Anodyne
Saturday, April 24, 2004
 
We just bought the contents of another Vancouver bookstore, after a month of intense negotiations. About 35,000 books in all, which Chris and I will begin to move on Monday morning with a rented panel van and lots of patience.

In my 15+ years of experience, no used bookseller will ever confess to having steady sales or being profitable, at least not with another dealer in earshot. But spring 2004, at least on the West Coast, has been particularly bad. Lots of shops on semi-permanant sale, and lots more not buying at all, or being very selective, so there's plenty of stock to choose from. "I like bookstores that are in the habit of having new arrivals," says legendary Berkeley bookman Peter Howard. I agree. Nothing turns me off a shop faster than the exact same -- invariably overpriced and/or overgraded -- stock I saw when I was last in.

Lots of new shops in the Lower Mainland, too, though I wonder how long some of them will last. In one, an otherwise well- laid out and designed- room, I saw the proprietor hesitating over a spined paperback copy of Thomas Harris' Hannibal, and then, as if to compound that error, actually checking the publication date of DOS For Dummies. The scout, no slouch, smelled blood, and moved in for the kill, offering J.D. Robb pocketbooks, ex-library Stephen King novels, and hardcover biographies from the same box. $40 changed hands. John and I headed quietly for the door, aghast, feeling like we'd just witnessed a mugging in the park.
- posted by cjb @ 9:21 AM


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