Places We Love

The neighborhood bookstore of Ted Streuli's youth is alive and well, as Stasiowski will attest; he and Sharon visited on Ted's recommendation. Hopefully, they also sampled the pizza at Giorgio's two blocks east.

Richard Savoy founded Green Apple Books in 1967 (it's never lost his hippie-era vibe). He was 25 years old, had done a tour in the Army and worked as a radio technician for United Airlines, but he had little business experience. With a deep love of the written word, some savings, and a credit union loan, he got a lease in a pre-1906 Richmond district building near the corner of Clement Street and Sixth Avenue, next door to a shoe repair business. His stock of used books, comics, and National Geographic magazines attracted a following in the neighborhood, one that continued to grow over the next 52 years.

Today, the shop covers about 10 times its original 750 square feet and is perennially voted the best bookstore in the Bay Area.

In 1993, Dan Becker opened Becker’s Books in Houston to house his personal collection of books. Over the years his passion turned into his livelihood as Becker’s Books grew to be one of the largest local, independent bookstores in the country. Just outside the loop on the Katy Freeway, Becker's Books has been Houston's go-to secondhand bookstore since 1993. Actually run by Mom and Pop Becker, this family business has thrived as a local bookstore by preserving the treasures that people expect to find in an old school "stacks" bookstore. From $2 paperbacks to $1000 manuscripts, there is reason for everyone to come to Becker's Books and get lost in the stacks.

Full Circle Bookstore was originally founded by Mark McGee at NW 25th and Military in Oklahoma City in 1970 as a successor to a store he had opened in Norman called, Bread and Roses. As suggested by the names, both stores were primarily stocked for a counter-culture audience. In 1973, McGee relocated the store to the historic Veazey Drug Store at NW 42nd and Western. Then, in 1977, Jim Tolbert bought the store and began an effort to broaden the focus of the stock.

His plans were momentarily derailed, when in August 1978, a cook at the neighboring restaurant, VZDs, let a small grease fire get out of control, gutting both the restaurant and Full Circle. Much of the stock was destroyed, except for about 10,000 volumes. Those were salvaged and sold in a two-day fire sale that fall.

Rather than rebuild, Tolbert chose a space on the third floor of the 50 Penn Place retail mall for the store's grand re-opening the day after Thanksgiving in 1980. Expansions in 1985 and 1992 more than tripled the size of Full Circle, added the fireplaces and included the creation of Java Joe's Coffee Bar.

In 1995, Full Circle felt the arrival of Barnes and Noble and Borders booksellers into the northwest Oklahoma City area. The store's survival was an uphill battle. But, in the spring of 2001, Tolbert moved and expanded once again to allow easier access for the store's customers.

The bookstore moved from the third floor, 40 feet below to ground level at 50 Penn Place.

Here’s what I like about Grassroots Books, 660 E. Grove St., Reno, Nev., 89502: When Sharon and I were moving and needed to responsibly dispose of hundreds (maybe thousands; who counts?) books, the folks at Grassroots gave us a lot less cash for them than we thought they were worth.

Yes, that’s right, a lot less cash.

Why is that a good thing?

Because we needed to move, needed to lighten the load, needed to go from a large number of large bookcases to a small number that would fit in our soon-to-be much smaller home, and although we wanted more money, we didn’t need more money. We were OK with just finding a really good home for books that we treasured, but simply could not keep.

By selling them to Grassroots, we had confidence that Grassroots would price them reasonably for future buyers. That felt good.

Grassroots is small by bookstore standards, but the selection is amazingly complete, and the staff members are extremely helpful. It’s easy to see that they are booklovers, and bookloverlovers. The blend of new and used books is tended as assiduously as the array in the garden of the greenest of green thumbs.

And you don’t want to pass up the warehouse sales. Plan on spending at least half-a-day.

Let’s face it, if you go to Reno, you’re going to gamble, either at the casinos in downtown or at the ski resorts of Lake Tahoe, so you’re gambling either with your money or your knees, shoulders and skulls. But you cannot gamble every minute of every day, so take an hour (or more), take along a few dollars (or more) and take a tour of a sweet place in which you won’t lose or break any bones.

At least you’ll go home with something to show for the trip.