Used Book Archaeology

 

So I am finally getting to Asimov’s classic 1951 Foundation paperback that I picked up a few weeks ago. Throughout my early childhood I read at least seven of his works.* He was easily my main introduction to science fiction. Didn’t get to Foundation until sometime in the late 80s, and got about a quarter of the way through it before more pressing concerns took my attention (my band, night school, girlfriend, alcohol, etc.). I tried it again during the Wu Flu but only made it a few chapters. Not sure why; but again, more pressing concerns were on my mind at that time.

 

Anyway, I opened the book and this fell out:

 

A receipt from November 15, 1975! Half a century old!

 

It appears to have originated from a place called the Sierra Book Shop in South Lake Tahoe, California. I googled for a few minutes and the place (or a place with the exact same name) could still be in business. I also found that someone who possibly owned it retired in 1980 (maybe sold the business?) so perhaps it since exists under new management. My purpose of the all this was to find a picture of the place to post here, but couldn’t find anything definitive online.

 

The forever mysterious customer bought four books – one for $7.00 and three for $1.25. The Foundation novel has a price on the front cover of $1.25 – which converts to $7.55 in 2025 dollars. Sounds about right. I also see that the tax on the $10.75 purchase was $0.65, or six percent. Now google tells me the sales tax in Lake Tahoe is 8.75 percent, a 46 percent increase over 50 years. Honestly, I thought it’d be more.

 

I truly wonder what the other three books bought were, especially that $7.00 one. That bad boy would sell for $42 today.

 

* Those seven Asimov paperbacks were: The Bicentennial Man, Nine Tomorrows, The Gods Themselves, Pebble in the Sky, The Caves of Steel, I Robot, and the novelization of the movie Fantastic Voyage. I read them all several times between 10 and 12 and loved every minute of it.