The Capital Times from Madison, Wisconsin • 9

i hi -inni iniiwii Mini tm iiiwifi ii MwnwMwiHiiMi i iimi itj im Bgrfrii ii rt i i rmiwri'i mn irf-ftfririr-rTaT-arTJM Let me search for that Outof-Print Book you have been unable to find MADISON, Jan. 28, 1978 9 (Staff photos by Hank Koshollek) Carl Boedecker proprietor of Books, Then and Now, is Madison's book searcher. Where to indulge your MMiophilia 1 i i.i i I I I I 4 4 1 read! he says. Theres a romance to used books, but a lot of it is that the true collectors and lovers of books cant afford to browse in a new book shop. Used hardback books now often cost a lot less than new or slightly used paperback books, he said, because the prices of paperbacks have gone so high.

When a book dealer buys books to resell, it's often a matter of gambling on whether anything saleable will be included. Medler gets many of his books from rummage and chanty sales, but doesn't recommend that method for the casual used book store browser. easy for the staff to spot just by looking around the store to see which sections are empty and which ones need more space. Dance books are very popular and it's difficult to fmd any in the store. On the other hand, the womens section has grown tremendously in the past several years and takes up more shelves than the two it once did.

Just down the street, at 462 State is Medlers Book Exchange. Medlers, as the name implies, began as an exchange. Now, the store has become more of a standard book dealer's store, although some book searching is done. There is an almost maze-like arrangement of book shelves, filled floor to ceiling with old treasures. Upstairs, in an old apartment that will eventually be an addition to the store, are more books, most a little rarer than those found on the shelves downstairs.

They are sitting on shelves, tables, and chairs. Surrounded by these books is Marcus Medler, owner of the store. "I spent years in college eight years, he says. I never finished. So my sister suggested I get into books.

Hes been into books for 2, first in a store on Johnson and now in the store on State St. It's like I looked under a rock and, my God, I found ail these people who ers get books without ever using money. The customers receive credit for books they bring in amounting to about one half of the cost of the books they want to buy. In other words, for every SO books a customer brings in, he could walk out with 25. Sue Banovez, who works at the store, started out as a customer.

She collects science fiction books, and has about 2,000 of them. She and the Lindsays are book lovers, which makes the job enjoyable for them. I read just about all the time, says Marty Lindsay. Pauls Book Store, at S7I State is by far the largest and oldest used book store in Madison. Thousands of books fill the shelves.

The store, which has been in operation since 1954, has been run by Caryl Askins, since her husband, Paul, died in 1975. Its a quiet store a good place for browsers. The only sounds to be heard are classical music and turning pages. Many of the stores customers come in regularly, browsing, and hoping to find books to fill holes in their collections. The large student and faculty population gives the store much of its business, although the store doesn't always carry University of Wisconsin textbooks.

Current trends in book reading are I GUARDS KILLED; HAS 1 THE CAPITAL TIMES i i 4 4 tt 1 i i 1 fkj Rare books are found very seldom, he says. Many have pedigrees and they are often already in collections. The bread and butter of the book trade is the turnover of books, he says. It's a hard business to develop. You have to have a good memory.

His biggest competition comes from libraries, not from other book stores. Books are such common commodities, but there are huge dispanties in peoples way of looking at them. I dream of being buned and smothered in books theyre that common. But," he says, we do have this reverence for words and literature. We don't throw books away.

ID EE SvVOEN IS II 1 Ju Book and newspapers fill the shelves at Books, Then and Now. Secretaries to battle the games bosses play Women in groups across the country are bolstered by each others expenences and by the fact they are not alone. One of the most effective is Bostons 5-year-old 9 to 5" 500 women turned into Ralph Naders their zeal to upgrade office workers jobs. (Continued on page 10) By PAT TOBIAS CM The Capital Timet Staff Are you getting sick and tired of paying outrageously high prices for paperback books? Or maybe the girl next door collects books about monoliths and you can't fmd anything about them in the bookstore down the street. Where do you go to get her a nifty birthday present? Used bookstores, of course.

In Madison, the five used bookstores are the hangout of everyone from retired university professors to truckdrivers. And all the stores have different personalities and cater to different book interests. Lets start with the mostspecializ-' ed: Capital City Comics, at 1916 Monroe St. Owned and run by Bruce Ayers, Capital City Comics has been in business about 2 years. Ayers was co-owner of an antique store called The Buffalo Shop before he started his present store.

He and his partner went their separate ways when Ayers wanted to become more involved in what he calls the popular culture. His store is filled with the popular culture of comic books. The stock is comics from the beginning to the present all carefully shelved alphabetically and numerically. A renaissance in comic books developed in the 1960s and many of Ayers customers began collecting them then, lie says his customers range in age from 14 to 30. Originally, comic book pages were almost as symmetncal as comic strips, with from nine to 12 panels a page, but during that renaissance in the 60s, new types of layout and page design were used for the first time.

readers. They know what theyre looking for and go right to the section. Boedecker will search for books his customers want through a network of book dealers across the country. He says that the best area of the country to find used books is in the Northeast, probably because its an older part of the country and so older books would be there. Boedecker doesnt do much advertising, but his customers stick with him.

He has several customers who have continued to use his book searching services even after theyve left Madison. His reward comes when he finds a book that someone has been looking for for a long time. I just sold a book on court dishes of China to a lady whod been searching for it for years, says Carl Boedecker. Marty Lindsay and her husband Terry run Madisons book exchange, Aardvark Books, at 1756 E. Johnson St.

They ran then- first book store four years ago in Atlanta, Ga and opened Aardvark Books when they moved just over a year ago. "We specialize more in paperbacks," she says. Mysteries, novels, and romance. We have more in the way of light reading than the other stores. Both of the Lindsays work at the store, which is the only used bookstore in town open seven days a week.

They are proud of the fact that all 22,000 books in their store are Alphabetized and categpnzed. I dont think any of the other stores can say that, Marty Lindsay says. It does keep us busy, though." At Aardvark Books, many custom- A comic book collection can be a senes, or "run of comics, or just individual favontes. Unlike book collecting, where buying a whole senes is valuable, a comic book senes has no more value than the sum of its individual parts, because collectors dont really want or need duplicates. When Ayers buys a comic book to resell, he looks it up in the Blue Book of Comics, the annual Comic Book Pnce Guide.

Although there are some expensive comic books (like the Marvel Mystery No. 1, which sells for most prices are reasonable and are determmed by the demand for any particular issue. There are three types of used bookstores, excluding the speciality stores like Capital City Comics: the book searching service, the exchange, and the traditonal used bookstore. Madison's book searcher is Carl Boedecker, propnetor of Books, Then and Now, 2135 University Ave. His is a small store, but most of his business comes from searching out books for people, not from selling books off the shelves.

For 23 years I Was in the printing business," Boedecker says, "and now I'm doing what I want to do." Boedecker bought the store a year ago from a California musician who wanted to make a living playing supper clubs here and keep the bookstore on the side. He couldn't get enough work as a musician in Madison to support himself, so he went back to California and sold his store. "I'd been wanting to buy a bookstore for a long time, Boedecker says. "I saw it for sale and bought it. "Most of my customers are serious MYRA MacPHERSON Washington Post News Service WASHINGTON In Boston, last years winner of the Petty Office Procedure contest was a secretary who was required to sew a rip in her bosss pants while he was wearing them.

Runner-up was a secretary who had to dress up as a bumble bee her companys symbol and hand out advertising literature on street comers. All across the country here are other bosses with equally winning ways an executive who made his secretary take before and "after pictures when he shaved off his moustache, another who asked his secretary to put mayonnaise on his plants because he had heard that made them grow better, another who fired his office worker when she refused to return to a cafeteria in the pouring ram to exchange a corned beef sandwich on white for one on rye. Another demanded that his secretary keep him supplied with carrots while he dieted. Rebelling against such unfair work conditions and practices many of which are written into job descriptions 3,000 women office workers have formed organizations in more than a dozen American cities, including Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Dayton, New York, San Francisco and Detroit. Most examples of Inequities involve male bosses and female office workers which, in general, reflects Americas corporate make-up.

Organization members estimate 90 percent of U.S. office workers are female..