Gregson St. to Markham Ave.

Archive: Used Bookdealer

Written a couple of years ago. I may take a real stab at writing more about the history of Books Do Furnish A Room.

After three years our little shop in Gregson Street was packed tight in all three dimensions. I never knew the square footage. The building was shaped like a narrow slice of pie with us at the pointy end. The smallest wall was three, maybe four feet.

I started scouting around for a new place. I looked at a couple of homes that had been rezoned for business. Luckily we didn't move into any of them. The realtor in charge of the house that most interested me treated me like a nonentity. In retrospect I'm glad she did. The house would've been a bad idea. It was next to nothing that would help us and had no parking. Nonetheless I was chagrined when Gordon bought his home from the same company.

A half-block from Duke's East Campus I spotted a bright yellow building with “For Rent” sign. James Fuquay, Sr. had run a used furniture-cum-junk shop there for decades. When the original owner died he bought the three buildings and two lots. Overcharging people for tables and cabinets had seen its heyday and he was ready to retire.

The interior was anything but prepossessing: unpainted sheet rock, lights connected by drop cords running from other drop cords. Prior to Mr. Fuquay it had been a boiler repair shop. He'd done nothing to beautify it. But it was off Ninth Street which put us near what until the advent of Barnes & Noble was Durham's only good new bookstore.

We were also next door to a place that sold musical instruments, The Music Loft. I figured lots of their customers would buy records and CDs from us. A few do but the desire to be the next Bruce Springsteen, Steve Tyler or Beck often has more to with an appetite for fame than an affinity for music.

And the building was what seemed like an gargantuan 1200 sq. ft. and had its own parking lot.

So we moved. It went smoother than the time I'd pulled the store out on the the street to rearrange everything. Customers were willing to help in exchange for store credit. Most notably the sainted David King who delivered milk for Pine State Dairy who could use one of their pickups with a power lift. I mostly talk about the types of customers that annoy me. David is a man of rare quality. Uneducated, he went to work directly from high school delivering milk. Later he switched to bread. Not long ago he bought his own truck and works as a contractor instead of an employee. I wish my upbringing had given me his work ethic. Work is boring but you can build a better life for yourself and those you love if you have it. But what sets David apart from most of making is his inexhaustible charity. He spends much of his free time helping other people. When Charles and I bought our house we managed to move in two days instead of my originally expected two weeks because of his tireless kindness.

I've met a good number of people like that running the shop. Amiable, tolerant, compassionate, spending their time working for Habitat for Humanity, teaching people how to read. The kindly ones rarely make good stories so they pass unmentioned.

Thanks to David and others everything was moved and reshelved in two days. We actually moved the books by category and in alphabetical order.