A reader’s haven for nearly 50 years, A. Parkers Books and Book Bazaar is one of the last true used bookstores

Book store store front
Photo via Google Earth.

Every time I’m in Sarasota, I visit A. Parker’s Books and Book Bazaar at 1488 Main Street. One of the last true used bookstores in the area, Parker’s has served Sarasota readers for 50 years under proprietor Gary Hurst. Technically, Parker’s is two stores. The front is a used book bazaar featuring over 70,000 titles, prints, ephemera and esoterica, and the back has a small room shelving rare and valuable editions.

The rare section in back is a veritable labyrinth (you have to sidle sideways so your shoulders don’t knock against the books). There is no minotaur at the end of Parker’s labyrinth, but a cracking leather chair and crooked reading lamp that the mounted heads of goat, deer and antelope preside over. Glassy-eyed, the heads scan limited editions of T.E. Lawrence and Alexander Pope, among other prominent authors. It’s here where Gary Hurst, profile halved by a bookcase, tells me the history of his business.

red leather chair and lamp surrounded by books.
Part of the rare and antiquarian books section at Parker’s Books.

A brief history of A. Parker’s Books and Book Bazaar

Before it became A. Parker’s Books and Book Bazaar, the space was owned by Charles and Doris Twain, a savvy business couple. The couple accepted an offer from two men who wanted to run a book business out of the store. Despite having no background in the industry, the two men procured a loan of some $30,000 to open “World of Books.” While the store filled with book stacks, no books were being sold, the two men suddenly vanished, and the bank waited for reimbursement.

Purportedly, the two men swindled the bank, hence suddenly departing, embroiling the Twains in their scheme. Unwilling to brook a financial loss, the Twains, who had no prior book-selling experience—let alone the intention to run one—managed to wrest a profit from the foul predicament. In 1980, the Twains convinced Gary Hurst to buy the business. Under Hurst’s stewardship, the business expanded to include the book bazaar, combining his stock with fellow bookseller Joe Philips.

A bookstore window display featuring books, framed artwork, and a vintage wooden cabinet.

“…you have no choice but to get into the business”

Prior to buying the store from the Twains, Hurst worked for Doubleday in New York City, where his father Peyton Hurst got him a job as a reader and editor. But New York’s astronomical prices and Doubleday’s meager pay forced Hurst to flee to his family’s home in Sarasota and work for Kepler’s, a paperback bookstore. During that time, Hurst also sold and bought books via mail until his friend convinced him to open his own store, which he did, right down the street from Parker’s Books. It was 500 square feet, about a third of Parker’s footprint.

Reader, my abbreviated timeline of events doesn’t quite capture the humor behind Hurst’s motivation to open a bookstore. Hurst explains it like this: “I had always sought for myself books that I couldn’t find readily available… I started to acquaint myself as a customer, as many booksellers do, and the next thing you know you have a lot of books, and you have no choice but to get into the business.”

A bookstore window showcasing books, framed botanical prints, and decorative items on shelves.

The last used bookstore

As Parker’s is one of the last few true used bookstores in Sarasota, Hurst reflects morosely on the subject. “For a long time, we touted the fact that we had 6 – 8 used bookstores in Sarasota. [Sarasota] was a destination. People would come from all over and spend the day going from one used bookstore to the next.” Since much of Old Sarasota has been replaced, Parker’s is a remnant of the mid-century. Or in more literary terms, Parker’s is a fragment that speaks to, and about, an absent whole.

Some of Sarasota’s mid-century history is preserved in some of Hurst’s book collections. “We sell a lot of Sarasota School of Architecture books. People come here for those [books] to visit the old Florida.” I’m inclined to riff off Hurst’s statement and sentiment: buying and selling old books, valuable editions or cheap, stewards history—passing it hand to hand, reader to reader—and, for those predisposed to collect them, salvages whole eras and histories.

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