Every two years or so Brandy and I visit her hometown Tulsa. Since the trip centers around her old friends and family, Brandy appeases me with a visit to Gardner’s.
A cross-pollination of a Mexican restaurant, coffee shop, a tax accounting business, and a bookstore, the large shop inhabits all of what once must have been a strip mall. In my five stops during the previous ten years, the coffee shop has never been open, I’ve never eaten in the restaurant, and I’ve never availed myself of their tax services, but I have bought countless books.
The bookstore, which takes up most of the space, sells mostly used books with a smattering of comics, dvds, and cds thrown in. Oddly, they promote themselves as comic shop as well. The meager graphic novel selections, three spinner racks of new comics, handful of superhero toys, and the mediocre sampling of used comics makes it one of the worst comic book specialty shops ever.
My first two Gardner’s trips spoiled me. All books were half cover and if there was a minimum, it was so low to not be of consequence. On my third visit, some of the books were priced as collectibles (ie not half price and often far more than the original cover price), but the minimum remained low. For my most recent visit, a $2.95 minimum was instituted, but with far fewer collectibles. Also, for an unfathomable reason, the gave me a 20% discount on my purchases.
Even with the high minimum, Gardner’s remains a must see whenever I get to Tulsa. They have a large and varied book collection. Every time I go, it seems I focus on a different subject. This time I found nothing but crime fiction.
The fine selection included Victor Gischler‘s first three crime novels: Gun Monkeys, The Pistol Poets, and Suicide Squeeze. Between my enjoyment of Go-Go Girls of Apocalypse and the Stark-like opening line of Gun Monkeys (“I turned the Chrysler onto the Florida Turnpike with Rollo Kramer’s headless body in the trunk, and all the time I’m thinking I should’ve put some plastic down.”) lead me to buying them all.
In a similar vein, I picked up the Hard Case Crime reprint of the prolific Robert Terrall‘s long out of print thriller Kill Now, Pay Later. As a fan of hard-boiled crime fiction, the Hard Case line is required reading and finding one I don’t have is always a thrill.
Responsible for one of the better books from Hard Case Crime (A Touch of Death), the extraordinary Charles Williams remains one of the most respected and best practitioners of hard edged fiction. So as you can guess, acquiring a new-to-me Charles Williams makes for a great day at the bookstore. I got the Perennial Library edition of The Wrong Venus. The back cover copy ends with “Together they create a story of romance, larceny, and very blunt romance.” What’s not to like?
Crime fiction in a completely different vein, the 1966 Signet edition of P. G. Wodehouse‘s Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves was picked up for Brandy, who is very curious about the series (mostly thanks to her brother’s fascination). Interestingly, the back cover advertises “FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PAPERBACK THE LAST JAMES BOND NOVEL—IAN FLEMING’S THE MAN WITH GOLDEN GUN.”
Throughout the forties, Dell published some 500 paperbacks with maps on the back covers. Known as mapbacks, the series covered a wide range of genres but is perhaps best-remembered for their mysteries. I picked up a beautiful copy of Too Many Bones by Ruth Sawtell Wallis (Dell 123). It is very unusual to find mapbacks in this excellent condition.
My final four books were titles that I pick up fairly frequently: John Dunning‘s Booked To Die, Carl Hiaasen‘s Double Whammy, Patrick Süskind‘s Perfume, and Joe R. Lansdale‘s Cold in July. I purchased all four with the intent of giving them to others. The Hiaassen and Lansdale stayed in Tulsa with my father-in-law and Süskind with a friend. I’m sure the Dunning will find a home soon.