GOLDEN DREAMS
Book Ends Robert Schrader can recall the moment when he decided to close 5th Avenue Books, the cavernous, off-white, brightly lit used bookstore that lasted longer than most on what used to be Hillcrest’s book block. (Bluestocking Books soldiers on, but the Blue Door, Bountiful Books, Grounds for Murder, and the Cook’s Bookshop and now 5th Avenue are no more.) “I came in one morning and there were eight people in the store, and I noticed that five of them — a majority of the customers — were looking at their phones. That’s when I realized that there was so much traffic on Amazon that even those people who come in here were using it as a sample store. Oh, I like this book; I’ll look it up on Amazon and see if I can find it cheaper.” “The store hadn’t made money
since 2011,” he continued, “but I was hanging on, thinking, I can reverse this. I bought from different sources, looking for stuff that wasn’t available on Ama- zon. But everything’s available on Ama- zon.” Schrader ran his closing in stages throughout February: 50 percent off on one Friday, 80 percent off the next, then $5 a bag, then $1. I visited on 80 percent day and bought, among other things, a $150 signed copy of Walker Percy’s novel The Moviegoer for $30. Waiting
MATTHEW LICKONA
in the checkout line, I started rooting through a box on the floor after spotting a couple of novels by Shusaku Endo. “Hey, whose box is that?” asked a familiar voice. It was Craig Maxwell of Maxwell’s House of Books in La Mesa. Of course he had snagged the Endos before me; he’s a pro. “I spent $1000 and got some good stuff,” said
Maxwell when I visited his shop a few days later (the Endos were priced at $12 apiece). “Lit was probably the best; he had almost every author under the sun. But I found good things in the nautical travels section and the Civil War” — even though World War II is a bigger seller for him and even though “80 percent of the people who walk through the door ask for chil- dren’s literature. I know they don’t read themselves because they never look at anything around them.” On cue, a father arrived with his
Craig Maxwell: “I think of a brick-and-mortar store as a real business. I know that’s anachronistic.”
son and asked for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Maxwell had all of the Chronicles of Narnia but that one, and the pair promptly left to continue their search at the library. A stocky man wandered up from the back and asked for a discount if he bought 17 of the
18 Stephen King novels he’s found. Maxwell cut the price from $4.50 to $3 apiece and tossed in a couple of
“People were using it as a sample store. Oh, I like this book; I’ll look it up on Amazon and see if I can find it cheaper.”
boxes gratis. Asked why he maintains his La Mesa Village store-
front (8285 La Mesa Boulevard), Maxwell paused before replying with a smile, “I just can’t see waking up at home, schlepping to the kitchen in my pajamas and having a piece of toast and then schlepping over to the computer and being ‘at work.’ I think of a brick-and-mortar store as a real business. I know that’s anachronistic, but these illusions are important to some of us.”
continued on page 28
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12 San Diego Reader March 30, 2017
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