Hi Readers! Time is flying by and here it is, the first week of October already. Thanks for stopping by this week as us at BCT are here to chat about and REMEMBER WHEN. This is a way for my fellow book addict BCT members and I each reminisce about something in our booky past.
Discovering Used Book Stores
I have always been a reader, as were my mom and grandmom. I have also collected tons of books and have many old classics given to me by my grandmother with publishing dates in the late 1800's. As I have mentioned a few times in older posts, there was a period of about ten years when I stopped reading books. Now, I didn't stop reading. Raising three young daughters, my reading ran more to newspapers and magazines because there was no time to get into that 350 page novel as much as I would have loved. Well, I did squeeze in a few Stephen King best sellers like MISERY.
Anyway, I watched a couple of movies- A & E's Pride and Prejudice (the one with Colin Firth as Darcy!) and THE HORSE WHISPERER by Nicholas Evans...and then my drought was over. I dug out my copy of the Austen classic and devoured it. Then I picked up the Evans at Target and my addiction kicked into high gear. Stores like Target and Kmart became my go to places for books because they were closer to home and had 25% discounts. I did like the occasional trip to the malls to visit bigger bookstores like Kroch's and Brentano's and B & N with a bigger selection, but smaller discounts.
One day, I picked up the Yellow pages and was looking for more book stores. There, I noticed a few adds for "used" book stores. Used? I never knew stores like that existed. There was an address for a store only blocks away from my home and I had passed this nondescript building thousands of time. I finally walked inside and I was in a little piece of reader heaven. It was nothing special to look at, but there were rows and rows of all genres of books to make me happy. After buying new books of my new favorite authors, here was a place to find their backlists. Happy Dance! Since the books were used, they were discounted and they also had a trading system. I found out that is how most used stores operate and it sure helps people on a budget.
Now the owner was a bit gruff at first, he was a retired police captain who didn't want to just sit on his butt all day (his words,lol). I returned time and time again, sometimes bringing my kids who also love to read. I became friends with him and his wife and they let me search thru their backroom for more books in their overstock. I was able to find many hard to find books and collectibles through this wonderful couple who wanted to make sure the books had a good home. The captain passed away a few years after he opened. His wife closed up shop soon after, but I will always remember my first used book store.
Looking back in those yellow pages, I found more used book stores in the area. One day, I found another book store about 5 miles from my home. I used to shop there in the mornings because my youngest was in kindergarten and had some time to kill. This store sold new as well as used and I spent a lot of time there. I stopped there once in the afternoon and met Ann from Romancing the Readers who worked there and thru her, I also met Cyndi at Born to Read Books. Eventually, we joined the employee roster to keep Ann company and to feed each others booky addiction. We've been good friends for decades now, shared reading recommendations, have a book club, gone to book signings, book conventions and of course took many road trips to other used book stores! Now we are here each week with our BCT Blog sharing our love of reading with you, our readers.
And to think it all started with movie tie-ins to good books and the Yellow pages.
October 12-Clearing Off The Book Shelves
This is so funny! I can't believe your post is the same as Born to Read Books first post for Remember when!
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