Under the Sun: Andy Weinberger

Andy Weinberger is the proprietor of Sonoma’s Readers’ Books at 130 E. Napa St. The Sonoma store opened the day after Thanksgiving in 1991. Recently Andy announced that he’d be transferring his personal location to Los Angeles, but the store and its staff will remain firmly in place. Andy promises to be in town at least monthly.

Where did you grow up? When did you come to California? Was Sonoma the first California town where you’ve lived? What I’m asking is, “what’s Andy’s personal story?”

I was born in New York City but we moved to Pasadena when I was seven, so I’ve always considered myself a Californian. My wife Lilla was born in Pasadena; we both went to grade school there, and still have friends and family in Southern California. We were married in South Pasadena, in a house just a stone’s throw from the Pasadena Freeway. In fact, the officiating rabbi commented on how the rushing noise of the freeway reminded him of the ocean (he was clearly groping for some sort of spiritual metaphor).

Your weekly missives (with Jude Sales) from Readers Books for the e-mailing list are consistently timely, witty, reflective, and occasionally elicit other emotions. How do you decide what subjects you’ll cover?

Sometimes I will be struck by a newspaper article or a news item on television, but what I’m always searching for is a way to put a human face on what I’m thinking about. I started writing these essays with the intent of giving folks an insider’s view of books and the book business, but I soon grew bored and found that my mind was wandering into politics and philosophy and funny vignettes from my family. Occasionally I’ll sit down in front of my computer see what comes pouring out. You could call it creative, I suppose. You could also call it a rant.

Independent booksellers are an endangered species. How do you select the magic combination of books, periodicals, and gifts that customers consistently buy?

For a long time my wife Lilla was the book buyer. Before she left to pursue a more lucrative life as a political organizer––she didn’t do it for the money, it just turned out that way––we turned the book buyer’s job over to Jude Sales, who has many more years in the business than us. Her taste in books matches my wife’s to a tee. Jude is the one you should credit for what’s in the store, certainly not me. My job is to pay the bills and tell the jokes. By the way, independent bookstores may not be so endangered as you imagine. I have heard of several new ones popping up lately, so we are a resilient bunch.

Why did you decide to make Readers’ a hub for events, Random Acts’ open mic, and short courses? I know we had to convince you on a few of local author events.

Readers’ Books has, from the get-go, been a “gathering place for book lovers of all ages,” as it says on our bookmarks and elsewhere. In twenty four years we’ve hosted almost 2,000 author events, lectures, workshops, seminars, jazz concerts, play readings. We’ve even had a memorial or two for friends of ours who died. Random Acts was begun initially as a way of recreating the old Center of the Universe Café, a long-time fixture at the Community Center. And really, the only criteria we apply to events is whether or not we think they will draw a sufficient audience to make it worth everyone’s time and effort. Well, okay, I suppose we might not want to host an evening with a neo-Nazi author, but generally, we are a pretty open environment.

You are also an accomplished guitarist. Will there be another CD any time soon?

Thanks for saying so. I am self-taught and have been noodling around for almost 60 years, so it stands to reason that after that much time practicing, one gets to be decent, no matter what. The CD came out of my time with the klezmer band, Simka, and unfortunately, we all seem to have drifted into different orbits over the last little while. (Simkasonoma.com). If I ever do another CD it will probably consist of jazz standards and some singing, which I’ve come to like.

What’s your take on the future of printed books? Will they continue to exist with different paper and binding specifications?

You know, the printed book has been around since the 15th century or so. People always say that one form of media or another will vanish when something new appears on the horizon. They said that radio was dead when television came along; they said that vinyl records would disappear when cassettes and then CDs arrived. Live theater was pronounced dead before I was born, but the truth is, all these forms have folks who see them as valuable. It may be that some factions of the population are more comfortable with e-readers or audio books, but I also know that many people who read electronically like to own the real book itself, if only to put it on their shelves. Also, one out of two or three books purchased today are bought as a gift for someone else. And for now, at least, it’s very hard to give someone a download as a birthday present. Maybe in 50 years people will be okay with that, but today it still seems a little gauche.

Were you surprised at the big jump in e-book sales last Christmas?

There was a big jump in electronic everything, and that’s been going on for a while. It’s what everyone is talking about, not unlike in other times when people couldn’t get enough of real estate or the stock market or certain drugs. Americans love to fall in love with something. What it is and whether we need it is almost irrelevant.

We’ve seen a lot of humanistic material and magical realism in fiction lately. In what direction do you think novel-length fiction will trend in the next three years?

Trying to predict trends and directions is a fool’s errand; I can only tell you what I like. I like stories that are tight and well-written, stories that move along at a decent pace, and most of all stories that have characters I care about. In the end, that trumps everything. If I can’t find anyone in a novel to root for, then I say to myself, why bother?

You’ve told me several times that you don’t speak Yiddish, but when various alte kachers (old guys) come into the store you and your visitors are immediately and magically fluent. To what do you attribute this phenomenon?

I heard my parents speaking Yiddish when I was a kid. Mostly they spoke it when they didn’t want my brother and I to understand, and technically, for the most part they were successful. But like anyone growing up in an “international” household, certain words and phrases stick in your head. Later on, in my twenties, I read through a beginner course book in Yiddish, which made me realize that this was a “mother tongue” that I somehow understood. I like to think that when I meet someone who is a fellow Jew, things resonate between us. We have a shared history and we understand each other, probably the same way any other minority understands one of their own.

Thank you so much, Andy, for taking time to talk with The Sun’s readers today. We’ll miss your daily presence in at Readers’ but we’re glad you’ll still be around town.

Interviewed by Deb Carlen

Photo by Adrian Hyman