Seven years ago, when I started working at my present location, I was pleased to discover that there was a very large used bookstore less than a block away from the courthouse I do most of my work in. I read at least a dozen books a year, probably closer to two dozen. So a couple days after I started my job, I made it a point of stopping in.

It was one of those mom and pop places, with books stacked in piles and in boxes and even in stacks on chairs, and with mismatching bookshelves. A place where it was hard to figure out where things are, because they are just sort of everywhere. It had that distinct old paper, dried glue smell about it. It wasn't dirty mind you, in fact the books were so pristine and some of them were so old that I was afraid to touch them.

Well, this was an exploratory visit on my part. There was nothing I was planning on buying. I just wanted to see what they had to sell. And it looked like they had a nice collection, but in the ten or so minutes I had during lunch time, nothing caught my eye. So I was in there long enough to get a rough idea of where things were, thinking that when I had more time I would be back.

However, behind the at the front of the store was this old dude who was talking with a friend. It was seven years ago, and I don't remember exactly what he was talking about, or whether he was talking to a person in the room or to a person on the phone. I do remember that as I passed him on the way out, he was telling this friend that he did more than 90% of his business online. Then he very rudely pointed at me and said, "Most of people who come in here just walk in and walk out. Like that guy right there. They just wander in, move a few books on the shelves, and then wander right back out." "Go ahead. Go ahead. Go on and leave", he said directly to me.

And I thought to myself, "There are half a dozen used book stores around here that aren't owned by a jerk. I can take my couple hundred dollars worth of business a year elsewhere."

I didn't return until yesterday. In the attorney room at court someone mentioned that this bookseller was closing his shop and was having a sale. I told the other lawyers my story, and everybody had a similar variant. In the evening the woman I dated did too. She remembered him following her out of the book store to yell something at her.

This guy just has the reputation in the community of being a rude S.O.B. He confronts people. Yells at them for not buying anything. Makes comments about their clothing. A lawyer who has represented him in the past was in the court yesterday, and he said that if you hang around him long enough you understand that he is all bark and no bite.

It turns out though that he is closing the place because a huge stack of magazines was causing the floor to sag, and his landlord is raising his rent 60%. The bookseller decided to go totally online.

So for the first time in seven years, I went in yesterday and bought 10 books for five dollars. He had some nice stuff, like the old Elric of Melnibone series from the 70s in great condition. I also picked up some Joyce Carol Oates novels, a Norman Mailer book I'd started and never finished from my teens, and a book by the guy who wrote "Watership Down"

I didn't even have to put up with the old coot. His wife was there instead running things that day.