Take a Hike…to Book Mountain!

Posted by Ash Haywood in Santa Fe

They don’t have a computer, but as owner Peggy Frank will tell you, her bookstore is already a computer: a retrieval database of information and imagination that divulges the human experience. Book Mountain is a physical platform that grants access to the stories told of our world and the possibility of others—and in doing so has cultivated a story itself with Frank as the hero, the keeper of words.

The bookstore opened in 1980 after she became restless during her recovery from a horrific car accident that rendered her physically disabled. She set out with the unwavering mission to put good used books back into readers’ hands. Since opening day, the store has operated as a paperback exchange with a consistent pricing system that is unbelievably affordable (even by starving art students’ standards). Book Mountain sells each paperback at 40 percent the cover price and will grant you 20 percent of the cover price in store credit on whatever you bring in, provided they don’t already hold the title. With a system like that, it is not difficult to understand why so many customers say they shop exclusively at Book Mountain. Frank Johnson, one of the store’s longtime customers, says, “The beauty of coming here is that I can bring in a used book or two, get a used book or two, and pay just a few cents the difference. It’s a wonderful deal and great to support a local store that recycles books in a neat way”, which, when you consider shipping costs from online vendors and awkward sale pitches by employees of big box bookstores, is rather ideal.

Book Mountain sits at the far end of a small shopping center situated near the corner of Osage and Cerrillos across from the likes of Ace Hardware and Hobby Lobby, a local gem amidst the sores of corporate consumption. When visitors enter Book Mountain they are greeted with an honest,  “What can I help you find?” cushioned by the soft hum emanating from a large industrial duct heater tucked somewhere beyond the shelves of horizontally stacked books.

And the books.

Peggy Frank prides herself on the meticulous organization of the bookstore and the tens of thousands of titles that can be easily located under categories such as general fiction, gothic, romance, mysteries, classic literature, science fiction, fantasy, and more, that branch out even further into subcategories. The store also holds titles of special interest that one may find under theatre, psychology, nature/ecology, religion, and eastern thought, to name a few. “What we have here is an absence of randomness”, Frank says with a chuckle as she pulls on a weathered pair of gloves to shelve a box of books brought in for credit earlier in the day. She weaves through the shelves and flies past the spinning racks with the surprising agility of a woodland creature storing seeds for the winter.

Frank admits that, after studying zoology in college, working as a medical lab technician on the Hopi reservation, and training to become a primary teacher right before her accident, it was no surprise that she would choose to become the owner of a bookstore. She reflects, “I came from a long line of merchants” and quickly adds, “though I don’t look at it as selling things as much as making things available that people want”, a testament to her devotion to excellent customer service. The eclectic range of her previous occupations tells of her genuine captivation by the knowledge encapsulated in the pages on her shelves. She will readily engage with visitors to learn what they think about the books coming in and out of the store. Pull almost any title from the shelf and Frank will sift through her mental catalogue of reviews she’s collected from customers or her own readings as well as fascinating anecdotes about the histories of certain books and collections that have made their way to her. Her attentiveness has allowed her to understand what should be made available for sale from what people bring in and she displays one copy of each title to make space for more books to accommodate a wide spectrum of literary fancies.

When asked how Book Mountain survives the popularity of e-books Frank says she thinks it’s a fad, like most things, and waves the concern away. Whether a fad or an evolution of the way we experience reading, one thing is for sure: Book Mountain ain’t changin. The store sustains the visceral reading experience that most customers who frequent the shop say they are missing with the onslaught of digital reading devices. In a little over three decades the bookstore has become a microcosm of the multitude of literary interests of the people of Santa fe— of stories told and stories read that one can imagine being mulled over in the brain of the man sitting next to you on the bus, the cashier at smiths, or your Gothic Literature professor.

Besides her obvious interest in books, Frank also holds a passion for music and utilizes the store to house this interest to share it with others. “My partner plays the fiddle and I play the guitar. We have a lot of friends who play music, and so we have a music jam here at the bookstore one Sunday a month”, though she admits it’s not the same Sunday every month but to give her a call if you are interested in participating.

Towards the end of the interview Frank issued an offer that if you are a student at SFUAD and mention this article to her, she will give you a free book. Upon hearing this, some customers turn their head to consider her generosity, furrowing their brows to process such a genuine proposal and relaxing them again when she says, “Hey, it’s my store, I pay the rent, I can do, as long as its legal, whatever I want, right?”.  So put on your boots, bring an old book and some cash (they don’t accept cards), and hike on over to Book Mountain.

Address: 2101 Cerrillos Rd Santa Fe, NM 87505

Phone: 505-471-2625

Hours: Monday 11am-6pm

Tuesday-Friday 11am-7pm

Saturday 10am-6pm