Friday, May 26, 2006
I'm headed out...
...to Vermont for the long weekend. Before I go, some news from the day: I just sent off an email response to Mark, a future used bookshop owner trapped in the body of a software engineer, about the sad fact that most people who work with used books don't actually make much money doing so. This is, I realize, a blanket generalization, but unless you operate on a large scale, or are one of the antiquarian top dogs, it's true. But, however, the good news is that we people who work with books all day are generally so happy doing so that we don't really care about not making much money. To wit: my friend Sue emailed me this delicious morsel from a history of Brentano's bookshop that she dug up online, and I love so much that I pass it on here:
"His investment in Brentano's, Griffis said, had brought him fun rather than cash. 'I would spend sleepless nights of horror if I heard that any customer of Brentano's felt that we had made a profit on his purchase,' he wrote. 'We are in trade only for dignity, atmosphere and service.' And to make this point even more emphatic, he added, 'I am happy to have had the experience of high hopes and failure in the retail bookselling business.'"
Are most bookshops noble failures? I don't know for sure, but I suspect so, especially in the wake of recent news stories about Cody's closing. Anyway, noble failure or not, I advised Mark to go for it - to open his own bookshop. Damn the torpedoes! Sometimes you just have to jump in and do what you want, even though it may not pay in the traditional (capitalist) sense of the word. In a roundabout way this idea is related to something I just read in George Howe Colt's book The Big House (Scribner 2004). The book is the biography of his family's summer home on Cape Cod, and contains his own struggle to come to terms with the necessity of selling the house because no one in the family can afford the upkeep and taxes. I particularly enjoyed the chapter entitled "Money" in which the author examines his WASPy programming around money issues and says this about working: "I was terrified of being penniless, and yet I felt there was something shameful about having money. For many years I found ways to avoid it." (p.138) The whole book is a long meditation on loving something despite the fact that it is a white elephant. It might be a stretch to compare this to a behemoth bookshop, or even my small one, but coming as I do from a family with various WASP antecedents I can identify with many of the issues he raises. I don't think I'm being noble by being if not poor at least not well-off, in my profession of choice. I love buying and selling, the give and take of it, the exchange of cash for books and vice versa. If I ever feel guilty about taking people's money, I tell them, "Don't worry, I'm just going to go buy more books." Anyway. To those of you who want your own bookshops (I know you're out there, because you keep emailing me for advice, which I dearly love to give), do it, it's so very satisfying.
As is the George Howe Colt book, by the way. He's Anne Fadiman's husband (for fans of her book Ex Libris), and she makes cameo appearances throughout The Big House. About two-thirds of the way through there's a wonderful long description of the family's books left in the house, and it's both an elegy and a paean, just wonderful. On that note, I've got to run, have a great weekend, everyone.
"His investment in Brentano's, Griffis said, had brought him fun rather than cash. 'I would spend sleepless nights of horror if I heard that any customer of Brentano's felt that we had made a profit on his purchase,' he wrote. 'We are in trade only for dignity, atmosphere and service.' And to make this point even more emphatic, he added, 'I am happy to have had the experience of high hopes and failure in the retail bookselling business.'"
Are most bookshops noble failures? I don't know for sure, but I suspect so, especially in the wake of recent news stories about Cody's closing. Anyway, noble failure or not, I advised Mark to go for it - to open his own bookshop. Damn the torpedoes! Sometimes you just have to jump in and do what you want, even though it may not pay in the traditional (capitalist) sense of the word. In a roundabout way this idea is related to something I just read in George Howe Colt's book The Big House (Scribner 2004). The book is the biography of his family's summer home on Cape Cod, and contains his own struggle to come to terms with the necessity of selling the house because no one in the family can afford the upkeep and taxes. I particularly enjoyed the chapter entitled "Money" in which the author examines his WASPy programming around money issues and says this about working: "I was terrified of being penniless, and yet I felt there was something shameful about having money. For many years I found ways to avoid it." (p.138) The whole book is a long meditation on loving something despite the fact that it is a white elephant. It might be a stretch to compare this to a behemoth bookshop, or even my small one, but coming as I do from a family with various WASP antecedents I can identify with many of the issues he raises. I don't think I'm being noble by being if not poor at least not well-off, in my profession of choice. I love buying and selling, the give and take of it, the exchange of cash for books and vice versa. If I ever feel guilty about taking people's money, I tell them, "Don't worry, I'm just going to go buy more books." Anyway. To those of you who want your own bookshops (I know you're out there, because you keep emailing me for advice, which I dearly love to give), do it, it's so very satisfying.
As is the George Howe Colt book, by the way. He's Anne Fadiman's husband (for fans of her book Ex Libris), and she makes cameo appearances throughout The Big House. About two-thirds of the way through there's a wonderful long description of the family's books left in the house, and it's both an elegy and a paean, just wonderful. On that note, I've got to run, have a great weekend, everyone.
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Hello Sarah,
When I first moved to the Bay Area (of California) in 1987 and asked about good bookstores in the area, the two names I heard most frequently were Cody's in Berkeley (the Telegraph store) and Kepler's (www.keplers.com) in Menlo Park. Amazing that the two stores, both in business for fifty-odd years, closed within one year of one another. Kepler's was able to reopen due to public outcry and support, but it is no longer the family operation it once was.
I used to frequent Cody's on weeknights and weekends and loved the store every bit as much in the late 1980s, when I lived in the East Bay near Berkeley, as I do Kepler's now (it's probably no accident that I live less than a mile from the latter).
In any case, I'll try to visit Cody's once or twice before it closes, maybe even on the final day, July 10, and will send a report if I do. Let the dirge play ever more loudly in the meantime....
-- Mark D.
When I first moved to the Bay Area (of California) in 1987 and asked about good bookstores in the area, the two names I heard most frequently were Cody's in Berkeley (the Telegraph store) and Kepler's (www.keplers.com) in Menlo Park. Amazing that the two stores, both in business for fifty-odd years, closed within one year of one another. Kepler's was able to reopen due to public outcry and support, but it is no longer the family operation it once was.
I used to frequent Cody's on weeknights and weekends and loved the store every bit as much in the late 1980s, when I lived in the East Bay near Berkeley, as I do Kepler's now (it's probably no accident that I live less than a mile from the latter).
In any case, I'll try to visit Cody's once or twice before it closes, maybe even on the final day, July 10, and will send a report if I do. Let the dirge play ever more loudly in the meantime....
-- Mark D.
Jonathan, it really doesn't matter much does it? As long as we all have enough to keep going, to remain open for business? I don't want to whine and I hope the post didn't sound whiny, that wasn't my intent. It's just one facet of this great profession.
Hi Mark, it is Cody's Telegraph location that's closing, their original shop. Their other two locations will remain open for now. There's a book about Cody's I've been meaning to find for years, and just haven't gotten around to it, I think it's called "Cody's Books: The Life and Times of a Berkeley Bookstore" and was published in the early 1990s. I hope you can visit before they close up, and I look forward to your report... Re. living near bookshops: I know someone who says he can never leave Portland, Oregon because of his proximity to Powell's.
Hi Mark, it is Cody's Telegraph location that's closing, their original shop. Their other two locations will remain open for now. There's a book about Cody's I've been meaning to find for years, and just haven't gotten around to it, I think it's called "Cody's Books: The Life and Times of a Berkeley Bookstore" and was published in the early 1990s. I hope you can visit before they close up, and I look forward to your report... Re. living near bookshops: I know someone who says he can never leave Portland, Oregon because of his proximity to Powell's.
Nope, it doesn't matter at all. Although I reserve the right to be a bit grumpy sometimes.
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