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Books Revisited, 7366-A Two Notch Road: June 2012   6 comments

Posted at 1:14 am in Uncategorized

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Books Revisited was the follow-on operation to the Two Notch location of The Book Dispensary, and occupied the same space in Tillman's Plaza near the Two Notch K-Mart. I believe they also used all the shelving, counter and other fixtures left over from The Book Dispensary so the shops looked very similar.

In the event, I only stopped by Books Revisited once. I browsed the Science Fiction section, and picked up a couple of Berserker books by Fred Saberhagen who had at the time just recently passed away. The staff was friendly, and the place was comfortable: well lighted and not cramped -- there used to be some real dives I surfed for used books in. So why didn't I go back? Well, I certainly hadn't ruled out doing so, but I think it's the old story of internet disintermediation and getting what you want vs serendipity and getting what you didn't know you wanted. As things stand now, I can probably get any paperback that pops into my head for a few cents on Amazon (though it will cost more to have it shipped..) rather than looking around town in the hopes I might find it, and I find that as I get older, I seem to have less and less time and interest in plowing through stock. It used to be that I would go to Woolworth's and check every LP in the cut-out bin, or check every book in the Science Fiction and Humor sections at The Book Dispensary or The Paperback Exchange or George's. I found a lot of treasures that way, and wouldn't take any of those hours back, but I'm just not willing to do it anymore. And I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect, unfortunately for places like this, that a lot of other people aren't either.

(Hat tip to commenter Brandi)

Written by ted on July 2nd, 2012

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6 Responses to 'Books Revisited, 7366-A Two Notch Road: June 2012'

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  1. I never visited this location, but i was a semi-frequent customer of the Book Dispensary when it was at Boozer when i was a pre-teen. Whenever i could talk one of my parents into driving me there, i spent whatever little bit of cash i had on old hardback Hardy Boys books. My the time i stopped buying them i had around 30 or so, a lot of them from the 40's and 50's if memory serves.

    And then when i was a cash strapped college student in the early 90's i sold the entire lot of them back to the Book Dispensary for seven dollars. Yup seven. Oh well.

    I tried to get my kids interested in them when they were 9 or 10, but even at that age they said the books were dull and too simplistic. My older son read the first Harry Potter book when he was around 10 or 11 so i guess rescuing good ol' Chet Morton from smugglers just could match up :)

    IrmoJeff

    3 Jul 12 at 9:10 am

  2. For me, it was Tom Swift Jr. and I mostly got them at Chapter Two or White's. I got enough mowing the lawn to buy one Tom Swift book.

    I also liked the original Tom Swift books, but I usually got them at used furniture stores. By the time I started looking at the Book Dispensary etc, they were "collectible" and too expensive.

    I liked the Hardy Boys (both the originals and the dumbed-down re-writes), but they weren't a patch on Tom Swift and Rick Brant.

    ted

    3 Jul 12 at 12:36 pm

  3. I heard it through the grapevine that a death in the family is what caused this closing. Can't say how reliable that is (basically, my grandparents heard this from neighbouring storefronts after they went by multiple times to trade in some books and found it closed). Originally, it was a temporary closing, and then the NAI Avant signs went up.

    Amanda

    19 Jul 12 at 8:03 pm

  4. NAI Avant has some photos of the frontage when it was still The Book Dispensary.

    http://www.costar.com/costarconnect/MasterPage/Main.aspx?SiteId=27625&CheckSum=1608999238

    Amanda

    19 Jul 12 at 8:09 pm

  5. Well, I'm sorry to hear that!

    ted

    19 Jul 12 at 10:28 pm

  6. As far as used books go, I most recently went to McKay Books in Chattanooga: http://www.mckaybooks.com/. It's a huge, high-volume operation. They're so fast paced they won't even attempt to do mail orders or reservations. They also handle CDs, DVDs, and video games.

    On the other hand, the most recent opportunity I had to go, I wasn't even really interested.

    Barc777

    31 Jul 12 at 11:42 am

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