The
owner of the new Bank of Books, Malibu, has learned to customize and to cater
to his clients in novel ways. That includes a rare book section, with a King
James Bible offered for $48,500.
Clarey Rudd, owner of the new Bank
of Books, Malibu, holds an 1877 copy of "Faust: A Tragedy," on sale
for $6,850. For a brick-and-mortar bookstore to survive today, the basics are
not enough. So Rudd has learned to customize, and to cater to his clients. (Jay
L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times / December 18, 2012)
|
By Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times
December 26, 2012
The children's section offers the
standard selection of Hardy Boys. Across the store, a shelf marked
"Classics" carries more of the usual fare, including a range of work
by Charles Dickens.
But for a brick-and-mortar bookstore
to survive today, the basics are not enough.
So Clarey Rudd, owner of the new
Bank of Books, Malibu, has learned to customize, and to cater to his clients in
novel ways.
On display near the front of his
store is "50 Years of James Bond." Inside are pictures of Pierce Brosnan, one of many celebrities who stop in from time to time.
Nearby, "Swell: A Year of Waves" is surrounded by books and magazines
that cater to the surfer crowd. Sometimes roaming residents flip through the
pages of those books, and find themselves — or their parents — pictured inside.
But the glass cases along one wall
attract the most attention, especially from Malibu's well-heeled
book-collecting crowd. Inside the case, rare books with pewter covers, so old
they look like stage props, await. A rare Shakespeare edition accompanies signed
first editions of the Harry Potter series.
The granddaddy of them all, a 1613 King James Bible, rests below the Potter
books. Its pages are battered and brown. Its price: $48,500.
It's all part of a community
marketing strategy that Rudd has perfected through more than 50 years of
bookselling.
Rudd's book empire is growing as
bookshops elsewhere are closing.
The store opened in July. It is
Rudd's third, and his first in Los Angeles County. Attached to a coffee shop
and tucked inside a shopping plaza, the store fills a need, customers say.
"Malibu desperately needs a
place where people can get together and a place that offers an alternative to
some of the other limited social things you can do in the evening," said
Anita Poirier as she paid for children's books featuring fairies.
"I prefer not to buy my printed
literature on websites," she added. "I prefer the tactile experience,
and a lot of my neighbors and friends feel the same way."
Poirier visits the store often, and
came recently to see a friend give a reading. In addition to the tailored book
selection, the store holds monthly poetry nights and music nights. The poetry
nights are booked through February, according to the staff.
Behind it all is Rudd, a 60-year-old
Oxnard resident who comes from a family of booksellers. He and his family
started selling books online in the mid-1990s and had opened their first store
of this type in Ventura County by 1998. A year later they opened another. Then
they moved the stores to larger locations. Eventually they ended up with an
inventory of more than 2 million books and two warehouses. The company ships more
than 100 books a day.
To keep it all straight, Rudd works
more than 80 hours a week. And since August, he's been running his business
without a voice: He had surgery in August to remove a tumor from a rare form of
cancer. The tumor had grown so large, air was passing through a wire-thin
passage in his trachea, he said. To remove the tumor, surgeons also had to
remove Rudd's larynx, leaving a hole in his neck that he covers with a patch.
"He's got a passion for books
and a passion for matching people with the books they need. He's always
thinking about that," said Ann Lambert Vannoy, manager of the Malibu
store. "I've never heard him complain. He's always just happy to be
here."
Rudd said he has other "big
plans" for the Malibu store. He also wants to open an outlet bookstore in
Oxnard.
He insists that bookstores can — and
must — succeed. To communicate, he scribbles on a white pad of paper
with a pen, then tears off the sheet and hands it over.
"Literature, as you know, helps
people with their problems," it says. "They escape with novels. They
learn about life, the world."
He scribbles again.
"I can't answer the phone. But
I love helping people."
