Features 2000 |
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... antiques, buttonjugs, German Bibles, a fascinating place!
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Used, used, used! Everything in the store is used, ranging from tattered and worn to just hardly ever read. Books, antiques, everything. It is a fascinating place. We're talking about the not-new Bookmark-it in downtown Melrose, a shop that was born five years ago over on West Emerson, graduated to downtown a year or so ago, and just four months ago moved again, this time to triple its amount of floor space. The address is 454 Main Street, opposite Pauli's Restaurant. It is a warm place, a place where book lovers can spend hours and hours browsing for great and not-so-great books. Everything from Bibles to manuals on, oh, sexual behavior. And, to make matters ever more interesting, there are antiques and old doodads everywhere you turn -- like a crazy easy chair made of driftwood, two painted oars and a bunch of funky cushions. Key guy at the Bookmark-it is John Hannifin, formerly of Melrose and now living in Winchester, who similarly sought something else to do with his professional life. So far, all three, Lisa, Cheryl and John appear to be quite comfortable, surrounded by old books, outlandish antiques, old posters -- and the warmth of what appears to be some 50,000 books -- at a guess. Also on the staff are Roberta Gertz of Melrose, Erica Muxie, a college freshman whose mom is the principal of the Beebe Elementary School; a girl with the most beautiful name I've ever heard, Somer O'Brien of Wakefield, and two Melrose High "Wonderboys", MHS seniors Greg Goulding and Dan Borkan. Somer O'Brien is a student at the Longy School in Cambridge, and is/will be a classical pianist. "We're mostly all part-timers," Cheryl said, "and that's what makes it so much fun." Lisa does all the buying, Cheryl explained. "People come in with old books, she goes to auctions and attends estate sales. Everything is used except a few Harry Potter books." "Older people supply many of our books, glad to be reassured that their precious volumes will be read again and again," she explained. "One time Lisa came back with a library of some 4000 books." But it is the atmosphere of the deep, rambling store, that creates a personal, warm mood for book-lovers. Lisa and Cheryl designed the property (located in a before-the-turn-of-the-century brick commercial building) with a million twists, little alcoves and browsing areas, coupled with scattered reading spaces and over-stuffed chairs (also used). And the shelves, six or seven feet tall, look like a cross between a custom designed and whacked together in the garage -- rough but gracious. Here and there, from the top of a bookshelf, an antique brass creature will stare down at the mere mortals below. In this third incarnation (two on Main, the original on Emerson), the shop was marked by a small, carved gentleman from a time long ago, who stood stoically by the door carrying his books and welcoming guests. He quickly became the hit of downtown. "Poof", Cheryl said, "he just disappeared. Somebody, in broad daylight, snatched him up and walked away. I think Lisa found him originally at that store on the Pike, Bargains for Millionaires, or something like that. There wasn't much the cops could do," she added. "We were so sad." Later, I asked Lisa what her oldest book is. "WAS," she said. "It was a 1734 German Bible but we sold it to another book dealer who took it back to Denmark. Actually lots of dealers come here -- not that they are expecting to find some undiscovered treasure, but they usually find some things." When asked what the most popular books are, Cheryl hesitated and then suggested military histories, adventure stories (especially by Edward Rowe Snow), and art and architecture. "And, we have a lovely children's section. That's quite popular." "People usually don't ask for something special," she continued. "Mostly they want to browse. And more than half go home with a new-old book." They plan a monthly open reading, or a book signing. At a recent poetry reading, some 20 people showed and took part. "It wasn't an open mike," Cherlyl related, "and people read all sorts of things -- poetry, song lyrics, stories they had written -- it went over well." "Ross and Keller's first book, also on Wright and called 'Jadite', was first in Best Sellers on Antiques on Amazon.com," Hannafin said. "We would like to establish an official cafe, serving coffee and tea, but we're temporarily hung up on city regulations," Cheryl said. Hours include seven days a week: Monday-Friday, 10 to 6; Saturday, 9 to 6, and Sunday noon to 5:00. "I wish more people knew about our Sunday hours," she added. "It's a lovely time to browse." Random observations while shooting flicks ... The entire layout of the antiques section was artfully, skillfully done, integrating the many homespun bookshelves, beautiful used books and memorabilia. In one small booknook, hardly big enough for a piece of furniture, was a homemade chair made from driftwood and a couple of colorfully painted oar blades. It must have weighed 50 pounds, but I felt comfortable and secure sitting in it. I was surrounded on three and a half sides by shelves of handsome used books, softly illuminated in warm yellow ochre by a single incandescent lamp. Surrounded by books, all within reach -- at least the lower shelves. This is heaven. The layout of the shelving is unique, warm and inviting. The shelves appear to be of unpainted pine, with no pretense at elegance -- more homespun than anything else. Not that one can get lost in the Bookmark-It, but it seems there are dozens of little roomettes, ironically without walls. And lighting is good but very subtle. Keep in mind that the building is well over a century old to begin with. Its flooring, walls and ceilings (what you see of them) reflect that faded past. And all this time, this place, this space, has been occupied by viable merchants, providing all sorts of goods to the people of Melrose. The products changed, the people changed, but the building is still there. There are unique reading stations where you will find old, used but clean overstuffed chairs, and perhaps a small coffee table, which would be for sale. There is one area toward the back that has three shining-top tables, with motley chairs, where poetry readings are held. At least one is scheduled. At one point among the stacks, there is an old single post coat rack, with half a dozen cast iron pinions inviting you to take off your coat and set a spell. It has a sign attached, available for $180. There is a funky wrought iron chandelier in one alcove, from which six or eight eight-inch 1930s wooden people hang, front and back painted appropriately. It seems an unorthodox coupling, the wooden dolls and an art deco chandelier -- but there it is. Upfront, not too far from the front door, is a very large, framed antique poster in French, warning graphically of La Syphillis. I didn't ask at what price. It would not go in my livingroom. I asked John about a reference he made to a book printed back in the 1700s. He said they had a few, and pointed the way back to another of the secluded alcoves, where I found a collection of Really Old Books. Like, five shelves. But no, I did not find those printed in the 1700s. Upfront, too, are two shelves of CDs in their jewel cases. Most are used, although you couldn't tell it from their looks. Some were new. I bought two, including Mozart performed by Itzhak Perlman, but on arriving home, I found not Perlman but something entirely different -- a booming piece by the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. The next day I returned, told John of my dilemma, and spent fifteen minutes finding the cover to the Liszt CD, in which was my Itzhak Perlman record. I ended up with both. The CD collection is eclectic, but at four bucks, how can you go wrong? There is a bronze, fat cherub, sitting atop one of the front bookshelves. It seems to enjoy its high perch, looking down, boasting that it had read all those hundreds of books upon which it sat. There was a chesstable, a handsome piece, in one booknook. The chess pieces sat there, awaiting anyone who would enjoy a game. I saw an old slat crate, probably older than I, that had been used long ago to ship pears from Mt. Konocti in Washington. Its cargo that day was matted prints, that may have been interesting, but I didn't look. I was intrigued with the crate. There was a large black and white duck decoy on a polished antique table, too large to be a woodduck, too vague to be a loon. But it was black and white, and probably hand carved. Perhaps primitive, certainly not mass-produced. In the Humor and Comedy section, I found a very clean copy of George Carlin's "Brain Droppings". Being a Carlin fan, I doubt if his copy was as clean as the book itself. There is a place for almost everything. At one point in my wandering, I asked a book person -- a beautiful woman, whose long dark, wavy hair showed streaks of gray -- "Okay, where's the Dirty Book Section?" She smiled back at the dirty old man and said, "Back here, but there's one book that just came in that has some marvelous pictures you'd like". I didn't know how she knew what I liked, but she kind of threw me in with the lot of All Men. The shoes! Somewhere Management had found and bought a huge collection of ladies' shoes, high, high heels from a more fashionable time than the recent '90s, from a time when spiked heels made women's legs look sooo long and slender. Not so today, with the clutzy shoes in fashion. But the entire lot of used shoes, which appeared to me as good as Imelda Marcos' collection, was size ten. Too small for me, but they were beautiful. Only two pairs were on display. The others were hidden somewhere else. November 3, 2,000
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