All About Books - Cheap Thrills

While Barnes and Noble may give in to the pressure of inflation and an elitist mentality, there remains a cheap alternative to the dominant strain of literary enterprise. All About Books, located at 58 Lake Blvd., offers the cliché fiscally limited college student a chance to branch out of a world filled with reality television and to delve into the second-hand taste of Redding’s literary minded. While classics are slighted in this strip mall bookstore, it boasts a large collection of Tom Clancy and Nora Roberts, enough to fill the lonely evenings of any bored housewife. Echoing qualities of a cut-rate strumpet, All About Books boasts half the price, all the fun, and double the risk of obtaining a product with compromised quality. It offers clearance books for under a dollar and current best-sellers for about fifteen, the median price being three dollars. While Dan Brown and Nicholas Sparks don’t exactly scream “classic,” there lies more stimulation in these gems than the standard modern conveniences such as The Bachelor and Fear Factor.
 While a Christian University leaves much to be desired where worldly fulfillment is concerned, All About Books quenches this thirst with a hefty collection of harlequin romance novels. Inciting satirical comments in the minds of English majors and nervous chuckles in the pure of heart, this basin of debauchery is enough to make any Simpson student blush with intrigue. However, do not let their extensive Romance section detour you from other notable genres. My accomplice discovered a wealth of western tales and mystery/crime thrillers whilst I dove into the available memoirs and cookbooks. Also, Sci-Fi claimed a significant portion of the store, appealing to the fantastically intrigued fraction of Simpson’s population.
As the appreciation of reading seems to be diminishing with each technologically aware generation, All About Books is an attempt to recapture the joy of reading, supplemented by the second-hand resources of Redding’s personal libraries. In their effort to further appeal to the tenants of this culturally stifled city, All About Books offers a “Trade Credit Policy,” allowing shoppers to trade previously owned literature in exchange for any book of the same genre at a fraction of the selling price. Ads are posted around the store, detailing the finer points of this offer. In addition, a rental program is offered for books on current best-seller lists and/or newly printed literature, deviating from standard library finds.
 All About Books: a venture away from modern conveniences and a chance to delve into nostalgic authors. Yet another venue in Redding capable of penetrating Simpson’s bubble.