Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 26, 1990 TAG: 9003262044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
But Henry's Book Nook has finally found a place in Wytheville, where the couple lives.
Until now, Goodman had done his book swapping and selling entirely in Marion and Abingdon. He still drives to Abingdon each Friday, Saturday and Sunday to the Banner Star Flea Market - except when it closes in winter. At the flea market, he has a space in which he is surrounded by boxes and bookcases of books and magazines - about 30,000 of them.
He opened his Book Nook on Main Street in Marion in late 1988, but closed it March 3 so he could move to a space that had opened up in Wytheville. "This is a lot handier for us," he said.
His wares, mostly used paperbacks selling at discount prices, but a variety of hardbacks as well, are alphabetized by author and separated by category - Westerns, romances, mysteries, science fiction and "scary stuff," among others.
Normally a laid-back personality - his business card features a sketch of a barefoot hillbilly with a gun and jug but reading a book, of course - Goodman will get excited and his words come faster when he talks about his favorite subject.
His old sales desk, the same one he used at Marion, has a drawer full of letters from other book enthusiasts, although some of their book interests are more limited than his. Goodman likes practically anything in book form, from a novel to a thesaurus.
One letter he has kept is from Nesta F. Sparks of Vinton, who saw, in a photo of Goodman that ran in a newspaper feature about a year ago, a Zane Grey book on the shelf behind him titled "Arizona Ames." Since she had been named for a character in that book, it was one she had been seeking for a long time, and Goodman was happy to provide it for her.
Goodman has been a book lover practically all his life, to the point where the number of volumes he had acquired over the years almost overflowed his home. That was when he sold his cable TV business in Bland County and began dealing in books.
The Book Nook operates Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., at 360 S. FourthSt. in a building previously occupied by a Goodwill Store outlet.
Goodman built wall-to-wall bookcases, which were rapidly filling up as he and his staff moved in this month. "There's over 100 boxes in back yet," he said.
Would he stop unpacking when the bookshelves were full?
"No, I'll just stack 'em higher," he said.
by CNB