In the days of instant downloads and electronic pages, Roger Beebe finds peace in a bound book.
Beebe, the owner of Video Rodeo, at 1119 W. University Ave., will celebrate his store’s eighth birthday with the unveiling of the Book Nook, a micro-store for used books. The opening will be at Video Rodeo on Dec. 7.
“It seems like a good time to go in the other direction,” Beebe said. “It’s a different viewing from reading books on a page.”
Video Rodeo, an independent DVD and Blu-ray rental store, will open the Book Nook in the front of the store near the register.
With 32 feet of shelving, Beebe said there are about 500 books so far, and there’s room for more. Customers will soon be able to trade used books for ones on the shelf.
In the Spring, a friend approached Beebe with the idea to open a bookstore in downtown Gainesville. After the pair looked over the expenses, which racked up to $1,500 a month, Beebe thought the idea wasn’t possible.
Beebe said he was inspired to have a used book corner in his store after visiting an English-language bookstore in Berlin while he was teaching in the summer.
“It really gets your juices flowing,” he said.
Beebe began to think of having a small, used bookstore in his store because the real estate was paid and the store was staffed. When his friend became too busy, Beebe started stocking books.
He began collecting titles about three months ago. Many are donations from friends, including Beebe’s colleagues in the UF’s English department.
Padgett Powell, a UF creative writing professor, is donating a few books he wrote to Beebe’s Book Nook.
“We can always use a bookstore, particularly in the days of Netflix,” he said.
Beebe said he’s not in this venture to make money. He’s just in it for the books.
“We want to make an argument for why we still love books,” he said.
Kerry Oliver-Smith, the curator at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, browses through the DVD rentals at Video Rodeo on Thursday evening. The bookshelves of Video Rodeo’s new bookstore, left, are currently occupied by VHS rentals but will soon feature novels.
