Bookkeeping 3

In my post yesterday I mentioned B. Dalton Bookseller, the progenitor of Barnes and Noble. You used to find a B. Dalton at every mall in America, along with a Kay Jeweler and a Victoria’s Secret. Eventually they were absorbed into B&N because the big box concept of quantity over quality overtook the book world.

But I was disabused of the notion that B. Dalton was a suitable recipient of my literacy dollars back in the 80s after this experience:

At the time I was working in the film industry, in what is known as creative affairs—the unit where stories (“properties”) are evaluated and developed for production. One of my clients, who was also teaching a course in script development for UCLA Extension, suggested that Jules Verne’s Michael Strogoff was something I might want to pursue as a mini-series.

Well, he was right—it’s quite the swash-buckling story, vast in scope, visual, complex, great characters. And mini-series were big then, and the Soviet Union was opening up as a shooting location.

But I first had to read it.

Now, recall—this was pre-Internet. No Amazon, no ABE Books. I had no idea that the book was out of print, I just knew it wasn’t at the LA Public Library branch near me in Playa del Rey, so I went to the B. Dalton shop in Westchester.

I couldn’t find it—in fact, I couldn’t find 20,000 Leagues under the Sea or Journey to the Center of the Earth or Around the World in 80 Days. I looked in the Fiction section, in Science Fiction and in Classics. Nada.

So I went to the guy at the cash register and said I was looking for books by Jules Verne. He directed me to the woman out in the stacks as being the resource on inventory. I asked her, “Have you no Jules Verne?”

She got this puzzled look on her face and replied, “Is that a title?”

Unlike the blonde cashier at B&N earlier this month, this chick was the supposed book expert, so from that point on I never took the chain seriously.

I lucked out and found a paperback of Michael Strogoff at a used book shop in Santa Monica. It’s a great read and I recommend it heartily. You can get a free download for Kindle from Amazon, if you’re interested. It’s kind of satisfying that it’s survived and B. Dalton hasn’t.