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Independent bookstore works hard to satisfy scholarly niche in BloomingtonJun 01, 2012 (Herald-Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Joe Grant has nothing against popular fiction. He just doesn't buy or sell it. The name of his shop spells it out: Academic Scholarly Books. Inside the store at 105 Pete Ellis Drive are shelves stocked with serious reading: college textbooks and reference works in art, science, history, math, philosophy and other learned disciplines. Any literature to be found here is likely to be of the classic variety. Grant says he gets high school kids stopping by to fill their required reading lists, so he tries to keep those in stock. "'Anna Karenina' -- that one we're always selling out of," he said. If customers are looking for a breezy summer read -- a good romance, mystery or thriller -- Grant sends them down the block to The Book Rack at 223 Pete Ellis Drive, whose full shelves support the store's claim of "thousands of used paperbacks." In turn, the clerks there will refer people to Grant if they are seeking more academic material. "In this day and age, the little guy has to help each other out," he said. Independent bookstores also need to keep their options open. For that reason, Grant has begun stocking board games, DVDs and puzzles alongside his books. The games and puzzles sold well during the past Christmas season, he said, hoping they do so again next year. Still, scholarly texts are his main business, and Grant said it is graduate students and the community's "independent scholars" who are among his best customers. One of the toughest things to keep in stock, he said, is material on the Civil War. Grant has been a book dealer for 10 years. He started selling out of his home, and he said he still does 75-80 percent of his business online, selling both on eBay and Amazon. He opened a retail shop about four years ago to house his growing inventory as well as to offer for sale to walk-in customers what he can't sell on the Internet. Paperbacks on the public shelves are priced at $2, hardbacks at $4. There are varying prices for puzzles and board games, still unopened in their original wrapping. Grant says he shops auctions, clearance sales and store closing sales for much of his nonbook merchandise. For example, he said he purchased a number of games from the Eastland Plaza Borders bookstore when it went out of business during the 2010 Christmas season. Grant said he only purchases unopened puzzles and games to ensure all the pieces are there. Grant buys used textbooks from students at Ivy Tech and Indiana University. He said his primary interest is graduate-level material that can be used for research or thesis work, although he said he will buy everything except popular novels and encyclopedias. When someone brings him a book, Grant says he consults online sales databases and bookfinder.com to decide what he can offer. Generally, he said, he tries to pay about half of what he thinks he can sell a book for on the Internet. He said he also has purchased entire collections of academic texts from retiring professors. Other sources of inventory include auctions, yard sales and the annual American Red Cross book sale -- "I donate a lot to that, too." Grant he has about 6,000 texts in stock and is always on the lookout for new inventory, and while he has branched out recently with puzzles, DVDs and games, he said books are still his favorite thing to buy and sell. "I'm not looking to get huge," he said. "I'm just trying to stay in business." ------ What: Academic Scholarly Books Where: 105 Pete Ellis Drive, Bloomington Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday; Saturdays by appointment Phone: 812-345-2490 Web: www.academic scholarlybooks.com ___ (c)2012 the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.) Visit the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.) at www.heraldtimesonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |