Davis losing book lovers' haunt Bogey's

Bogey's Books in Davis was packed Monday afternoon with Bohemians, college students buying Noam Chomsky and families spanning three generations. A local musician even left his bass behind the counter.

Owner Mark Nemmers had rarely seen his shop this full on a weekday, but sadly many of the browsers were there for the 20 percent off, going-out-of-business sale.

After 17 years, the left-leaning book emporium named after a dog Nemmers lost in a divorce will close by Jan. 1. Nemmers, 54, will tour the world on the investments he made during Bogey's golden age – before chain bookstores, the Internet and screen-mania sounded the death knell for independent book sellers, he said.

"We pushed $450,000 a year in gross sales in 1997-98," Nemmers said. "The net was about $70,000 or $80,000, and we were growing at about 5 percent a year."

But Borders opened in Davis in 1998, "and we immediately experienced a 25 percent drop in business," Nemmers said. "The second hammer blow was the Internet catching on in Davis, and people becoming comfortable buying books online."

The third blow, Nemmers said, "is the decline of the printed word in our culture, particularly college kids – this up-and-coming generation is addicted to screens, they're just epoxied to these things."

Several students Monday cut into Bogey's 30,000-volume inventory of mostly used books. Kari Shroeder, a doctoral candidate in anthropology at UC Davis has browsed at Bogey's since she moved to town seven years ago.

"It's one of my favorite places in Davis, very cozy and I always see people I know here," said Schroeder, 28. "It's tailored to Davisites, with a lot of books on local history, local travel, vegetarian cooking."

This week, Schroeder said she bought "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone"; "Davis: Radical Changes, Deep Constants"; "The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland"; and a couple of John Steinbeck and Wallace Stegner novels.

In the kids' section Bryan Jensen, 9, looked for "Goosebumps" horror stories "if they don't have pictures," while his sister Kamiah, 7, asked mom to help her find "Clifford," the adventures of the big red dog.

"I like books being used over and over again," said their mother, Dianna Jensen, a civil engineer in Davis.

Also making a serious dent in Bogey's vast shelves were Cynthia Wright, 23, of West Sacramento and Nicole Huff, 19, of Red Bluff.

Huff, a pre-industrial European history major at UC Davis who's "fascinated by religious conflicts," picked up "Mary Tudor – The Spanish Tudor."

"It's only 500 pages," said Huff. "It's a real shame when bookstores close because I don't think people devote enough time to the written word. When I ask people 'What's your favorite book,' they look at me like, 'You read for pleasure?' "

Huff's favorite book, by the way, is "Gone With The Wind," 1,100 pages' worth.

"I was moving my book collection from Red Bluff, a couple of hundred volumes, and my friends said, 'We aren't going to move them,' " Huff said. "I said 'they're my special friends – every one (all 200) you have a special relationship with.' I moved them myself."

"We're kind of book people," said her friend Wright, an international relations major at California State University, Chico.

Wright scored two books by linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky, often described as a "radical intellectual" known for his critiques of U.S. foreign policy, among other things.

"We don't see much Noam Chomsky in places outside of Davis," she said.

Nemmers concedes many of his selections tilt left, especially the books on the first counter, which Monday included "American Gulag – Inside U.S. Prisons," along with "Disgraceful Matters – The Politics of Chastity in 18th Century China."

"I go for the quirky and unusual," Nemmers said. "We took a political slant and evolved the progressive liberal side of our store. I know we've alienated quite a few customers because of the kind of books we spotlighted – it's not going to be an Ann Coulter book.

"People in Davis socially and culturally are liberal and vote liberal, but on economic issues, they're quite to the right," Nemmers said. "But it's my store, and I'm going to run it the way I want to."

Nemmers has seen several employees fall in love over the counter and met his girlfriend across the street at Thai Bistro.

He compares downtown Davis – which has seen several Bohemian-style businesses fold in recent years – to "an old lover who's gone in for a face-lift and comes out looking like no one in particular.

The wrinkles are gone, but so is the face. It's a good metaphor for how Davis is changing."

James Barnes, a manager at Watermelon Music down E Street, just bought "The Undisputed Truth," a Buddhist text he said has helped him deal with Bogey's end by teaching him "impermanence is everywhere – things are constantly changing."

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