Browsing Books in Boise

I’m over due for a posting here!  But my bird hunting passion (wild turkeys in this case) has been highly indulged over the last 6 weeks and it is now time to get back to book hunting.  But what a superb time spent sitting quietly in the woods at dawn for so many mornings.  Even when there are no encounters with the wily turkey, one gets to see so much of nature by sitting stock still for extended period and just watching.  A bit of a spiritual renewal for me over that time and some reconnecting with good friends!

In March, before I started my extended run at chasing the turkeys, I was up in Boise for a few days for a Board Meeting and North American Rendezvous gathering for the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a group for whom I serve on the national Board of Directors.  I went up early so that I might check out the area used booksellers and it was a proved a good plan!

My first day of looking I hit two great stores in the old town of Nampa, a community about 20 miles or so west of Boise.  Pearson’s Twice Sold Tales and the Yesteryear Shoppe are located on the same block, just a couple of stores apart in Nampa’s old town section.  A colorful area full of character, this old town section had many interesting shops aside from these two but being a man on a mission, I held firm to my purpose and saved all those other non-book stores for another day.

Pearson’s Twice Sold tales is a very well organized and well stocked used book seller.  They had an excellent selection of natural history books, including several in my library now, but did not have any that were on my radar, or any that were not but that I discovered and could not live without!  But since they buy actively, it is a store to check back into the next time I am in the vicinity.  

 Pearson's Twice Sold Tales with my trusty road warrior Prius in front!

 The Yesteryear Shoppe was a wonderful old musty store with ton of books in every nook and cranny.  The shelves had lots of books, there were boxes of books on the aisles that were waiting to be placed on shelves and in some places just piles of books in bins that were not yet organized or shelved.  

They have an excellent rare book section and have many well know classics among the cases.  They had a voluminous natural history/nature section and while perusing through them, I found one of those books I was not looking for but knew I had to added to my collection.  Funny how that seems to happen often!  It was a mint copy with an outstanding dust jacket in mylar of James B. Trefethen’s An American Crusade for Wildlife.  In this book of wildlife restoration history, he covers the decline of many iconic American species like the bison, the beaver, large carnivores and many other species and the long road of awakening to conservation and their recovery to healthy sustainable populations.  I had, from time to time, previously seen this book in my wanderings but never in anywhere near this fine of condition.  So home it went!

Over the next couple of days, I worked around meetings and events and managed to make it to two stores in Boise.  The first was Rainbow Books, a smaller store that had largely paperback books but still a fair collection of hardbound.  They did have a small nature/outdoors section and while searching through the books, I came upon a most serendipitous find!  A copy of a book I did not even know existed, 

Backtracking By Foot, Canoe, and Subaru Along the Lewis and Clark Trail.  What made this of note for me personally is that it was written my friend and the Co-Chair of Board of Directors for the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Ben Long.  Knowing I would be sitting at the table with the author the next morning, I jumped on it!  Of course when I saw Ben the next morning,  I had to make a joke about finding it in some box at a garage sale before I let on that I had really found it at a legitimate used bookseller!  A fine inscription on the frontispiece by my buddy Ben and this one too was ready to come home to the shelves at Casa Jay.

Unbeknownst to me, the store I had unwittingly saved for last in my visit to area used booksellers turn out to be one of those “once in a while” gold mines!  Located in downtown Boise, Trip Taylor Bookseller was tucked away among several high rise motels and office centers.  But once inside and going through the stacks in the natural history section I found the score of a book that I have been looking to collect for several years!  Spying the copy of Marybeth Lorbiecki’s A Fierce Green Fire, I pulled it off the shelf and said, apparently a bit vociferously, “Ah ha!”, much to the amusement of the lady who was tending the store.  When she looked at me and smiled I said “This alone would have made my trip to Boise worthwhile!”  I’ve found this wonderful biography of my personal conservation muse Aldo Leopold several times before but only in trade paper, something I don’t get for my personal collection.  Only the first edition of this tome was done in hardbound and now it was in my hands!

Continuing to look through the shelves, I came across a fine and clean copy of Henry Thoreau’s The Maine Woods. I’m not as big of a Thoreau fan as many are but what the heck, it was only 8 bucks and it is certainly a worthy addition to any natural history library so it too went into my happy hands.

Looking through the nature section further, I came across yet another book that I was not looking for but knew the minute I saw it that was coming home to live at my house.  Teaching A Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters is by the very gifted and popular American natural history writer Annie Dillard.  Many are familiar with her great classic Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  I knew nothing of this book but having read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, I was confident it would be an excellent read and addition to my collection.

So my hand were filling with books but I kept going through the selections and lo and behold what to my wandering eyes did appear but a fine trade paper copy of Aldo Leopold’s extraordinary classic, A Sand County Almanac.  I unabashedly refer to this book as the greatest conservation book ever written and when I find good used copies for a fair price in my travels, I pick them up so I can gift them later and share the timeless conservation wisdom it holds with others.  It is a great pleasure for an old wildlifer and classic natural history literature fan to give this fine book to someone who I know will also find it extraordinary.  I’ve handed out perhaps 20 during my days of collecting and will continue to do so as long as I live.

So there you have the fine used book sellers of the greater Boise area.  Some fine store worth your time!  If I ended up with six books, just think how many you might find!  Get after it people!

Pearson's Twice Sold Tales:  1215 1st St. So.  Nampa ID (208)467-3329  www.twicesoldtalesnampa.com  Hours: Mon-Sat 10:30-6

Yesteryear Shoppe:  1211 1st St. So. Nampa, ID  (208)467-3581  www.yesteryearshoppe.com  Hours: Mon-Sat  11-5:30

Rainbow Books: 1310 West State St.  Boise, ID (208) 336-2230   http://www.rainbowbooksidaho.com    Hours:  Mon-Sat  10-5:30

Trip Taylor Bookseller:  210 N. 10th St.  Boise, ID  (208)344-3311  taylorbooks@earthlink.net  Hours:  Mon-Sat  10-6