The Peripatetic Browser-Bienville Books
hTe P eripatetic Browser-Bienville Books
James N. R. Walser 0
0 by James N. R. Walser , LTC, EN , U.S. Army
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NOTE: This is the version without the landing page URL
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The Peripatetic Browser — Bienville Books
Bienville Books, Mobile, Alabama
La half-block east of the oak-shaded square from which it takes its
ocated on boisterous Dauphin Street in downtown Mobile about
name, Bienville Books is filled with volumes that may have once
sat on the dusty shelves of moldering ante-bellum mansions. With
twoand-a-half floors of titles to browse, many of them old and out-of-print,
you can easily lose yourself for an hour or two. The first floor is clearly
geared for the more casual browser. Here most of the modern thrillers
and pot-boilers are displayed with a liberal mix of current high-brow
literature. There is also an extensive collection of local and regional
history and literature as well as a classics section where I noticed a nice
if slightly worn Scribner’s edition of The Arabian Nights with
illustrations by Maxfield Parrish. A loosely curtained room
in the back, for employees only, offers a tantalizing view of
numerous items that have not been shelved.
Look in the glass case just before you head up the stairs
at the back of the store and you can see a signed first
edition of Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird and
a signed edition of Gone with the Wind. There are
also some first editions of works by Hemingway
and Faulkner and, out of place amid the
Americana, a small first edition of H.G. Well’s The
Time Machine. Climb the narrow wooden stairs
and you’ll find a low-lighted room, containing an
eclectic hodge-podge of popular and rare titles
Against the Grain / November 2013
from the past 70 years, with such wide-ranging authors as Jean M. Auel
to E. Phillips Oppenheim. The spacious and well-lighted, full second
floor contains a range of subjects from biography to science fiction. I
was especially intrigued by a Ralph Steadman print hanging in the
humor section. When I asked the sales clerk about it, she informed me
that it had been salvaged from a volume of Hunter S. Thompson’s The
Curse of Lono that had been water-damaged in a hurricane. Welcome
to book-collecting on the Gulf Coast!
Overall, I found the prices a bit high, particularly for the newer titles,
although with the dearth of used bookstores in Mobile they will easily
beat Barnes and Noble. Or you may stumble across some rare volume
for which you have been searching. For myself, I walked out with a
hardbound volume containing five novels starring John D. McDonald’s
best detective, Travis McGee. Perfect for relaxed summer reading in
the Mobile heat!
If you happen to be in Mobile for a Sunday afternoon,
take one of your purchases down Dauphin Street to Café
615 ( http://www.cafe615mobile.com/) and lazily turn
the pages as you relax in the shaded courtyard with
a brunch of eggs mauvila and a bloody mary or
mimosa. There’s always live music but if you are
especially lucky you will be treated to the soulful
southern sounds of Lee Yankie, the best rhythm and
blues guitarist in Mobile and possibly in the entire
southeast. Or if you can’t make it to Mobile, check
out his original album on iTunes, Lee Yankie, The
Leavin’ Sound.
and always provide (...truncated)