Twenty years ago, there were dozens of used bookstores surrounding campus.
Though that number shrank significantly, there are still a few places where bookworms can go to indulge in their passion for literature.
Bird Song, on University Boulevard and Central Avenue, draws dozens of readers looking to buy or sell books while Book Stop, tucked away on the 3000 block of Silver
Avenue, is a brick-and-mortar front to an intimate setting.
Despite a shrinking market, used bookstore owners remain optimistic about their futures.
“I think there will always be little bookstores,” said Jerry Lane, owner of Book Stop.
Book Stop wasn’t immune to the challenges of the market. Lane’s store, which opened in 1980, downsized from a 6,000-square-foot location in Nob Hill to the 1,000-square-foot store on Silver Avenue.
The 90s brought more competition from huge corporate bookstores like Barnes and Noble, while now the entire bookstore market has been bookended by a crawl to cyberspace.
Yet, shopping for books online can be seen as robbing consumersof the romance of discoveringsomething new and fun, of holding it in their hands, thumbing through the pages and reading the back cover.
Bird Song has perhaps the most palpable romantic feel to it. The atmosphere at Bird Song is so picturesque that it often attracts both independent and student filmmakers to use the store as a backdrop.
Perhaps that’s because many of the shelves come from other bookstores that have since closed. Or maybe it’s the friendly dog lying in the aisle between shelves. But most important, the store is haunted by the spirit of dead books.
Some of the store’s bookshelves were salvaged from the fire that destroyed Bird Song in 1997. The shelves were scrubbed down and the most burnt portions were cut off, but impressions from the books that fueled the flames are still visible in the pine.
Bird Song owner Martha J. Mullins attributes the spirited feeling to her own love of books.
“It’s a labor of love. You really feel it when you walk in,” Mullins said.
Her love for books has certainly contributed to Bird Song’s success. But despite the shifting market, Mullins, like Lane, is optimistic about Albuquerque’s literary future.
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“People underestimate how many readers we have here,” she said. “We’re fortunate to have more bookstores than any other United States’ city of comparable size.”
Fortunate indeed.
At BYU, the last university I attended, in order to buy a used book that wasn’t a textbook, I’d have to drive to a neighboring city. At UNM, I can walk to any of three bookstores during my lunch break. And visiting a bookstore is much more fun than shopping for books on Amazon.com. It’s fun to physically browse the store.
And Lane is right. I actually laughed out loud when I stumbled into the “Commie Pinko Stuff” section at Bird Song. At Book Stop, the strangest books are what actually make it out on the shelves, because they are what draw people into the store.
For example, a lady from Chicago purchased a book on tape about horticulture while I was in the store. But what does one look for in such stores? It doesn’t matter.
You’ll find it, even if you didn’t know what it was that you were trying to find.
Mullins described Bird Song as “an eclectic mix — a reader’s bookstore.” She buys and sells books that she would like to read herself or knows others who would like to read them.
Lane also described his Book Stop as a full mix.
“It’s like a general grocery store, rather than a fine restaurant,” Lane said. “We’ve got a little bit of everything.”
And there’s nothing quite like falling in love with a book that you found on the shelves of a used bookstore.
