With no new owner, Wessex Books to close With no new owner, Wessex Books to close (April 20, 2005)

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

Wessex Books owner Tom Haydon has often said proudly that he's got a mile of book shelves in his shop.

Now everything's for sale -- even the shelves.

Despite nearly four months of looking for a new owner for the store he's run since 1975, Mr. Haydon has not been successful. He wants to do something different after 30 years, so Wessex is closing.

"There's a version of the e-mail (announcing the store's closure) up on the door," he said Monday in the shop, "and I can see people walking up and reading it with sad looks on their faces."

Mr. Haydon has already sold a good chunk of his 75,000 books to the enormous Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon. He's closed for two weeks to clear out those titles, and plans to reopen on Friday, April 29, to hold a liquidation sale for the rest.

He anticipates selling about 35,000 books and records, probably at 50 percent off. In addition, shelves, fixtures and other equipment will be for sale.

Before the liquidation sale, people can make offers to Mr. Haydon on particular subject areas of books and large quantities of records, he said. Call 321-1333, e-mail store@wessexbooks.com, or stop by the store at 558 Santa Cruz Ave.

Wessex has specialized in university press titles, fiction and poetry, along with many non-fiction subjects. It also has had a heavily used Web site.

Many local readers have lamented the loss of the independent shop, but Mr. Haydon says the long hours of a bookseller's life dissuaded people from buying Wessex.

So now the shop is left with its final display: the front window is filled with about 30 books with "the end of" in their titles, such as "The End of the World" and "The End of Tragedy."

"It's surprising how many books have that in the title," Mr. Haydon said wryly.

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