Replaced some sold Dragonlance.

Purchased 2 boxes of technical & electronics books, some on the shelves already, a bunch in $1.00 shelves.

Took my SUV in to the shop in the morning, needed to replace the alternator, 7 hours & $430 later finally got to the store.

Picked up some Young Adult fiction.

Packaged up 11 online orders.

Traded for a pile of Scandinavian books, a few leatherbound might be nice for decorator stuff.

Shelved 4 boxes of paperbacks.

Organized the Romance a bit.

Nice and warm out today - ahhhh.

Packed up 8 online orders of 10 items.

Searched around online trying to find a local auto repair place.

Shelved a box PBs.

And another going...

Dutton's Brentwood Books
Serving the greater Brentwood community for over twenty years…..

Dutton's News and Events

February 25, 2008

Special Announcement

My dear long-time friends,

This has been as difficult a decision as I've ever had to make,

but there seems no other possibility. I hope that I'll be able

to see and speak to you all in the months ahead, but I want

you to hear this from me first.

Doug Dutton

---

DUTTON'S BRENTWOOD CLOSING ITS DOORS

 

It is with profound regret and sorrow that Dutton's Brentwood Books must announce that it will be closing on April 30, 2008.

 

As our regular customers and friends well know, the past year for the store has been one of upheaval and turmoil. Hard on the heels of the closure of the Dutton's Beverly Hills location came word that the Brentwood property had changed ownership, and the new owner, Charles T. Munger, announced plans to redevelop the property. The multiple uncertainties of the bookstore's future, combined with the encumbrances associated with the closure of the Beverly Hills store have crippled the store's ability to provide the kind of immediate service and depth of inventory that our customers have come to rightly expect.

 

It is no secret that the store today is a shadow of its former self. Given our situation as it now stands, the pride we feel in our past achievements, and the vagaries of the current book market, shuttering our doors seems the only realistic solution. It is important to note that Charles Munger has committed to a significant amount of financial support for the difficult process of closing the store, and we appreciate his generosity.

 

Be assured, especially those of you who have regularly asked, "How are things going at the store," that every effort has been made to try to sensibly and rationally save this enterprise. Those efforts continued up until last week. It is the uncertainty that has, more than any other factor, led us to this painful decision. It has arrested improvement to the physical property, impacted inventory, and made it impossible for our extraordinary staff to provide the level of service that they are accustomed to giving.

 

We have been asked if the store will reopen in the proposed new development, or at another site in the area. At present, any plans to reopen or relocate will have to await a real offer in a real situation, combined with a sober assessment of the realities of the book world. That said, we have not said "no" to any future possibility.

 

The one certainty that we have relied upon for our many years at this location is the honest and dedicated support by this community to the value of books and bookstores in general, and to this one in particular. This is a demonstrable fact, proven repeatedly, and while we openly acknowledge our debt to our customers for their years, and even decades, of support, we further ask for your understanding and forbearance in the extremely difficult months ahead.

 

###

Priced & Shelved the last of the VHS.

Vacuumed. :}

Ordered comics from Diamond.

Shelved 2 boxes of fiction/literature HB & TPBs.

Packed up 10 online sales.

Shelved 3 boxes of VHS, lots of vintage B&W stuff & musicals.

Fixed the errors with Amazon so the missing 300+ items should now list.

Marked down a bunch of VHS to $1.00.

Put most of the Biography & Music online.

Organized the closet a bit, cleaned up some.

Accounting.

Adjusted listings on eBay to be more complete.

Worked on bills and accounting.

Shelved a bunch of those new SF paperbacks that came in yesterday.

Eudora - eventually managed to upgrade and (so far) seems to work again. Hmm spoke too soon...

Adjusted some of the online ads.

Diamond Comics arrived, some Anime, some Manga, some European Graphic Novels, some other comics.

Purchased a box of fairly new Science Fiction, should have some on the shelves soon.

Paperwork.

Eudora's giving problems... grrr.

The History Bookcase

History - European History & Travel - Russian History - Ireland - England History & Travel

Click on a shelf to open a much larger image for virtual browsing.

Current as of 2008-02-19, although books will sell and new items will be added there is a good likelihood of most of these being available.

Worked on the website, added a virtual browsing page.

Packaged up 7 online orders, lots of DVDs this time.

Ancient History

Anthropology - Archaeology - Egypt - Greek & Roman - Ancient History - Middle Ages - Renaissance - Dinosaurs - Large Ancient History
Click on a shelf to open a much larger image for virtual browsing.

Current as of 2008-02-18, although books will sell and new items will be added there is a good likelihood of most of these being available.

Kept fairly busy, shelved a couple of boxes of Hardcover & TPB, mostly fiction, some little bit of everything else. Shelved a stack of DVDs. Was going to take more pics for virtual browsing, but ran out of batteries.

Donation of 4 boxes of books, mostly modern fiction.

Donation of 5 boxes of books, some interesting older things.

Kathy stopped by.

James & a very pregnant Aurora stopped in to donate some books & magazines, 3rd lot of the day.


There will be lots of hardcovers on the $1.00 shelves soon.

The Religion Bookcase

The Religion Bookcase - click on a section to see a much larger image for virtual browsing.

Although current as of 2008-02-15 things will change, and all titles shown may not be available.

Packaged up 6 online orders.

James stopped in to drop off some book donations.

Listed a few more card games and some Military history.

Started the photo-map of the store.

Diamond Comics order arrived a few more Anime DVDs, Laurel K. Hamilton Anita Blake First Death Hard Cover, some toys - NGE, Bleach, some more comics.

Postman didn't come get the mail today... Sent them another pickup request.

Worked on some of the last of the games, mostly cards.

Packed up 10 online orders. Cleaned up some empty boxes.

Quite of few boxes came in over the last few days, a stack of Wiccan stuff, lots of SF/Fantasy, some kids books & teaching books, Self-Help, a fair stack of modern literature, and various others.

Packaged up 6 online orders.

Did some fancy programing to the register to make the reciepts look better.

6 boxes of mostly SF/Fantasy came in.

Fencing

Fencing Books

Priced & shelved 7 boxes of paperbacks.

Vintage PBOs, Manga, Anime

Put out some vintage SF paperbacks, and some modern fiction TPBs.

Packaged 6 online orders, plus another that paypal is give me a run-around on.

Nice out, warmed up a bit.

Shelved a pile of New Anime.

Bills, bills, bills... and paperwork.

Tokyopop Manga, Anime DVDs

Remainders arrived, a stack of new Tokyopop Manga, some DVDs, a few kids books, a few Art books.
Diamond orders arrived, a large selection of Anime DVDs.

Stanton business license arrived.

Finally finished packing up 16 online orders.

Got a ticket for 'unsafe lane change' entering the freeway this morning... not a good start for the day.

Fixed some listing issues with eBay.

Landlord sent someone around to look after that leak.

Packaged 8 online orders - that I should have done last night, but I totally forgot...

More Hard Back Fiction

Sprinklers came on around 2 or 3 yesterday, and were still on this morning.
I think they sprayed into the window by the front and leaked under, the carpet is soaked right there.

Rained most the night.
There must be a small leak, just as I got in this morning the ceiling started to drip, it was light and stopped before long.

Reorganized the fiction, pulled the TPBs out of the HBs and put them into the PBs, which made room to add more HBs.

Wasted the morning trying to figure out the new eBay fees.

Shelved a couple of shelves of HB fiction.

Shelved about 2 boxes of paperbacks, a lot of old sf, and some modern fiction & mystery.

Cleared up and sorted some piles and boxes.

Pink Project, Vintage SF Paperbacks

Worked on the end of the month stuff. It looks like may have (almost) broken even for January.

The Pink Project site: A charity photography book benefiting RAINN and the Los Angeles Breast Cancer Alliance

The Pink Project Book is for sale at A Castle of Books

Large box of older 1960's 1970's SF traded in.