Imagine a small family bookstore. Is it peaceful and quiet? Can you smell the old pages of the books and hear them sliding off the shelves? At the Book Rack, that may be true on some days, but you’re more likely to hear laughter, stories, and the crunching of snacks. The four women who work at this used bookstore on 15th are even more entertaining than the thousands of books that surround them.
“Make yourself at home. We’re not gonna bug you, but we’ll help you if you want us,” said Ann McGee, the owner of The Book Rack for 41 years. McGee opened the store in 1976, and though the store is one part of a chain, it’s attitude is totally independent.
The staff is composed of four friends, Ann McGee, Charlotte Stanford, JoAnn Puckett and Lynn Carmichael, a real-life combination of “Golden Girls” and “Steel Magnolias”. Every time someone walks in the door they are greeted with a friendly face, a helping hand, and every now and then the official “book dog,” Rose. With over 30 thousand books to choose from, it’s hard for customers to leave without a stack, especially because every book is sold at half the publisher’s price.
“Grab a basket or a bag so that you don’t have to come back for one, cause you know you’re gonna get that many,” said Charlotte Stanford, a retired school teacher who started working at the store in the last few years.
The store was having the Winter version of their 2-day semi-annual sale, where everything is half price and tables are set out in front to entice people walking by.
“I can’t say this about every book, but one of the nicest compliments we can get is for someone to come in and say ‘I thought ya’ll sold used books,’ because we would like all of our books to be ‘gently used,” said McGee.
For some reason, Westerns are the genre that are always a little beat up, one of the many small details McGee has noticed about the book business over the years. She’s seen the rise and fall of horror books, the everlasting interest in historical romance, and the evolution of many authors from small Harlequin-style books to full length novels.
“It just happens that a lot of the books over the years have been novels written by women,” said McGee.
McGee has also noticed the recent interest in the paranormal romance genre, which she believes is wholly influenced by mega writer Anne Rice, author of “Interview with a Vampire.” An interesting phenomenon that the staff began noticing a while ago is that science fiction and classics are the two genres that people will buy but never trade in.
“They want to keep and collect them,” said Lynn Carmichael, a retired registered nurse.
“We’re at the point now where we have to take according to our need, so we tell people, ‘If you can’t find it on the shelves, ask us if you can use the restroom,’ because we have a very interesting storage area,” said McGee.
The storage area is a small closet area where any type of book might be hiding. McGee told the story of a woman who actually went back there to use the restroom and was gone so long that her family grew worried about her. Turns out she had discovered the hidden space.
Like the rest of the print industry, The Book Rack has seen a dip since the creation of e-readers.
“It’s not so much that our customers went out a bought one for themselves, it’s their adult children who say ‘Oh, momma loves to read let’s get her a Kindle or a Nook,’” said McGee. “Well slowly, after they reached a point where they didn’t feel like they were going to offend their children, a lot of those people have come back. People who come in here really like to feel a book.”
Each of the four women have their own favorites and reading styles.
“We all like to escape into somebody else’s life,” said McGee. “Lynn reads too much murder,” she said, laughing at her friend.
They also have their own opinions when it comes to reading and finishing a bad book.
“I think my time’s too important to be sitting there reading something trash,” said Carmichael.
“No … what you’re thinking is my time on this earth is shorter than I thought!” said McGee, causing the circle of women to fall over in their seats laughing.
Customers are strangers who walk in one day and eventually become family. The staff remembers who comes in on certain days and what genres they like. They’ll take notice if someone doesn’t come in, simply because they care.
Puckett, who lost her son in the last year, has seen firsthand the power of friendships made through The Book Rack.
“I have never been so touched as I was by the letters that they wrote me,” said Puckett. “It was almost like being surrounded by close, close friends. That is one thing: you just become really special friends with your customers, even if I can’t remember their names when they come in!”
“We have people we see and know for years and years and years,” said McGee, who has many hilarious stories of customers who have come in.
There was a time where she and Carmichael mistakenly thought a woman had passed away after seeing her name in the paper, but then she showed up in the store one day. To the woman’s surprise, Carmichael recalls yelling, “You’re not dead!”
“What’s said in here stays in here,” said McGee with her signature smile that makes so many customers feel right at home as soon as they walk in the door.
The Book Rack is located at 15th Street and Hackberry Lane in the strip mall behind Druid City Brewing. The store is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call the store at (205) 758-5770.
