Bibliomania

My educational background is in Business Management, and I work as a Business Analyst for a major publicly traded technology company. I have studied entrepreneurship and worked in many retail settings (Yes, I've paid my dues), and I must say this store owner's disturbing lack of basic customer service and insulting, control-freak behavior were far from what one would call "textbook" business practices.\r \r While exploring downtown Oakland, my husband and I came across this small, locally owned book store, Bibliomania, and were compelled (as I'm sure many passersby have been) to go inside and admire the impressive vintage book collection. One would assume the inherent purpose of a book store is to sell books to interested customers, but to our surprise (and confusion) our mere presence seemed to provoke an air of anxious suspicion and passive aggressiveness from the female owner. \r \r As first time customers to the store, we were of course fascinated by the wide selection of interestin more

For all you book collectors, this is your hidden jewel. It's a very understated shop. But like all used book stores, this one is filled ceiling to floor. The organization is pretty straight forward. I looked mainly in the architectural section and found a good deal of po-mo books. You won't find too much glossy new-but-used stuff, but it's still definitely worth a check. Price wise...I can't really say because architectural books are pretty expensive in general. Is it a better deal than online giants like Amazon? Yeah...considering you won't find a lot of these out-of-print pieces. My only real gripe about this place is the lack of seating..but hey..they're a local retailer..not a Borders. more