Trading pages

For three decades, readers have found buried treasures at Kalispell bookstore

The Daily Inter Lake

Blacktail Mountain Books takes a reader through a labyrinth of well-worn paths carved out by other readers.

About 50,000 used books' worth.

Long tall shelves and semi-hidden niches of hardbacks and paperbacks are stacked horizontally - not vertically - to cram in more books.

Big plastic tubs are scattered on the floor with hundreds of yet-to-be sorted volumes.

Practically every author and genre is tucked away here and there - available for a fraction of the cost of a new book.

Kids book series - "Goosebumps," "The Babysitters Club," "Lizzie McGuire."

More children's titles such as "Women In Astronomy" and "My Sister, The Traitor" (subtitled "Who Needs An Older Sister Anyway?").

Sheet music.

Encyclopedias. The complete works of William Shakespeare in one volume. The Annotated Montana Code. Computer books. Tales of World War II. Chemistry. Biology. Cookbooks galore. Self-help.

Westerns by Terry Johnston, Max Brand, Louis L' Amour, Dana Fuller Ross, several dozen others seldom heard of.

Romances and more romances. Harlequins. Bodice rippers. Mainstream. A giant collection of young shirtless studs with washboard abs, big pecs and hairless chests sweeping swooning belles off their feet.

Sci-fi - from "Dune" to "Alien Death Fleet."

Biographies, where the lives of Rush Limbaugh and Dennis Rodman sit two inches apart.

Pulp fiction. Old fiction. Classic fiction. Thriller fiction. Tacky fiction. Well-known fiction. Obscure fiction.

And much, much more.

. . .

"I've found myself with a home for unwanted books," said owner Jim Handcock.

People frequently just leave used books at his store, whether the store is open or not.

Books often come in big batches in plastic containers that Handcock is always behind in sorting out - the boxes clogging the store's narrow aisles in between the shelves.

Handcock often has to twist someone's arm to accept trade-in credit for the turned-in books. Many times, people just want to give them to him for free.

But Handcock usually writes their names and the number of donated books on a beat-up file card and sticks it in a long narrow wooden file box - giving them credit for future purchases. Dozens of the most recent cards stick out at messy angles to the rest tucked snugly in the 2-foot-long, 5-inch-wide drawer that sits on top of his counter. Alphabetization is the only reason this filing system works.

Most of Blacktail Mountain's books sell in the $1 to $7.50 range.

But Handcock sometimes messes with a customer bringing a book to his counter to buy.

He'll ask that customer: Pay me whatever you want for the book.

That usually flabbergasts his victim, who usually buys the book for the same price or higher than what Handcock would have otherwise charged him.

This is a somewhat loose business model.

But it works because Blacktail Mountain Books has been in business since 1977 - an eternity in small-business lifespans.

Despite the store's rustic male ambiance, the majority of its customers are women.

They tend to gravitate toward romances and true crime books.

Handcock said: "Ninety percent of my true-crime customers are women. There're very few men. That kinda scares me a little bit."

. . .

Woof the dog is the rest of the store's staff.

He lies there, and … uh … well … lies there some more.

Woof is a 10-year-old Alaskan malamute.

Several summers ago, Woof walked through Blacktail Mountain Books' propped-open door and lay down in a corner.

At the end of the day, Handock tied the dog to a nearby pole, hoping his owner would find him.

The dog chewed through the rope and returned to the store the next day.

Since then, Woof and Handcock have been inseparable. Woof is smart; he can pry open a door latch.

Usually, he stays behind the counter, often with his snout sticking through the open bottom of a swinging door separating the front-of-the-counter and behind-the-counter worlds. Children love to pet him.

"Little kids don't remember me, but they remember him," Handcock said.

. . .

The store occasionally sells the esoteric, the very rare - usually on consignment.

Several years ago, a woman had Handcock sell for her a multi-volume 1802 book on British sea captain George Vancouver's 1790s explorations of the Pacific Northwest. Back then, the edges of book pages had to be cut from each other before being read the first time. This book set had uncut pages - meaning it was pretty much in mint condition.

Last year, Handcock ended up with a Dutch natural history book published in 1777 in Amsterdam - which he sold to a collector.

"That's one time I wished a book could talk. It could tell me how it got from 1777 Amsterdam to Kalispell," he said: " Did it come over on jet, or did it come over on a stagecoach?"

. . .

Handcock, 60, has presided over this downtown Kalispell landmark since 1979.

He's a blue-jeans and T-shirt, plus flannel-shirt and ball-cap kind of guy.

Actually, Handcock's friend, the late Jerry Knutson, founded Blacktail Mountain Books in the basement beneath Books West. Today, the store is at 42 First Ave. W. with a Web site address of www.blacktailbooks.com.

Handcock was born in a remote spot in the Flathead - an only child miles away from any other kids.

So he read a lot.

He earned an elementary education degree at Northwest Nazarene College in Idaho, but soon learned that teaching wasn't his thing.

Handock worked at a few places in the Flathead, earning good money, but not really enjoying his jobs.

But Handcock loved to read.

In 1979, he approached Knutson about becoming a partner in Blacktail Mountain Books. Knutson said yes. In 1983, Knutson sold the rest of the store to Handcock so he could go to law school.

"Reading is an addiction to me. I'm like a drug dealer selling to support my own habit," Handcock said.

Handcock sees books as an escape for people in stressful situations. And he sees books as a way to get kids interested in pursuing knowledge for the rest of their lives.

"I love to connect people with books. … I get the nicest people in the world here as customers. That's because book people tend to be nice people. … My customers spoil me. They bring me cakes and candy," he said.

Since 1979, Handock has received only three bad checks.

Blacktail Mountain Books prospers despite a Borders, a Books West and other book places in the area.

"The two businesses [used- and new-book stores] complement each other - offering what the other doesn't have," he said.

That's because most of what Handcock offers - the old, the obscure and the off-the-wall - are usually not found in chain stores or on the Internet. Handcock knows because he does Internet searches for customers.

Handcock figures he still has decades to go as Blacktail Mountain Books' owner

"I'll retire when they carry me out the door - either in a straitjacket, or handcuffs, or a stretcher."