Saturday, June 24, 2006
Two More SF Bookstores Closing...
First Cody's, then A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books. Now comes word this week from the SF Examiner that Valencia Street Books is closing.
And now so is my favorite used bookstore, Acorn Books. My wife lived just a few blocks from there when we first met, and to me the store always basks in the glow of that time.
Glen Gold gave me a heads-up that they were holding a going-out-business sale, and sure enough, now there's an interview on Abebooks with retiring owner Joel Chapman.
One odd "who knew?" anecdote from the interview:
And now so is my favorite used bookstore, Acorn Books. My wife lived just a few blocks from there when we first met, and to me the store always basks in the glow of that time.
Glen Gold gave me a heads-up that they were holding a going-out-business sale, and sure enough, now there's an interview on Abebooks with retiring owner Joel Chapman.
One odd "who knew?" anecdote from the interview:
Whoopi Goldberg walked into his bookstore one afternoon dressed in a nun’s habit accompanied by her entourage. "She was making some movie and was in costume," explained Joel. "She bought a large number of books, from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Haggard, but took interest in a box of books on the floor that I hadn’t priced up yet. The box contained L. Frank Baum Oz first editions with dust jackets. She asked if she could return the next day and if I could close the shop. Of course, I agreed."
"She came back, looked at the books, and said: 'I’ll take them all' and that was $14,000 worth of books. She clearly knew a lot about turn-of-the-century fantasy novels."
