Today's plan is to do a day trip to Joshua Tree National Park, located just north of Palm Springs. As always when I travel, I've done a search for used bookstores, and to my happy surprise there are not one but two science-fiction intensive shops located close to the northern entrance to the park: Raven's Book Shop and Space Cowboy.
Raven's Book Shop, located on Highway 62 near the small community of 29 Palms, is a collector's dream, and a bit of a cautionary tale in terms of curating a used bookstore.
Inventory management is a key element of operating any kind of store. However, unlike most retail outlets, used book stores depend on the kindness of strangers to replenish their stock, picking and choosing from the books that cross their threshold rather than picking things out of a catalogue.*
The key part of that sentence was "picking and choosing". There are two traditional traps that await the owners of used book stores: the wrong kind of inventory, or too much. I can look at the science fiction shelf in a used bookstore and tell you instantly whether or not they know anything about science fiction - basically, the more Dragonlance and Star Wars novels, the lower their knowledge level.
The other problem is overstocking, and as the owner of a substantial library, I'm sympathetic with the people who fall prey to this particular sin. After all, there are so many books of interest, and it must be very hard to say no to someone who walks through the door with a particularly noteworthy volume for sale. The trick is to make sure that you sell as many of these books as you buy, or else you run out of room and your store begins to look a bit like the bookshelves in my spare bedroom.
The second we walk into Raven's, it's obvious that they've lost the battle in terms of saying no, but they've lost another kind of battle as well. A lot of the shelves are double stacked, and there's a pile of books at least three feet tall behind the front desk. (You can see the edge of the mound in the photo above.) But not all the shelves are full, and it looks a bit like new acquisitions have been dropped anywhere convenient rather than appropriately sorted and shelved.
Working my way through the stacks, I'm a bit puzzled by the pricing structure. Prices seem to be all over the map, with some books priced quite affordably, but other similar books a bit at the high end of current used book pricing. Regardless of pricing, the selection is impressive - there are a lot of books here, but they've certainly been well chosen. Karli has generously told me that she's prepared to wait for as long as I want to stay there, but it's obvious that I could spend the entire day if not a full week going through the shelves, and we still have another store - and a national park - to visit today.
As such, I'm not too choosy in my selections, and fairly quickly put together an acceptable handful of books: Adam Link - Robot, a collection of Golden Age SF Eando Binder stories published by the Paperback Library in 1965; one of the excellent New Writings in SF collections, edited by John Carnell; a first edition 1966 paperback copy of Starswarm, a short story collection by Brian Aldiss; and a trio of Ace Doubles for my collection.
As I'm preparing to make my way to the front and settle up, Karli glances up and notes a large fuzzy ball on the shelf over our heads. "Probably a tribble," I comment, which turns out to be prescient. As I look up at the shelf, I see that there's also a tall stack of the Bantam Books paperback editions of the Star Trek original series script adaptations written by award-winning science fiction author James Blish.
They're a bit of a collector's item, and although they're not in mint condition, I'd expect them to cost somewhat more than their $3.50 cover price, even if it is in US dollars. Numbers 2 and 12 are missing**, and might even be buried somewhere in the stacks, but we're on the clock, so I just pick up the visible copies and head to the cash register.
Significantly, when the owner is adding up my purchases, she comments that the Star Trek books have probably not been looked at or repriced for 20 years, which pretty much says everything that I need to hear regarding the uneven pricing, but leaves me wondering what the story is behind the store. Inherited, perhaps, and kept open as a labour of love? Regardless, it's a bit of a "start the car" moment for me - Karli is more than a little amused by the happy noise with which I celebrated my purchases once we were safely back in our vehicle.
Comparatively, Space Cowboy, located in the town of Joshua Tree, is the epitome of a well-curated used bookstore. The shop has a modest footprint, but it's well laid out, and has an impressive selection of classic novels, which have been conveniently pulled off the shelves, bagged and hung on the walls, much like particularly collectable issues in a comic book store.
I leave Space Cowboy with a smaller stack of books - not due to lack of attractive options, but purely out of restraint: having already spent over a hundred dollars on used books at our last stop, it seemed practical to keep the rest of my purchases under control - not to mention the looming threat of overweight baggage charges.
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| For sale at Space Cowboy: a triptych of Beverly the Madonna and the Blessèd Wesley, worshipped by the twin angels of Emotion and Science. Originally I thought Data was wearing a yarmulke, which would have been a bit odd for a devotional painting of this type, but then I realized it was a glimpse of his positronic brain. |
Overall, it's been an excellent day for book purchasing, if not for my already crowded shelves at home. Next, Joshua Tree National Park...and Them!
- Sid
* Well, presumably not ordering from a catalogue. I've always been a bit curious as to how a used bookstore gets started - it seems to me that buying enough used books to stock a new store would be a net loss approach to the process, although ultimately, as with any store, logic would suggest that the idea is to mark up your stock. I certainly have enough books in my spare bedroom to start a small shop, compared to, say, the inventory at Space Cowboy, but that feels a bit like starting a clothing store by raiding your own closet.
** I've owned a slightly worn copy of Number 6 in the series since grade school, but to my intense happiness, when we got back to Vancouver I discovered that I'd picked up a copy of Number 2 at some point over time, nicely filling the gap in my new acquisitions. And Number 12s of any series are always easier to find than Number 2s.
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