Surface a^d Symbol
The Emerald’s weekly arts and entertainment supplement ^ Thursday, April 22, 1976
Rich in words, not profit
Browsing in Eugenes bookstores
By Cheryl Ruder!
It seems to go hand in hand — a love for
books and a recurring, secret dream to
open a bookstore.
For many it remains exactly that — an
impulsive fancy in the back of their minds.
For others it becomes a reality.
In Eugene, the number of pragmatic
dreamers is increasing rapidly. Ten years
ago one could count the number of book
stores on a single hand; today there are 24,
many of which have opened in the past two
years.
in spite of the “easy life" that running a
bookstore may appear to be, there are
many barriers to its sucess Not only is
competition keen, but the owner must cope
with rising publisher costs and inefficiency,
increasing freight rates and a business tax
that diverts the sales tax burden from con
sumers to the small shop owner.
Eugene is far from the ideal place to run
any small business, let alone another book
mingling of the rare Oregon sun and book
browsing.
This same idea is being employed by
Paul Barnhart, owner of Merlin’s (825 E.
13th). Behind the store and beyond the din
of 13th Avenue traffic is a meditative read
ing garden just opened.
Barnhart feels that the garden, which is a
cozy retreat furnished with stone benches
and flourishing plants, fits in with the goal of
the store — “to encourage people to read.”
Merlin's opened in December after an
expansive remodeling that transformed a
laundry storage space into an artistic
melange of wooden cross-beamed ceilings
and brick floors based on the design of
Michelangelo’s Florentine library.
Open from 9 a m. to 6 p.m. Monday
through Friday and 10 a m. - 6 p.m. Satur
day, the store offers mostly well-illustrated
hard-back books in four basic areas —
cooking, gardening and plants, art and ar
tists, and woodworking. A fifth specialty,
architecture, is soon to be added.
Fortt's book, "Early Days at the University of Oregon," reflects Univer
sity days when buildings like these were new
PCM* rifttf
store. Yet some force of human spirit is
meeting that challenge and succeeding.
And it is not for money.
Bookstore owners will only laugh if you
ask them if the business is lucrative.
In talking with the small private bookstore
owners in the campus area, one finds in
every case a desire to be independent from
the boring routine of a more secure job cou
pled with a concern for how bookstores fit
into the community. Each store owner feels
that his or her shop is fulfilling a role benefi
cial to student and non-student readers, as
well as satisfying personal interests.
Mary Faust and Patricia Tubb opened
their Book and Tea store four and a half
years ago as a meeting place for women's
groups.
Mary says "when we opened there was a
need for a place for people to get out of their
homes and interact. Luckily I was able to
blend working for people with what I like —
reading."
The Book and Tea shop, located at 1646
E. 19th Ave., is open Monday through Fri
day, 10 a m.-8 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. - 6
p.m. and Sunday 1 - 8 p.m.
Offering a wide selection of children’s
books and books hard to find elsewhere
(special orders are welcomed), the shop
provides a setting conducive to reading.
Chairs and cushions are conveniently
placed amongst the shop's small rooms,
fully lined with books of every description.
Also available is an abundant selection of
cards, small prints and, naturally, tea.
To further integrate with the community
Faust and Tubb are building a sun deck on
the front of the store, which will allow a
A set of show-cases is being constructed
in the back room to display the works of
local craftsmen and artists. The store is fast
becoming a haven, as soft classical music
greets one upon entering and books beauti
ful to behold invite one to explore.
Around the corner, at 1233 Alder, the
Smith Family Bookstore stocks mostly used
books.
Misa Smith and her husband Del, co
owners, were students at the University 20
years ago when they took over a used
bookstore in the same area.
The store closed within a few years and
the Smiths then went into the garbage
trade, •until,” says Mrs. Smith, "we decided
to go back into the used-book business two
years ago. We felt that students needed a
store near campus where they could sell
their books."
The Smith Family Bookstore, open 10
a m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, buys used text
books as well as general trade books, ac
cording to demand. In return the store offers
an extensive and well-organized selection
of books, 10 per cent of which are new.
Unique among bookstore features is the
free book box at the front of the store (yes!
some things in life still are free) which con
tains books unwanted by students and the
store.
The Id Book and Record Store's owner,
Ken Robbins, felt that students and profes
sors needed an alternative to the University
Bookstore when he opened ten years ago.
Coming from a life-long experience in re
tail trade, Robbins decided to blend his in
terests in books and records with this need
and has worked closely with the University
faculty and students ever since.
When Robbins decided to move his store
from his former 13th Ave. location (where
Sugar Pine Ridge is presently), a group of
100 University students persuaded the City
Council to permit the Id to be located at
1340 Alder Street. University architecture
students also designed the store.
Robbins, a former University student
himself, says proudly, “Our store has kept
in business this long only through the stu
dents and professors we serve.”
The Id was the first store to offer students
a direct cash discount of 10 per cent on
textbooks. Many other stores, including the
University Bookstore, have followed suit.
Open 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Monday
through Friday and 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Satur
day the Id is a store packed with quality
paperbacks on every subject imaginable.
Combined with a room full of posters, art
prints and imported bedspreads plus a
large selection of records, the id exists as a
kind of intellectual’s supermarket.
The Son of Koobdooga bookstore also
has an involved history. Started by a politi
cal activist during the late Sixties, the store
stocked books and subjects listed in the
Whole Earth Catalogue, with the intent of
making the community more aware of polit
ical happenings.
Due to financial problems the store
closed and switched ownership, re-opening
in 1972 through Fred Austin.
Austin, and later partner Max Baker,
were both interns in the University's educa
tion department before they decided to ac
cept the challenge of running a retail busi
ness.
They have remodeled the store and ex
panded its contents and scope “to the point
of stocking books in all fields," says Baker.
“A bookstore reflects the owners’s interests
and we feel that we should be an intergral
part of the community by supporting other
endeavors.”
In action this means that the store, lo
cated at 651 E. 13th, carries cards and
prints by local artists, a large supply of local
magazines and gives a 10 per cent discount
on books to be used by a public service.
Open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday
through Saturday and 2-10 p.m. on Sun
day, the store offers a relaxed atmosphere
for browsing.
Further removed from the campus, at
101 W. 7th, the Second Hand Book Man is
another rest-home for used books.
Opened in 1973, the store formerly car
ried only used books until it switched own
ership last June.
Linda Ellis and Jeremy Nissel, former
students from Berkeley, decided to leave
“the hopelessly tedious and unpleasant life
in Berekely” and try their luck running their
own bookstore in a more appealing
Eugene.
They have expanded the store's former
contents with an amazing collection of
cards, a table rull of remainders (hard-back
art books selling at half-price due to pub
lishers' over-stock) and a few shelves of
current books.
Reputedly offering a better price for used
books than other stores, they are, however,
more selective and will not buy used text
books or books which have been under
lined.
The Second Hand Book Man is open 10
a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Ellis and Nissel are excited about the
store's growth and “the comfortable feeling
provided for people. Well organized by
subject, the store also offers a selection of
rare books.
An atmosphere of hushed, creative po
tential greets one upon entering Mother
Kali's, at 333 E. 11th. Opened last fall, the
bookstore is run by a collective of four
women — Barbara, Devi, E, and Muffin —
and serves as a center for women’s groups
when not functioning in its primary role as a
bookstore.
A wide range of books is offered, all basi
cally women-oriented, as well as a new line
of records by women artists, local crafts
sold on consignment, art prints, women’s
magazines and local poetry anthologies.
When Mother Kali’s (Kali, by the way, is
an Indian goddess representing the totality
of the universe, embracing at once crea
tion, preservation, and destruction) is not a
bookstore, it serves as a place for poetry
readings, group meetings, and art shows.
"The store,1’ says Barbara, “provides
valuable spaces for people who don’t have
valuable spaces.”
Open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through
Saturday, the store is an essential part of
the women’s community. Also featured is a
playroom for children and large bulletin
board to encourage the unity of the
women’s community.
The Book Fair at 1409 Oak, opened 10
years ago, making it the oldest used book
store in Eugene.
Owned by Jerry Leedy, a former librarian
from California, the store offers a challenge
to book browsers. Organization is there, all
right, if one is willing to look for it.
Leedy stocks 90 per cent used books in
all areas and buys the rest new, because
they are current books that are hard to get
second hand.
Texts are bought, preferably at the end of
the term, as well as regular trade books,
The store's hours are 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Friday and Saturday with an evening stint of
6:30 - 9 p.m. on Saturdays.
Leedy discourages more bookstores
opening in the area.
"The used bookstore scene is relatively
healthy,” he contends, “but not for long if it
keeps expanding.”
Yet Eugene is a magnetic city, ever
expanding, whose assets are being recog
nized elsewhere. It is a city with a reading
public and, inevitably, more people will ar
rive with that same indefinite notion floating
somewhere in their day-dreams — to get
out from under someone else's thumb and
open a bookstore.
r
Inside
Women Poets of Eugene, p. 4b, in
which Sally Sheklow, a “struggling
senior ’ majoring in broadcasting, writes
about a recently formed group of poets
with a special interest in feminism.
Another Flight of the Cuckoo,p. 7b
in which Bob Webb, one-half of the S &
S editorial team talks about the local
stage version of an enduring Kesey
play.
Fleeting Visions and Brief Asides,
pp. 2b-3b, in which events and ac
tivities on campus and around
Eugene-some fleeting, some not so
brief-are recounted in hopefully accu
rate detail.
The Great Coffee Rush, p. 5b, in
which Glen Gibbons, S & S co-editor
and novice coffee-drinker kneels before
a giant replica of a Java bean — and a
review by Candace Dempsey of unpub
lished Ken Kesey manuscripts on dis
play at a new coffeehouse opening up
just off-campus.
Coming Next Week in S & S
The Eugene Tavern Music Scene,
relentlessly pursued by Greg Raschio
and Bill Benson.
Tom Robbins: Back in the
Saddle — notes on a semi
underground hero and a review of his
latest novel.
y