About a year ago, a writer for one of the town\u2019s less-than-everyday papers infamously reported with regret that the Reading Room bookstore at Mandalay Place inside the Mandalay Bay was closing, leaving Las Vegas without any independent booksellers. <\/p>\n
Las Vegas was not and still is not without independent booksellers, needless to say, and I\u2019m not merely talking about the Philadelphia based (and markedly upscale) Bauman\u2019s Rare Books, which moved into Sheldon Adelson\u2019s Palazzo last year. <\/p>\n
Check out www.usedbookslasvegas.com\/Open_Shops.html. <\/p>\n
Academy Fine Books, for starters, at 2026 E. Charleston, has always been worth a browse. The shop has not yet reopened following a fire, but promises to do so within a month, \u201cwith lots of new stock.\u201d <\/p>\n
Those who live so far south that they think the planes at McCarran land right to left may want to check out Ann DeVere\u2019s Plaza Books, 7380 S. Eastern Ave. at Warm Springs. <\/p>\n
But the new center of gravity for local seekers of quality pre-owned books now sits between Myrna and Lou Donato\u2019s re-opened Amber Unicorn, in the Trader Joe\u2019s plaza at Decatur and O\u2019Bannon, and Greyhound\u2019s Books, within walking distance of the Unicorn next to Shepler\u2019s Western Wear (still good for pants, though the shirts have gone terribly bland) on the other side of Decatur, still north of Sahara. <\/p>\n
The only problem with Greyhound\u2019s is their somewhat limited hours, which seem to run about noon to 4:30. But Phil and Barbara (along with Myrna and Lou, across the street) can actually talk books, as opposed to the average clerk at one of the big new-book chains, these days. <\/p>\n
(I spent half an hour looking for Harry Potter hardcovers at Barnes & Noble, some time back. Hidden in the little children\u2019s \u201ccastle\u201d at the back, they finally told me. Crawling through the cardboard gate on my hands and knees, I expected to get profiled as a potential child molester. Then there was my search for Umberto Eco\u2019s latest novel, at Borders across the street. Who, they ask? Guy who wrote \u201cThe Name of the Rose,\u201d says I. Ah, so his latest novel is called \u201cThe Name of the Rose\u201d? asks the young person with the stapled face. Things did not improve from there.) <\/p>\n
Ask Phil about C.S. Forester\u2019s Hornblower series, or Patrick O\u2019Brian\u2019s Jack Aubrey adventures, and you\u2019ll soon be tested on your knowledge of Dudley Pope\u2019s Ramage efforts (rather pale), in a conversation that\u2019s likely to veer to Bernard Cornwell\u2019s \u201cRichard Sharpe\u201d tales, and from there to the cavalry novels of Allan Mallinson. <\/p>\n
Phil has been known to pen 600-word essays, in an occasional series he calls \u201cBooks of Worth & Their Values.\u201d I asked him for his recommendations for fiction on the Vietnamese War. (Why do we call it \u201cThe Vietnam War\u201d? \u201cVietnam\u201d is a noun. Do we call it \u201cThe Mexico War\u201d?) Phil sojourned to the local Xerox machine and offered: <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Vietnam War was the most protested war in our history, not because it was the worst war we ever engaged in, but because of the greater numbers of easily-influenced young people of college age, a direct result of post-World War II procreation. All wars have been heavily documented by historians of varying degrees of credibility and many have inspired excellent fictional memoirs: Crane\u2019s \u2018Red Badge of Courage\u2019; Remarque\u2019s \u2018All Quiet on the Western Front\u2019; Kirst\u2019s Gunner Asch series, et cetera. <\/p>\n
\u201cVietnam also had its fiction, some of which is highly collectible,\u201d Phil continues. <\/p>\n
\u201cJames Webb, an Annapolis graduate and Marine officer with Delta Company, 1st Battalion, Fifth Marines in Vietnam, and currently United States Senator from Virginia, wrote \u2018Fields of Fire,\u2019 a powerful novel of a platoon of tough, young Marines fighting in Southeast Asia during that war. <\/p>\n
\u201cRichard Hooker heightened our awareness of the non-combat use of helicopters in war with his \u2018M.A.S.H.\u2019 series, but Lane Heath, in CW2, showed us the helicopter at war. Heath served two tours in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. Stephen Wright\u2019s \u2018Meditations in Green, … the chronicle of the corruption and decay of Spec 4 James Griffin under the pressures of an unreal war,\u2019 is yet another first book, as are Webb\u2019s and Heath\u2019s. <\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Halberstam wrote a non-fiction book on Vietnam, \u2018The Making of a Quagmire,\u2019 in 1965. His fictional \u2018One Very Hot Day\u2019 was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, and published in book form in 1967. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese books are heavily collected and quite scarce in collectible condition. Signed or inscribed copies command a considerable premium, perhaps as a result of the reclusiveness of the authors, or the emotions involved in writing such books. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you\u2019re a Hawk, a Dove, or a Mugwump, these books are all worth a read. <\/p>\n
— James Webb, \u2018Fields of Fire.\u2019 Prentice Hall, 1978. A fine condition book in a fine condition dust jacket: $125 to $150. <\/p>\n
— Lane Heath, \u2018CW2,\u2019 William Morrow, 1990. A fine condition book in a fine condition dust jacket: $20 to $50. <\/p>\n
— Stephen Wright, \u2018Meditations in Green,\u2019 Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, 1983. A fine condition book in a fine condition dust jacket: $30 to $50. <\/p>\n
— David Halberstam, \u2018One Very Hot Day,\u2019 Houghton Mifflin, 1968. A fine condition book in a fine condition dust jacket: $75 and up.\u201d <\/p>\n
Phil cites prevailing retail prices, mind you — if you seek spending money, a bookseller is likely to pay you 15 to 30 percent of what they hope to sell for — and Phil\u2019s \u201cfine\u201d means \u201cfine,\u201d not \u201cI already patched this up with gaffer\u2019s tape and wiped off most of the peanut butter and jelly.\u201d <\/p>\n
These prices would also appear to apply to first printings. Later printings — especially book-club editions — will be worth less. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019re going to set aside some first editions in hopes they appreciate, consider learning how to protect the dust jackets with Brodart covers. <\/p>\n
My main quibbles with Phil\u2019s abbreviated recommendations are that he omits Phil Caputo\u2019s \u201cRumor of War,\u201d $20 to $40, and Tim O\u2019Brien\u2019s \u201cIf I Die in a Combat Zone,\u201d of which the true American first from Delacorte can run thousands of dollars. <\/p>\n
Also note that David Halberstam\u2019s non-fiction is omitted above not for lack of value, but simply because it\u2019s not fiction. A true first of \u201cThe Making of a Quagmire\u201d can run over $100; \u201cThe Best and the Brightest\u201d closer to $200. <\/p>\n
Lots of interesting used books show up in this town, books signed by local authors, even books signed by local authors to other celebrities past and present. Las Vegas has a reputation as a town with no interest in books, and I\u2019ll admit the failure of the UNLV campus to offer such a focus (when compared to Boulder, say, or Cambridge or Berkeley or even Chapel Hill) does hurt. <\/p>\n
The fine Nathan Adelson Hospice people, for instance, doubtless footed a hefty rent to place their thrift shop — with book room in the loft — on high-traffic Maryland Parkway right across from the UNLV student union. The first time we visited we found a few valuable first editions, including an Edward Abbey, that appeared to have been sitting there, overlooked, for some time. <\/p>\n
But the college kids — and faculty, presumably — stayed away in droves, and the place closed last summer. <\/p>\n
I\u2019d be interested in hear if readers would like to read more on bookish topics. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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