costs, books are only $9.95), easy to carry, and saves space. I would not use it for academic books, but for casual readings, it is great. It is particularly well-suited to fiction--somehow, clicking the little bar to advance the page makes everything feel more exciting.
Technology changes, so must we, the readers. I do find serendipity in on-line book shopping, or I will simply go in forearmed with the name of a book I've seen reviewed etc. I think there is sort of a reverse prejudice against the Kindle. It has its flaws, and it will never completely replace the printed page. But, once you get one, I suspect you will find yourself reading more than ever. At least I do.
And, no, I do not represent Amazon, I just love my Kindle (my wife has one too, and feels the same way).

[Wayne Z.]

The people I know that have Kindle's range from folks that are strictly fiction readers, addicted to having the book as soon as it is published, to one friend who is a PhD and reads journal articles on hers (or course the images and equations and all of that don't come through, but since she is a sociologist she hates math anyway so I doubt she really feels there is a problem). For the "first on the block"-ers, it is probably cheaper.

Something I just thought of is a more long term cost argument. Since an e-book it cannot be recycled in the way that a printed book can be brought into a neighborhood used book shop (assuming one exists in your neighborhood), sold for a dollar or two, and then resold for perhaps 33% of the original printed price, the long term economic cost may be higher on the Kindle. I am not familiar with the Kindle but can you lend your e-copy to another reader? Or imagine the surprise on Christmas morning when you open the package containing an e-book! (How would we wrap such a gift?)

The more I think about it the more I think that the social nature of a book, lending, reselling, etc. is lost with e-books. I have yet to have a friend at Starbuck's say "Hey, when I finish this cool new novel I am reading I'll lend it to you." Interesting economic consequences!

[Lindsey Bestebreurtje]

I love buying used books on Amazon, but before using that site I had never been in, or considered going in a used book store. In my mind used book stores are full of first editions and collectors items and not deals.

[Wayne Z.]

Lindsey,
OMG! ;-)

The little expensive places in little expensive shops in gentrified neighborhoods are like that. But that is not generally the case. There is one at Eastern Market (if you are an urbanite like me) which is quite dumpy and quite inexpensive. There are a couple out in the far western reaches of NOVA (Centreville, etc.) called McKay, which is OK for paperbacks and some other light reading but I haven't been there in years. If you are in NYC go to the Strand, north of the Village. Worlds largest used book store, although they have a lot of remainders mixed in as well. Pack a lunch, you'll be there for a while!

I have my favorites, like Lyrical Ballad in Saratoga, NY (I have friends in the Albany area). Second Story, especially the warehouse on Parklawn in Rockville, is really good as well.
Wayne

[Adrienne]

Wayne: Off topic a little but they just announced the nominees for National Book Awards - Fordlandia by Greg Grandin is one in the non fiction category; have you read it? Or anyone for that matter? Just wondering?

[Adrienne]

An interesting op-ed blog regarding "electronic reading"

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/does-the-brain-like-e-books/