Listen to Jim: http://www.jimreedbooks.com/mp3/two-dollar_books.mp3 or read on…
THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS OF MARKING BOOKS
DOWN TO $2.00 EACH
Today is Tuesday, March 15, just after everybody lost all memory for an hour on Sunday so that they forever wonder why they can’t remember how it got to be an hour later without their knowledge. Fortunately, some of them “get” it and realize that Daylight Savings Time did it to them—removed an hour of life and memory. Good news is, in a few months we’ll get that hour back and still won’t know how to put it to good use.
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Where was I?
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It’s Tuesday, almost opening-up-the-bookstore time. I’m preparing to roll the $2.00 book rack out to the sidewalk, hopefully to entice customers to pause in their onward rush, hoping to attract new customers, wishing folks would enter the store wanting to see even more.
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I check the rack to see whether its holdings have grown stale. I remember a lesson learned decades ago in Green Bay, Wisconsin: “If you want your customers to think they are getting a good deal, give them an actual good deal!”
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Are the bargains real? Well, there’s a first-edition Mark Childress (he just got on the New York Times bestseller list for the first time). So, that classifies as a good deal. There are Spider Man comic books of old—anyone who loves Spidey will like that. There’s a copy of Huckleberry Finn. Any price for Mark Twain is a bargain. There’s a how-to book on how to make your life perfect—if you object to the $2.00 cover charge you aren’t very motivated to rise from your misery, are you? Just guessing.
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And so on…
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I’ve now satisfied myself that the $2.00 books are worth much more than $2.00. Now, about the LP vinyl recordings for $2.00 each. There’s Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, the Blackwood Bro’s, Lena Horne…need I say more? $2.00 for an hour with Satchmo beats any concert price I’ve ever paid, except for the times in my hometown that I gained free admittance to lectures and shows just because I was a reporter. I have fond memories of experiencing—and meeting—Andy Warhol, Dave Brubeck, Aldous Huxley, Carl Sandburg, the Kingston Trio, Bennett Cerf, Erskine Caldwell, and a plethora of celebrities who came to town in those long-ago years. All worth the price of admission.
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Others I got to enjoy in person in later years include Gregory Peck, Marie and Donny Osmond, Vincent Price, Charles Laughton, Mel Torme, George Shearing, Ramsey Lewis, Fred Willard, Al Franken, Stan Kenton, Rich Little, Gay Talese, Buddy Rich, Milt Jackson, George Carlin, Quincy Jones, Oscar Peterson, PDQ Bach, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Bradbury, Brian Aldiss, Edward O. Wilson, Bob Hope, and on and on.
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I suppose this bookstore thing is all about me and my fond memories. But I also think it’s more than that. You see, selling their recordings and books and films is a way I can pass my appreciation of their talent—and my recollections—on to you. Listening to me go on and on is one thing, but the proof is in the reading, watching and hearing.
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OK, so now I’ve assured myself that the bargains are bargains, I can in good conscience open the shop for business.
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C’mon down
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© 2011 A.D. by Jim Reed
http://www.jimreedbooks.com/index.php