One day, while contemplating poverty and discussing, as Bobby puts it, “The Bob Dylan-ism of ‘when ya got nothin, ya got nothing to lose,’” Bobby and Mark realized they really did own practically nothing but their guitars. Being the book devotees that they had always been, they made a list of their 100 favorite books and began hunting down hardback copies of each one.
“Even as a young kid I was aware that being in the presence of a book and consuming the contents of a book were two distinct pleasures,” Bobby says. “As a kid, I would have my reading copy of Goosebumps and then I would get my clean, beautiful, shelf copy. I suppose that was an early expression of the desire to have hardback versions I could point to when people came to visit and say, ‘Look what these books mean to me.’ The opportunity to explain what was on my shelf always really appealed to me.”
As they got older, Bobby and Mark discovered a new interest they could add to music and books: beer. “We were participating in the craft beer explosion post-2008. One way it was possible was that certain states retrofitted their distribution laws so you could distribute your own beer. My buddies and I bought a 1995 Ford Astro, took the seats out, and would put the beer in it and take it places. While I was driving my beer around the city, I would stop at every Half Price Books, every thrift store, and antique store that I knew had good books.”
It reached the point where Bobby was so familiar with Chicago’s secondhand booksellers that the owners would call him if he didn’t show up for a week to make sure he was okay. “I even made a pin map [of local bookstores],” he says. “I had a map with Lake Michigan on the side and then pinned all the bookstores within 60 miles.” During this period, Bobby averaged about 15 bookstore visits per week, the stuff of dreams for even the most enthusiastic readers.
The Chicago suburbs proved fertile ground for Bobby’s book collecting. The proximity to academia, particularly Northwestern University, meant many locals were educated, well-read, and often donated their books when they decluttered or moved. “I have a first-edition The Sun Also Rises from Half Price Books in Highland Park that I got for $6.99,” Bobby says proudly. “You never knew what you could find there because some professor would bring in their books, and suddenly you would find something that had huge value.”