(Kristen Tobiason remembers when books came in stores, not chains.)
Literature was an influential element, a hot, voluptuous topic of conversation among our group, passionate, fueling argument or forging agreement. Who was reading what? Can I borrow that?
Fiction and poetry colored our expression, our ideas and our character. I remember loitering at the Florida Street apartment for hours listening to Pat and Jerry discuss pre-revolutionary Russian literature or the Illuminati chronicles. Or Eric Bacher smoking and reading a book by Bukowski or Celine. Jeff Lucas quoting Rimbaud. Borrowing Michael Moorcock from David Rinck. A thrift-store mission for H.P. Lovecraft titles with my boyfriend. The gloating happiness of having scored a stack of titles for a couple of dollars.
I miss San Diego’s used-book stores. The yellowed pages with the penciled price on the inside first page. The cats sleeping in the display window. Super-mega-stores like Borders or Barnes & Noble have gobbled up these small mom-‘n’-pop businesses, as has Amazon.com.
Many book stores just don’t generate enough revenue to make rent here. Slowly, they all have closed their doors and faded away. Wahrenbrocks is one of the last of its kind, looking the same as did 20 years ago (probably 30), on 7th and Broadway. There is still Controversial on University. Footnotes in Hillcrest. But most of them are gone. Blue Door — gone — and the one that was next to it … I forget its name. Aardvarks, Safari and many others on Adams Avenue, deceased. All the wonderful treasure troves out in El Cajon – disappeared.
Read about San Diego’s unchained vinyl!
San Diego is currently lobbying to close down a large percentage of its libraries. Maybe people don’t read much anymore. That is a travesty.
Pat Works once advised me: “Never feel bad about buying a book or giving one away.”
That’s a philosophy I’ve stuck with to this day. My husband and I have traded in the television for an overflowing library. We often spend our weekends with our noses buried in various tomes and trilogies.
— Kristen Tobiason
More from Kristen Tobiason! San Diego then and now:
- Then and Now: Graveyard Park
- Then and Now: New Year’s resolutions
- Then and Now: Saigon Palace
- Then and Now: the Chicken Pie Shop
- Then and Now: Off the Record
- Then and Now: Rock Palace
- Then and Now: The Ken Cinema
- Then and Now: Adams Avenue Theater
- Then and Now: Topsy’s
- Then and Now: Greenwich Village West
- Then and Now: Funland
- Then and Now: Studio 517
- Then and Now: La Posta
- Then and Now: Presidio Park
- Then and Now: El Cajon Blvd. Denny’s