Today’s review comes from Sue Robbins, a writer I met last summer at Idyllwild Arts. In addition to writing, Sue juggles caring for her children (in high school and college), her mother and firefighter husband. She visits Yucca Valley fairly frequently and was kind enough to share her visit to a bookstore with a personality (I find their organizational system fascinating since I can’t find my sunglasses most days):
Driving along the four lane stretch of Highway 62 in Yucca Valley, most motorists’ goal is to drive through the high desert town as quickly as possible without getting a ticket. Doing this means you miss the quirky antique stores at the western end and the small house converted into a bookstore called Sagebrush Press Bookstore.
For eighteen years, Dan and Janet Cronkhite operated their business as a combination press and bookstore. Over time they dropped the press and now are simply a bookstore. Their love of the printed page is shown in the small house that has been crammed to the ceiling with books. Yet the owners claim it only contains one-third of their collection. There is no ambiance here, only books. Books are everywhere: on shelves, in boxes, covering the counters. They are all used, but in good condition, both paperback and hardcover. They have a large collection of military history and their specialty is books on Western America.
The Cronkhites attempt to group their books by subject, but mainly the customer relies on the owners’ photographic memory of what books are in the store and where they are located. Each of them are responsible for managing half of the store. There aren’t any computers to search for a particular book, but in waiting on my husband and myself and two other customers who entered the store, the owners knew exactly where to go to locate a particular book or whether they had it or not. There aren’t any chairs to sit on and the house is a claustrophobic maze of books, but the search is worth it. My husband was thrilled to find the complete collection of Winston Churchill’s books on WWII in original dust jackets for $40. I bought two small regional flora books that have long been out of print for my collection on California flora, both for less than $30. We also bought several paperbacks on favorite subjects or by favorite authors for fifty cents to a dollar.
If you must have a cup of coffee to fully enjoy your bookstore visit, I suggest Whitewater Coffee Company, a short drive east of the bookstore on Hwy 62.
Thank you for sharing your find, Sue!!
Sagebrush Press Bookstore
66684 Thwentynine Palms Hwy/Hwy 62
Tel: 760.365.5671
e-mail: Sagebrushbooks@verizon.net
Tags: California, California bookstore, used books, Yucca Valley, Yucca Valley bookstore
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Thank you Kim for sharing my review of this unique bookstore which I hope will
encourage some visitors to the store. My husband has corrected me on the store being located in an old house. He says it is in an old storefront that appeared to be an old house inside to me because of the different rooms. Isn’t that why we have husbands………so they can correct us? I plan another visit to the store before Christmas for some special gifts. Thank you, Sue R.
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