Rick Sherman: Trickster and funnyman. He's renowned along the strip
for cracking jokes and doing a little Hocus Pocus at the bookstand to help
us pass the time.
He was particulary adept at getting rid of those water stained, broken-backed orphans that could be had for $5 a bag at some Long Island thrift store.
Somehow, under the spell of Rick, such cast off specimens became treasures, to be proudly tucked under the arm for an Autumn walk home.
Although he looked up to me as a mentor figure at first, Rick ascended the non-corporate ladder very quickly. He was well read and he knew most of the books on his stand. He was particularly well versed in the likes of Aleister Crowley, the Beats, (especially William Burroughs), Brion Gysin, Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, and various other counter-cultural writers.
Eventually, he even developed his own proprietary selling technique known as The Anti-Sell, an extreme variation of the Soft Sell.
The Anti-Sell worked something like this: Rick would pick out any book from his stand that was slow moving (for example, Thomas Hardy) Then he'd pretend to read the book, thumbing through it thoughtfully, utterly engrossed.
Sure enough, someone would come along and see him reading one of his own books:
"Hmm. If the bookseller's reading it, it's gotta be good!"
And Rick would reluctantly give up the book...another satisfied customer!
Read Rick Sherman's Notes of A Street Bookseller in his letter to BookWars director and fellow street bookseller Jason Rosette.
-and-
Listen as Rick gives the skinny on a number of subjects including:
- His philosophy of bookselling (via RealAudio)
- How to master oneself (via RealAudio)
- Bookselling or loitering? (via RealAudio)
- Why he feels "valorized" (via RealAudio)
- (RealVideo) On the road with Rick in search of fresh books: 28K or 56K
And drop ol' Rick a line while you're at it, he always likes to shoot the shit.
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