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Wednesday, April 23, 1980
University Daily Kansan
Old volumes sold at Book Nook
By JUDITH LYNN HOWARD
Books lightly covered with dust and fingered by time are the stock and trade of Book Nook, 723 Massachusetts St., a merchant of the written word.
Staff Renorter
Book Nook is a hawker for book lovers who are willing to curse for out-of-prince-ness. This collection is sideyen Sheldon, Helicia Holt and Harold Robbins. It's also a place to buy books
Book Nook buys, sells and trades books. Customers include the aid science fiction reader, the hurried KU student who is eager to learn, the fascinated and the tearful fan of Harlequin Romances.
BOOKS ARE bought at 10 percent of the original jacket price, sold at half the original jacket price and traded two for one
Judy Todd, co-owner, said the book business was great. Todd, sitting on a stool behind the cash register and framed by a desk with thumbback notes, said simply, "I love it."
"Business is building all the time," she said. "There are still people who don't know it's here."
But customers who do know about Book Nook come in to browse and dig for books, which are stacked tightly on the shelves.
"We have some of the most precious customers who come in here all the time," she said.
Todd has own Book Nook for two years. She and her husband have a beautiful book engraving business. But she decided to buy the former bookstore owners' 10,000 books and continue their work.
"It helps pay the bills," she said.
THE BOOK NOOK now boasts 15,000 titles and has expanded its shelf space.
Todd said that she could usually identify customers' tastes by their sexes.
Women prefer the newer releases and the romances, she said.
"Men come in here and you can bet they'll head for the western, the science fiction or the Playboy and Hustler sections" she said.
A big boy and Hester sister, she said. Magazines such as Playboy and Huster play a small role in Book Nook, she said.
"That's just a minor part of it. Nine-tenths of our trade is in the paperbacks and not the magazines."
She said that some books were becoming more explicit in their sex scenes.
"I really don't care for all the descriptive sex. I'd rather read a book that would give you a hint of sex," she said.
OTHER CUSTOMERS are science fiction enthusiasts. The prices for these books are higher, she said.
"Science fiction is harder to come by. It is very hard to get your hands on good science books. Metac science fans are collectors, but they don't sell their books." Todd said.
Todd has been an Agatha Christie collector for eight years. But, she said she grew up on another mystery-seeker, Nancy Drew.
"I read every Nancy Drew I could get my hands on. That's when I really got interested in reading," she said.
More people are reading these days,
especially young people, Todd said. She said
she could not think of a better gift than a
book.
"There have been a lot of books that come in here that I have given to my friends," she said.
Volume vendor
Judy Todd, co-owner of Book Nook. 723 Massachusetts St., arranges paperbacks in the shop's front window. Todd has been in the book-selling business for two years.
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