Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990                   TAG: 9005220443
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Madelyn Rosenberg
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

PLENTY TO BORROW, FEW TO BUY

This county is dry.

Rose's sells a few of the latest best-sellers in its book stand. So does Kroger. And People's Drug. The town of Pulaski boasts a Christian bookstore. But there's not an ordinary, retail bookstore to be found in this 318.22 square-mile county.

There's a bowling alley, a movie theater, a swimming pool and a race track.

There are 95 churches, six tennis courts, 13 parks, five banks and 153 firefighters.

But if you're looking for a B. Dalton's or Waldenbooks or Printer's Ink, look someplace else.

You can borrow books here - the library just opened its second branch, and a bookmobile travels into the far reaches of the county. But you can't buy much more than the latest in pulp paperbacks.

"A lot of people here do buy books," said Melinda Zalecki, director of the county libraries. "They go to the New River Valley Mall or they get books from the Book-of-the-Month clubs."

Zalecki said about 16,000 of the county's 36,306 residents have library cards.

Recently, as the county has increased its push for residents to improve their education, more people seem to be using the libraries, she said.

Some 53 percent of county residents over 25 do not have high school diplomas or their equivalent, according to the 1980 census.

Zalecki said recent layoffs also could be contributing to the number of people using the library. "When people are out of work, they use the library more often," she said.

Cost is another factor that could be pushing people to the library - and keeping them away from bookstores.

"Right now, books are getting so expensive," Zalecki said. "Hardbacks are over $21 and that's a lot of money for something you're going to read once and then plunk down someplace."

Still, she said she'd like to see a bookstore in the county.

So would some other folks.

Zalecki said a few people each year come into the library and ask if the county has a bookstore.

"They express disappointment when they find out there isn't one," she said.

A few are surprised.

"Those are usually the people who have just recently located in the area," Zalecki said. "We just say `We don't have one' and tell them where the nearest store is."

Kip Gleason, senior assistant manager at Rose's in Pulaski, said most people don't think of his store as a bookstore. But there are a few regulars who go in to peruse the 1,000 or so books in stock there.

"We have mostly the best-sellers, a few children's books and some general things like cookbooks and dictionaries," he said. "If they're regular readers, I guess they go to the mall in Christiansburg. I know a lot of regular readers, including myself, who go there." Nancy Bowman, executive director of the chamber of commerce, said books can be found in Pulaski County - if you know where to look.

The bookstore at New River Community College, for instance, carries some technical reading material and a resume book here and there.

"Most of our books are textbooks that are ordered for classes," said bookstore manager Rick Harrison, "As far as novels . . . we're not set up like that."

A few people from around the county wander in on occasion for a book on the electrical code, he said. But "I'd say at least 95 percent of our customers are students. Maybe 98."

Bowman said several people in the community have considered opening retail bookstores in the county over the years, but the ideas faded.

"It takes a lot more than just you and I to make a book stand survive," she said.