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San Francisco, 4:30 PM
Sat Nov 21
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/18/09
We were all big nerds, so the D&D books were on display right up front, and we could coach anybody through running their first campaign. We intentionally kept books the home office told us to send back if we thought they were good, because we didn't want them to be destroyed.
The employees were given free reign to order anything they thought the store could sell, or that they wanted to recommend. I ordered obscure mangas that I then put into the hands of Radford University and Virginia Tech students who came in looking for something new and different. I read so much manga while I was there, and discovered so many great comic books.
Employees there are the ones who made me discover both Alan and Christopher Moore, who couldn't be more different. We laughed all the time, we debated the merits of different universes, we punched holes in plots, and we may or may not have taken a Harry Potter book out of it's box early, swapped the dust jacket with a huge tome of alternate universe military sci-fi and passed it around two weeks ahead of time, reading it on the floor for all to see.
I'm sure that I don't know anything about that last bit happening.
It was a great store, a store that knew it's audience (college kids) and knew how to keep employees happy. It may not have been perfect, it may have had some bad times, but it was one of the best jobs I ever had.
When I got married and moved, I had to transfer to a new store. But changes in management and in the home office meant that the store was already faltering when I left. It closed only months later, and I think my hometown (and Borders Inc.) are lesser for it.
11/18/09
11/18/09
When I first discovered The Bookery, back in 1991, I was a freshman at WSU, 420 miles from home, and knew no one in the area. The Bookery was located in an old house and divided into distinct sections, the comicshop and the Golden Age comic shop. Had I not glanced across the parking lot while driving past and caught the "comics" sign set back from the road, I would have mistaken the place for a rundown shack. There was also a room for used books, where I picked up many old horror, sci-fi (completed my run of Robotech first editions, not that they were ever worth anything), and suspense novels. This room also shared the gaming materials, and while I don't game it allowed me to get to know the employee who was in charge of the gaming equipment, Kevin Hamilton. We bonded through a mutual love of Joe Lansdale, The X-Files, and anime. I was there practically every other day picking up Lansdale books I'd missed over the years, and this gave us the opportunity to compare notes. Kevin would always hold and suggest the latest crime comics for me. A few years later Kevin and I tried to shoot an adaptation of Lansdale's THE JOB, after Lansdale informed us somebody else had just purchased the rights and we had to abandon that dream.
Through Kevin, I got to know some of the other employees, like the manager Steve Bates. Steve was a family man who left Wright State to manage the shop. He busted my balls for years after catching me riding in a friends motorcycle sidecar, but I didn't mind as Steve let me have first crack at Fort Knox. And my "Fort Knox," I mean the storage room where they kept a recently purchased motherload of Asian cinema vhs pre-records and bootlegs. Tons of action including my first exposure to some John Woo masterpieces, like BULLET IN THE HEAD, and the memory of trying to decipher the blurry, almost non-existent Engrish subtitles brings back the headaches suffered while squinting to read them in the first place. There were others, like the sleazy sci-fi goodness of ROBOTRIX, and when I finished picking my brains off the wall behind me after having my mind so thoroughly blown, I had to invite Steve to play my Elvis-impersonating hitman on THE JOB. How could such a cool guy NOT be part of my movie???
The Bookery outgrew its shop, and eventually moved to downtown Fairborn taking up two large storefronts. The room for used books was now an entire storefront dedicated to used and rare books, and knowing my love for literature, those guys gave me first crack at some nice limited editions, always at a discount. Looking at my bookcase right now, the majority of my prized possessions came from there: Lansdale's NIGHTRUNNERS from Ziesing Press, Chizmar's COLD BLOOD, also from Ziesing, an ARC for Skipp & Spector's BOOK OF THE DEAD 2, an imported Mikimoto artbook, and a slipcased Robotech Art, among others... They also threw me lots of freebies, and from their discarded books is where my love for Nina Kiriki Hoffman stems. Some of her fantasy novels are the only books I've read that I've never wanted to end. I once shared her novel THE THREAD THAT BINDS THE BONES with a girl I was dating and she shared those exact thoughts with me when she reached the last page. I knew on the spot that I wanted to marry her.
Eventually, I became friendly with all the employees, particularly one named Sam Lee, who became like my little brother, just as I had been Kevin's. Sam taught me about anime, and I could see the annoyance in his eyes whenever I'd incorrectly pronounce ESCAFLOWNE (apparently, there's an accent on the end, which I should have known considering I'd studied Japanese). I lost touch with Same about 10 years ago, but bumped into him on my last trip to Fairborn about 5 or 6 years ago. He'd finished school and seemed so ecstatic at his life ahead. He's just gotten his own place a new job - the career he's always wanted. I recently found out that he died in his sleep a few years ago from heart failure. I don't think he'd hit 30.
Those guys also introduced me to other local folk with similar interests. Jeff Drouhard worked at Wright-Pat and possessed a love of anime second to known. Andrew Kaplan was an even bigger Lansdale fan that I was, and while he worked at another bookstore, the Borders-owned Books & Co., he made all his purchases at the Bookery.
I miss Sam and all those guys, and if I hadn't fallen in love with Lansdale's sci-fi classic THE DRIVE-IN, I wouldn't have been there so much in those early days and would have missed out on the chance to make some great friends, many of whom I haven't even mentioned. I'd heard Steve now works for Diamond comics distribution, but I can't find Kevin. His website BadAfterTaste.com closed down a few years ago, and at some point he followed me into film studies. I hope it made it somewhere in the industry. Jeff still works on base, and Andrew is head librarian at a branch in Las Vegas. Like me, they've all moved on and I wish them well. Those guys have no idea how they helped shape my geeky self. While they seriously put a hurtin' on my wallet, they helped me discover a wealth of pop-art, and I'm indebted to them all.
While I did shoot numerous projects at The Bookery, I don't have access to those photos or videos. You can find pictures on their website: www.BookeryFantasy.com I've come across other bookstores and comic shops over the years, but they all pale in comparison on every level.
11/18/09
@Allen_Richards: sorry guys, I didn't mean to ramble. I just started writing and couldn't stop. I think the point I was trying to get across is that it's not always the material in the store, but the people that make these places so magical and lasting. In this day of the internet, there's still ways to make lasting personal connections through fandom that involve interpersonal activity, and this place really helped a lost soul....
here's a picture of the main store today, which I reference in the piece as the place they moved to.
If you head here you can see how much they've grown in the last 10 years through a strong knowledge of the field and great customer service.
[www.bookeryfantasy.com]
11/18/09
[www.recycledbooks.com] - slideshow
11/18/09
But, one time, we'd headed up to Berkeley, CA, to visit my aunt. She knew of my tastes. (She'd gotten me 10 of the Asterix and Tintin graphic novels for a birthday present, one year.) She took me over to Telegraph Ave. and introduced me to The Other Change Of Hobbit. It was inauspicious from the outside, being in a strip mall, and having a very small frontage. However, upon entering there was something special about the place. Not that it was decorated fantastically or even especially well, but it had that feeling that everything in it was good. There were lots of shelves, placed somewhat like a maze, containing nothing but sci-fi and fantasy. That was really special all by itself, as it was at least ten times as many of my preferred genre of books as I'd ever seen in one place before.
There were chairs, lounge pillows, and beanbags placed somewhat haphazardly around. The staff was welcoming without being intrusive, and friendly and knowledgeable when asked for help. I was taking my first steps into Roger Zelazny's imagination, and had read Nine Princes In Amber, but needed the rest that were out at the time. The lady I asked, showed me where they were, and then left me to peruse. I pulled out all of them they had, Guns of Avalon to Sign of Chaos, if memory serves, and tucked them under my arm as I wandered further. They had resident cats, as well. One of whom came up and we made friends while I looked over my treasure. I wanted to stay for a week, but we had plans for dinner, and the staff expected to close eventually. :
I didn't get to go back, and a several years later, my aunt told me that the store was gone. I'd figured my chance to revisit was lost, and consoled myself with the local bookstores in SoCal. Now that I've had reason to think about it again, I'm happy to find that they had just moved to a new location and are still there. Perhaps I'll make it a point to go by next time I go see my aunt.
11/18/09
I don't really remember when I first went in to the store, but I know that we would drive over there to scope out the latest comics... and buy Magic:the gathering cards. When I would visit, I would see one of the two brothers that owned the store, Tom and his brother. It was amazing because they had such different personalities, with Tom being so warm and friendly, and his brother...well, not. They would host Magic tournaments on Saturdays, and would have a local comic/magic convention for the Lehigh Valley almost monthly. It was a high time to be a geek, and they were such a central location. They would even take in trades of used RPGs. I remember scamming my brother's AD&D 3rd addition collection for boxes of Magic cards (oh the follies of youth!). To top it off, the store would always have some staple of Sci-fi on repetition on a giant screen TV... or they would have Braveheart.
But it was the community these games and shows created. I would often run into fellow geeks at the mall, and we'd nod our heads knowingly, or occasionally run into Tom... and he'd stop and talk like we were family.
The whole still exists in the Lehigh Valley since the demise of Comicquest. A place that not only repesented a perfect close knit community, but also a perfect place in time when that particular microcosm existed as something extraordinary.
(As for picture, all I could do would be take a picture of the strip mall that it once existed in. :(
11/18/09
Another Dimension comics
424B 10 Street NW Across Sunnyside Station
When I first moved to Calgary, I was a few months after rediscovering my love of comics. I went to a bunch of the cities many comic stores... who knew? But I was exploring the LRT routes, and stumpled across Another Dimension while at an internet cafe.
It quickly became my go to place for saturdays. I would spend sometime browsing and getting this weeks editions. Then head across the block to the Second Cup coffee shop and read for a while. Then go back to my house of too many roommates.
Then one day I picked up Proof, because it looked new and interesting. The owner asked me if i would like a copy autographed, i said yes out of 'wtf?huh'. She turned around and got the cashier to autograph...
...the artist was the cashier i came to enjoy because he mocked the adult man who replied "NO", to his 5 yearold son in a snow suit who asked, "daddy can i get a shpiderman comic."
It is a clean, well light, well organized, professional comic book store. It is easy to get too. I am a regular...
... i am so big-bang-theory.
11/18/09
11/18/09
On the first floor in the kids they had a 12 foot tall bear and a wood sculpture that I know know was a mass of wooden roots intertwined, but at the time thought it was a fairy house. I would spend hours looking at it and imagining crawling around inside.
Once I learned to read I would spend hours siting between the shelves reading. I have never felt as safe as when I was in that big old building.
11/18/09
Yes, that Mr. Flibble.
I guess they figured they were small enough and an entire continent away, so nobody was going to sue.
11/18/09
It sounded like a fairly straight-forward used bookstore, but their content was about 90% science fiction and fantasy. (I've often speculated the main reason they went out of business so fast was their crappy name)
They sold lots of rare and first editions, so their prices were pretty steep, and I could only sit and drool longingly at that yellow clothbound printing of Lovecraft's "Strange Pieces about Cats and others" sitting behind the glass case, but they also stocked plenty of new and used paperbacks, plus *tons* of back issues of Analog, Locus, Writer's, and other sci-fi magazines, so if you knew a particular short story you were looking for, you stood a pretty good chance of finding it.
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
Powell's in Portland.
11/18/09
11/18/09
p.s. Not my picture, BTW. I just borrowed it.
11/18/09
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11/18/09
I predict I will soon need a second apartment for the books.
11/18/09
As someone who has more (full) bookshelves than any other type of furniture in the house, I can relate.
11/18/09
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11/18/09
I'm beginning to think the end stage for bibliophiles is 'used book store owner'
11/18/09
11/18/09
My dream life. Except I would be the one that would never let anyone actually purchase a book, or would interrogate them about their intentions with the book like an overprotective parent. Once a book is mine, I cannot let it go, even if I didn't like it. I'm a bit compulsive that way.
11/18/09
They're both old, musty buildings with multiple tiny rooms crammed floor to ceiling with books, stepladders stacked haphazardly about, a little tea-nook near the front windows, and home to a couple of adorably sociable cats that will allow complete strangers to pick them up and carry them about the stacks.
I've spent WAY too much money and time in both of those stores, but boy, has it been worth it; I picked up the ORIGINAL Han Solo trilogy, the ones from back in the 70s, where he's got Bollux and Blue Max along for the ride.
11/18/09
Can I talk about Borders, or Barnes & Noble? Or UCLA's student bookstore? That's all I got...
/Prepares for public stoning
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
New comment coming later tonight...
11/18/09
But I prefer my own "librairie anglaise" in Lyon, where I can purchase books in English. It feels marvellous.
11/18/09
[www.vromansbookstore.com]
(Ok, ok... I will admit to having both a B&N and Borders discount card)
*ducks*
11/18/09