Paperback Dreams

Goodnight Stacey’s, Weller’s On The Move

It was a big week for two of the oldest booksellers in the country—both stores in cities I’ve lived in, but stores I’ve known and loved.

Stacey’s Books closed its doors today after 86 years on San Francisco’s Market St. My wife Heather is especially taking this one hard. She works in the Financial District, and Stacey’s was her store. We argue about “the best” bookstore more than we should (and I can’t share my thoughts at the risk of causing offense) but she felt that both on selection and staff knowledge and service, Stacey’s was it for San Francisco. They were indeed a very good store, and the last of the very large independents in the area that doesn’t do most of their business in used books. Brad Craft, who is now the used book buyer at University Bookstore in Seattle, worked at Stacey’s for many years, and has been sharing some memories on his blog. The end of Stacey’s is further sign that the era of the mega-bookstore may be coming to an end. And it’s not just the independent—Border’s problems have been well documented for over a year, and the beautiful notion of a large home for all the books that could pique a reader’s interest seems just not to be much of a reality these days.

I grew up in Salt Lake City, and the Stacey’s of my hometown was Sam Weller’s Books. The store has been family-owned and operated for three generations, and the stacks of used books in the basement have long been one of my favorite spots in downtown Salt Lake. Tony and Catherine Weller announced this week that they’re moving the store. This doesn’t write the end of Weller’s. They’ve moved before, but faced with the toughest recession since 1929 (a recession they also weathered) they’ve decided it’s time to downsize. Tony Weller answered a few questions for us via email before we screened Paperback Dreams in Salt Lake last Fall, and we never got around to posting his answers. This seems like as good a time as any to share them. We wish them the best in this difficult transition, and recommend this as a very good time for residents of Salt Lake to go buy a book. May their store always look like it did hosting the opening party for the American Bookseller’s Association’s Winter Institute in January:

Notes from the Road: Salt Lake City and Albuquerque

A few weeks ago, we kicked off the better part of two months of taking Paperback Dreams on the road. We’re screening at independent bookstores around the country, and I’m trying to make it to as many as I can in person. Check out the schedule here. Though there is a lot of sadness about Cody’s closing, and about the struggles of independent bookstores nationwide, it’s energizing to see how many great stores are still working hard, serving their communities, and even finding success in tough economic times.

About sixty people turned out for our first screening in Salt Lake City. We had an all-star panel, who together have been selling books for well over 100 years. It included Tony Weller, owner of Sam Weller’s, and the third generation of one of America’s preeminent bookselling families; Anne Holman, manager of The King’s English, which has occupied a corner of Salt Lake and the hearts of devoted readers for over 30 years; Ken Sanders, whose Ken Sanders Rare Books and counterculture legacy brings a shot of vibrancy that outsiders don’t expect in Utah; Patrick de Freitas, whose Waking Owl Books thrived just blocks from the University of Utah campus until Amazon went online, and took his core clientele with it; and Drew Goodman, who runs the trade books section of the University of Utah Bookstore, and who brought firsthand experience from working at both Borders and Barnes and Noble.

Even after spending three years talking to booksellers, there were some eye openers for me, like Tony Weller’s illustration of the 80-fold disparity between the growth of the chains in the 1990s, and the growth of the book market. That kind of speculation ultimately resulted in higher book prices for consumers, greater losses to small publishers, and more books going into landfills. I’ve also been quoting Ken Sanders’s short summary of the problem: “Endless growth for the sake of growth is the logic of the cancer cell.” You can read short interviews with most of the booksellers from the panel via the links in the previous post. While we work on getting Tony’s online interview together, here’s a video interview with him and his wife and partner, Catherine, shot by the co-owner of The Booksmith, a San Francisco independent.

This past weekend, we also did two screenings at the Guild Cinema in Albuquerque, NM, in partnership with AIBA—the Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance—and Bookworks, who have been in the north valley for over 20 years. It was my distinct pleasure to do two Q&A sessions with Nancy Rutland, the owner of Bookworks. She was quite emotional about the struggles she’s faced as a bookseller, which speaks highly of her passion and dedication. Talking to her and visiting her store underscored for me that great bookstores are not the privilege of a metropolis. You can read our interview with Nancy.

Next up: Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest …

Independent Booksellers Sound Off: Salt Lake City Edition

To prepare for the flurry of panel discussions across the country, we asked booksellers to tell us a little bit about their own experiences in the business. Their responses were so great that we couldn’t keep them to ourselves.

On October 23, 2008 at The Utah Humanities Book Festival in Salt Lake City, Paperback Dreams was screened at The City Library. The film was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Alex Beckstead and featuring local independent booksellers.

Click on the links below to read our interviews with some of the Salt Lake City panelists:

• Anne Holman of The King’s English Bookshop
  
• Tony Weller of Sam Weller’s Bookstore (Coming soon!)
  
• Drew Goodman of University Bookstore
  
• Patrick DeFreitas of Waking Owl Books