Paperback Dreams

November 06, 2008

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 …