Big Book Store

They’re not open a whole lot, cause I guess these old cynical dudes with burly white beards don’t feel like being here a whole lot. They don’t like the place to be excessively organized either. That’s cool, though. It’s one of those things that makes coming here an adventure.
I was in here on Saturday, killing time between the 2 halves of a double shift. I don’t think I had been in here since the 90s and I don’t think a damned thing had changed. I think the same 1,000 year old ageless wonder was behind the counter then, too.
I picked through the stacks, at one point accidentally knocking over a pile of mismatched horizontal books that had been placed atop some vertical books. Larger books on top of smaller books is never a good plan. I put them on a milk crate on the floor since anyway I put them on that shelf they were just gonna fall again. Rip Van Walt Whitman didn’t exactly come running over at the sound of the falling books. In fact he never even acknowledged I had sent some of his books cascading to the floor. (I believe his name is Bill, as I think that’s how he was greeted by the one other customer who wandered in while I browsed.)
I found a couple of decent Christmas gifts for my sports mad dad. I picked up a paperback of Noone Here Gets Out Alive for myself as it seems like a fun read that can be picked up and put down willy nilly. (Sadly, I’m nowhere near the reader I used to be.)
They have a great old ad from no other than R. Crumb taped up to the side of a bookshelf, so that was pretty cool to see.
There’s also an adult section, accessable through a swinging door with a little metal latch. It’s a dollar to browse through it, and that dollar gets subtracted from any purchase you make in there. They’ve got a ton of old Playboys, old one-​handed reading pulp paperbacks and lots of vintage kinky stuff of various sorts. Organization here is so lax that some of the gay and the straight stuff is all mixed up, which is hilarious to me cause some dudes get really uptight about that. I bought an old dictionary of sex words and phrases that has all these strange archaic dirty terms I had never heard of before, but hope to employ in conversation since nobody will know what I’m talking about anyway.
Bill also had an awesome Comics Encyclopedia behind the register. I would have bought it, but I think my friend Cory already has it, and I can just borrow his.
All in all, this place is a total throwback. It’s amazing it’s still around. It’s no John K King or Book Beat — those are the places you would want to take an out-​of-​town visitor who wants to go to a cool old book store — but it’s not a bad place for picking through some stacks looking for odds and ends. And it comes complete with old dudes and that classic musty book smell.

Giant bookstore, terrible organization, a kick for those who love hunting.
This place is an eclectic mess. If you’ve got the patience and the love of spending time in a bookstore with the likely possibility that you aren’t leaving the store with anything, then it’s a great two hours spent, rummaging, squinting, and reaching on tip-​toes.
They seem to specialize in old comics (someone there on my last visit asked the owner if he had any comics about Ghandi… and the owner said he might! wtf?!) and, beyond comprehension, old magazines… need a decades-​old back issue of Time magazine? or Reader’s Digest? Here’s your place. Also tons of pulp fictions of various genres, and a hodge-​podge of everything else.
If you’re looking for something in particular, never come here. But if you just wanted to kill a few hours and have a reason to apply the industrial-​strength pump-​soap to your dust-​besmirched fingers once you’re home again, Big Book Store is worth your while.

Big book store does more than simply comic books, but they aren’t kidding; it is a big book store.
In fact, I had trouble finding comics at all. Granted, they had a selection of older comics, but I didn’t find too much in way of newer books. This would be a good place to check for back issues, but I’m not so sure about newer stuff.
Like the sign on the front says, «no textbooks.» This is both useful and troublesome if you’re looking for a wayward copy of something that the other bookstores sold out of, and you need it read by next Tuesday.
I swear I’ve never done that. (Psst. use
!)
Like I said, they are a big bookstore. They seem to have collected a bunch of things that I absolutely love, but already own. The bookstore looks like what I imagine my library will be like in 30 years: dingy, too the ceiling, and all my books meticulously fit together on shelves like puzzle pieces.
It’s not King’s books, but it’s still worth a good look (and a good hour). If you’re going to take the time out to wander around King’s, then you may as well wander around here as well!