“The only perk of being married to a bookstore owner is she gets all the good cookbooks!” jokes Tanner McSwain, owner of Logan Square’s Uncharted Books, referencing his epicurean wife, Rachel Adams, an account manager at Braintree and co-founder of the food blog www.dinnerwasdelicious.com.
“They’re the one thing we really hoard!” she says, citing “Smoke & Pickles” by Edward Lee and “My Pantry” by Alice Waters as favorites. (Just no “tweezer food” or anything “too pretentious.”)
In actuality, there are several benefits to owning a used bookstore: For one thing, your personal collection is constantly being refined.
“We’ll hold onto signed first editions or books that are significant to us,” McSwain explains —such as his collection of beautiful “Treasure Island” editions perched on a windowsill in their Avondale apartment, or shared favorites such as “A Visit From the Goon Squad” and “American Gods” — “but everything else cycles back into the store.”
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