Half Price Books Bookfield
Bookstore: Half Price Books Brookfield
Location: Brookfield, Wisconsin
Why I Love Them: While there are many Half Price Books that I have visited on my book buying excursions, the Milwaukee area used to have a Half Price trifecta. It was a triple crown winner if we're going with a metaphor that is very important with what is happening tomorrow. The three stores covered the three income brackets of the city, there were the lower, middle, and upper class stores. In the recent past it shouldn't come as a surprise that the store catering to those of a lower income closed. The middle class location remains unchanged and it's still the first Half Price location I ever went to requiring a key to use the bathroom. But the upper class store in Brookfield, which is to Milwaukee what Maple Bluff is to Madison, has just gotten better over time. Their rise to be the cream of the crop coincided with the downfall of another local chain. In 2009 Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops announced that they were closing after 82 years in business. Two of their locations were being liquidated (a sale from which I got much plunder) while one would reemerge as Boswell Book Company. The reason this is important is that the rather small and unassuming Half Price Books in Brookfield moved across the boulevard into the old Harry W. Schwartz location and their Renaissance began. They started having more books behind glass and more Folio Society editions. Harry W. Schwartz no longer had a stranglehold on the neighborhood and Half Price Books used this to soar to new heights.
Best Buy: As for my best buy... this is going to be a sad story. A story of the one that got away... Easily one of my favorite books of all time is William Goldman's The Princess Bride. From the first time I read this classic I knew I could never have enough editions of it. I have my original paperback edition, the movie tie-in edition, the standard British trade edition, the 25th Anniversary hardcover edition, the 30th Anniversary American trade edition, the audiobook read by Rob Reiner, the American trade edition with the couple dressed like Westley and Buttercup from the movie though there's totally something wrong with his mask, an old hardcover book club edition, the swanky Folio Society edition, and lastly the Easton Press special edition. But you will notice the one thing I lack, the one thing I long for: a first edition. Back in 1996 I passed on a first edition because at the time I was still convinced that the book existed in some form other than "the good parts version" by William Goldman. Yeah, I still can't fully explain why I thought this was the case, but my own ignorance let a first edition slip through my fingers. Many many years later the Half Price Books in Brookfield had a first edition. I remember it was quite pricey for it's condition, which means I'm guessing it was $250 or so. I pressed my face up against the glass and time and time again whenever I went to Milwaukee I would see if the book was still there. Finally one day I had a 40% off coupon and was determined to buy it. But I was too late. Now they go for at least double up to ten times what I thought was too pricey... But I live in hope...
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Every year when the days start to close in and the snow starts to fall I have this deep seeded urge to read Daphne Du Maurier. Bleak tales that are the modern equivalent to the Brontes just fit with long nights and ice covering the windowpane. When I was younger the movie Rebecca was one of my favorite films and my mother's copy of the book in her Franklin Mystery Library was one of the first books I pilfered for myself from among that set (which is slowly but surely making it's way to my own shelves). Because obviously once my loopy high schoolish signature was in that book it was mine. I only knew of two other books she had written, My Cousin Rachel and Jamaica Inn, which I eventually tracked down and placed on my shelf. The little purple paperback of Jamaica Inn looking more then a little woeful next to the gorgeous edition of Rebecca. I never thought there was more to her then these few volumes. I didn't even know that the movie The Birds was based on her short story till years later!
