A Visit to Priceville Discount Books

When I travel to visit mom in Huntsville, I take I-65 north to the Hartselle exit at Alabama 36 and take that state road over to US 231 at Lacey's Spring, then north into southeast Huntsville where she lives. For several months now the first half of that trip on 36 has been closed to through traffic due to bridge work. The detour takes me another exit north on I-65 to Priceville. After a few trips through there I finally noticed Priceville Discount Books. I stopped to take a look early one Sunday afternoon, and I'm glad I did. 

Working that day was the original owner, whose name I failed to get. He told me he had opened the store in 1987 and just sold it this past June. He was continuing to work part time to help out the new owners, Aria and Dylan Troncoso. The store occupies much of the Twin Cedar Plaza retail strip on Alabama 67 South not far from the Interstate exit. The photographs below will give you a small idea of the vast inventory inside the store. I'll have to stop by a few more times to make my way through the many sections and shelves. The classics section alone is huge. The store has an active Facebook page, which has been up since January 2014. 

Via email, Dylan Troncoso provided me this information about the store: 

"The original owner of the store is James Owen. His mother opened a tanning salon in 1987 and James began selling some of his personal books in her store in 1988. His dad helped him by building shelves in an unused part of the tanning salon. The tanning salon/bookstore moved into the current building mid 1990. Eventually the books took over, and James' mom transitioned out of the tanning business and helped him run the bookstore. There are still two tanning beds buried under a surplus of books. 

"My wife Aria and I purchased the store from James and took over mid June of 2021. James has remained active in the transition. He is always helpful and works for us around 3 days per week. He just can't step away, and we wouldn't have it any other way! Our current plan is to keep up the legacy of Priceville Discount Books. We hear just about weekly from customers that can remember shopping there from the beginning. Many adult customers have been buying their books there for the entirety of their lives. We hope to clean up and organize as time allows. We plan to clear up some space in the smaller half of the store to accommodate some tables and chairs for our customers as well as our own kids to use for their homeschooling." 

I've written a number of pieces about Alabama bookstores, including Booklegger in Huntsville, Gibson's in Owens Crossroads, and Deb's [now Camelot] in Cullman. I've also covered a few now closed, such as Books, Etc in Pelham, the Paris Bookstall in Birmingham, and two much older ones in Auburn. Finally, I've done two posts on bookstore bookmarks here and here. I have a good bit of material on past bookstores in the state and hope to further tap it in the near future. 

Priceville Discount Books is well worth a stop if you're in the area, or even if it takes a special trip!

Some of these photos were taken in the single large room; the store actually has another large area that you enter, with a couple of small rooms as well. On my second visit Aria Troncoso told me they also have a couple of storage units out back full of books.

Looking from the single large room back into the main store area that you enter at the front door.

Alabama Book Covers (10): Augusta Evans Wilson

Back in April 2015 I posted an item about the films based on Augusta Evans Wilson's 1867 novel--and massive bestseller--St. Elmo. Now I'd like to include her in this ongoing blog series, "Alabama Book Covers."

In that earlier post, I included this background on Wilson:

"She's one of Mobile's legendary residents; although born in Columbus, Georgia, she spent most of her life in the city. She published nine novels before her death in 1909, and some of them such as St. Elmo and Beulah made her one of the bestselling American novelists of her day. 

Like many female authors of that time, she began writing to supplement her family's income. St. Elmo sold over a million copies and made her the wealthiest female writer in America before Edith Wharton. Only Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur sold better among American novels in the nineteenth century.

There is a town in Mobile County named after the novel. Several of her works, including St. Elmo, can be found via Project Gutenberg. A recent book about Evans is The Life and Works of Augusta Jane Evans Wilson, 1835–1909 by Brenda Ayres [Ashgate, 2012]."

I've included comments on some of the individual illustrations below. 

Augusta Evans Wilson [1835-1909]

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Inez, the first of Wilson's nine novels, appeared in 1855 and was not a success. She began writing the book when she was fifteen.  

Beulah was Wilson's second novel and a big seller. The story describes a young woman's crisis of faith, much like Wilson's own, and is set in an Alabama city much like Mobile. 

In addition to being a bestselling book, St. Elmo was filmed three times by 1923. Three other Wilson novels were also filmed. 

Wilson's third novel, published in 1864, was a pro-Confederacy story and was issued by different publishers in the North and South.

Wilson was going blind as she wrote her last novel, published in 1907. She dictated it to a niece. 

This novel was Wilson's first after the Civil War, published a year after her 1868 marriage to a successful Mobile businessman.

Her next to last novel appeared in 1902. 

This collection of Wilson's letters was published in 2002.

Alabama Book Covers (9): William March

Novelist and short story writer William March is probably best remembered for one novel published in 1954, The Bad Seed. Actually, adaptations in other media are probably better known than the book and author. That same year Maxwell Anderson wrote a two-act play from the book that ran for 334 performances on Broadway before closing in September 1955. In 1956 a film starring Patty McCormick in the title role was released and was a hit for Warner Brothers in both the U.S. and Great Britain. The ABC network premiered a version for television in 1985. The story is a classic evil-child tale that still resonates today despite the use of the idea by endless horror movies.

March was a Mobile native born in September 1893 as William Edward Campbell. A highly decorated U.S. Marine in World War I, March built a career in business after the war. Before his death in New Orleans in May 1954, March published several novels and many short stories. Most were set in Alabama. 

March wrote about his war experiences in his first novel, Company K. A film adaptation by Robert Clem appeared in 2004. Clem has filmed several other works related to Alabama. March's short story "The Little Wife" was adapted for television three times by 1955. 

March's papers are in the Hoole Special Collections at the University of Alabama. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Tuscaloosa. The Encyclopedia of Alabama and Wikipedia entries offer good introductions to his life and work. Roy Simmonds' book The Two Worlds of William March was published in 1984.

William March ca. 1933

Source: Wikipedia

Weeding My Alabama Book Collection

 

Recently we had one of those Basement Events That Shall Remain Nameless, and as a result I am now going through my collection of several thousand books and weeding many out. "Weeding" is a term we librarians liked to use back in the day when print collections were actually a major aspect of libraries and not something that gets in the way of public computers, social media space and backroom server farms. 

Weeding was done regularly, and books were removed as a result. Many public libraries weeded out damaged copies, multiple copies of past bestsellers no longer circulating as much and books not checked out in years. Larger public and academic libraries might actually keep titles even if showing no use just in case some strange future readers might want to check them out. But they too had to weed damaged books not worth repair, excess multiple copies, etc.

I'm now doing something similar with my books. Not all are related to Alabama; I have many medical history books, novels galore by non-state authors and many other miscellaneous titles. Some of that stuff is going too. The books on Marilyn Monroe are safe, however.




Any books with this woman on the cover will not be purged. 
This particular photo graces the one by Norman Mailer. 

Over the years I have collected many books with some kind of connection to the state and even some of those are headed out the door. I had picked up inexpensive copies of several novels by Gadsden's popular author Linda Howard, for instance, but never read one. Bye bye Linda, sorry, but I'll probably never read them.

One thing should be noted. Many people who have seen my collection over the years will ask, "Have you read all these books?" How silly. I have read many, of course and will read many more, but that's not the point of collecting books. I'm surrounded by books I want to read if I live long enough, or if I go to prison, and someone can smuggle them in to me.  

But now, downsizing will be done. Just boxing them all up and moving them a few dozen feet to the PODS on the driveway was enough to convince me to lighten the load. That, and loving suggestions by wife Dianne as to what I could do with all these books. I tell her that I've read about collectors who have bought the house next door to contain their growing collections, but she seemed unimpressed. Besides, the houses on either side of us are not for sale.

So now we come to other titles related to Alabama that may be harder to weed. Here are some samples of what I'm considering.

This paperback is signed by the Alabama senator, Rear Admiral and Vietnam POW Jeremiah Denton who died earlier this year. 

This books collects quotes from the many-time Alabama governor and was published in 1968 ahead of one of his presidential runs. 

This 1967 memoir no doubt covers the 1965 Alabama national championship team on which he and Kenny Stabler shared quarterbacking duties. Since I'm an Auburn fan, this one can be weeded with no guilt.

This 1962 book profiles the colorful Alabama governor who served two non-consecutive terms beginnning in 1947 and 1955.

So these are a few of the items I've selected for possible weeding from my collection. Many others will be considered. Feel free to offer your take on any of these titles in the comment section.

I must state again, for the record, that books with this woman on the cover will NOT be purged.