A gold medal bookstore in that other Vancouver
Vancouver, B.C., is currently dealing with a most welcome outbreak of Olympic fever.
Shaun White pulled off a Double McTwist 1260, which includes two board-over-head flips within 3 1/2 turns, and somebody from the Olympic Committee quite rightly found his neck under that rag-mop of hair and adorned it with a gold medal.
But hey, Mr. White, snowboard yourself 305 miles south of Vancouver, B.C. to Vancouver, Washington, and try pulling off this complicated maneuver: keep an independent bookstore thriving for 35 years. In these days when profitably running an independent bookstore is as dangerous as a luge, Vintage Books has managed to find the quirky combination to keep itself going
Somebody needs to pull a podium up to the corner of East Mill Plain & Andresen and play "O, Bookstore" to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Vintage Books.
What began in 1975 as a home business by Becky Minor has become 6,000 sq. ft. behemoth brimming with 500,000 titles. Security and hospitality are aided by two cats, Henry and Dickens.
One of the more popular areas of the store might be called "automobile ephemera," for if you just happen to own, say, a 1972 Datsun, you can buy a manual for it as low as $12.00 USD. And if its a 1953 Willy-Overland you need to be touching up, you'll find a book of paint chips you can take to your local Sherwin-Williams.
There is small, but respectable Rare & Collectible section. (An autographed copy of Milton Berle's biography, anyone?)
If you buy online and use the coupon code GOLDBOND, 10% of your purchase with be sent South o' the Washington Border to the Gold Bond Golden Retriever Rescue service in Oregon.
