Are book lovers toast? Maybe. ¨Reading at Risk,¨ a report the National Endowment for the Arts released not long ago, had defenders of the printed realm freaking. Among the report´s conclusions: ¨If one believes that active and engaged readers lead richer intellectual lives than nonreaders and that a well-read citizenry is essential to a vibrant democracy, the decline of reading calls for serious action.¨ So what´s it gonna be, bookworms? A preemptive strike on book burners? A neo-Luddite revolt against TV and video games? The Haslam family has been seriously active on the book-propagating front for more than 60 years. That´s when they started a tiny used book and magazine shop in St. Pete. Four locations and three generations of family biblio-crusaders later, they boast of being Florida´s biggest used-book store. Not too shabby. The current location occupies about 30,000 square feet, has more than 300,000 volumes in stock and an admirably knowledgeable staff. Six of their book hawkers have worked Haslam´s stacks for at least 10 years. Revolutionary? No. At least not in a up-against-the-wall-you-illiterate-Neanderthal way. A local treasure? You bet.
Haslam´s Book Store, 2025 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, 727-822-8616.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.
