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.
