Russkie Knigi—The Rest of the Story
Almost exactly two years ago, I posted the story of when the Russian hordes poured over the ramparts at Wonder Book… Read More
Wonder Book Blog
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A Bookseller’s Week
Millie, Mickey, Wallpaper, the Doctor, DC and Downsizing: These are a few of the stories of people and books at Wonder Book in the last week, December 2-9, 2017... Read More
Fools Rush In
This story was written in 2007 about a year after the following story happened. I wish there were more photos but phones and phone pictures were not what they are today. We do have analog photos...somewhere... They'll turn up. I had recently finished a 350-page... Read More
Spinning Tales
"What should we do with the record section?" This became an annual question from the late 1990s until about 2008. "I think we should get rid of them,"—that would be rationality and good business acumen speaking. I kept on keeping those thoughts inside. My heart... Read More
A Country Auction, the Muse, and the Bard
"Who you?" I knew who he was. He was from down in the city and the top book dealer in the region. I was just a newbie book guy—unknown... I told him who I was: "I'm Wonder Book." Very medieval. Like that was my title... Read More
Johnny Appleseed
This story is all legend and faded memory... Almost immediately after entering the book business in Sept 1980, I began hearing stories of Johnny "G." He was a legend...of sorts... in the DC Region. Older booksellers would say Johnny did this... Johnny did that... Read More
Rescuing Babel
"Are you charging us to take these?" That was an unusual question. One that I don't recall ever hearing before. And it was October 2017. Not that I haven't been tempted to tell someone with dreadful books, "You'd have to pay me to take these... Read More