Twice Sold Tales owner bowing out of book business

FARMINGTON – Jim Logan calls it the “serendipitous discovery.”

“It’s going into a used book store and finding books you probably didn’t know existed,” Logan said Thursday, sitting across Main Street from the Masonic Block with its distinctive brick archways.

Logan’s store, Twice Sold Tales, has been a fixture in the downtown since it first opened in 1993, moving to its current location in 1996. If a buyer for the store’s stock doesn’t emerge, the store will close.

One Logan’s biggest concerns is what will happen to used books in the area. For more than 20 years, Twice Sold Tales has been a major destination for boxes and boxes of old books: the products of attic cleanings and shelve cullings and families seeking good homes for a loved one’s prize collection.

“Trash and Treasures can’t take that many books,” Logan said, referring to transfer station swap shacks. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to them.”

Logan’s initial foray into book store-owning 25 years ago was a product of his circumstances. He owned a lot of books, he was a self-professed bookstore haunter and he needed something to do. He studied social studies and history in college which touched on a number of different subjects – useful for a used book store owner.

Twice Sold Tales opened in November 1993 in a smallish space on Front Street. The heat was non-functional and the toilet literally froze in the winter. “People stayed away in droves,” Logan said. The store moved to another location on Main Street for a couple years; opposite problem, too hot.

J.J. Newberry’s closed in 1995, opening up more space on Main Street. Logan began renting space in the Masonic Block, where Twice Sold Tales remains today. He used his own experiences with other book stores to guide his business practices. Ethel Emerson, owner of the Falls Book Barn in Farmington Falls, advised him to sell cheap paperbacks, for example, good books for people on vacation. Another store in central Maine had tight aisles that scarcely let customers turn around, so Logan decided that Twice Sold Tales would have space to browse, with shelves arranged to create little alcoves.

Logan noted he’s worked with 20 employees over his 25 years, several that hit the 10-year mark. These include current employee Carol Short, who Logan referred to as the brains of the outfit. Logan said that he had interacted with many thousands of people within the community over the years. He estimated that he’s visited more than 1,000 houses looking at books.

“I’ve met all kinds of people, most really good people,” Logan said. “I can’t say enough about how good people have been,”

Logan said that he always had a goal to sell books, not just be proud of them, but he does recall a few particular specimens along the way. He found a 1860 book on Rangeley Brook Trout that featured a three-sheet color plate worth roughly $2,500, for example. He remembers going to a home in Phillips and finding a magnificent collection of books, Maine stuff, literary works. He once found a three-volume set of books bound in leather by a prominent British book binding operation with a hand-painted picture on a placard that he thought was ivory.

“I’ve given up on finding treasures,” Logan said. “I still find wonderful books.”

The business has changed over the past 20-plus years, Logan said. The market for reference books has collapsed, because everyone looks stuff up on YouTube or cooking sites. Logan used to do brisk business in small-town histories, but people can now get genealogical information online. It goes beyond the used book store business, Logan said; Mantor Library has half the physical books it had 10 years ago, he estimated, with more and more material available via inter-library loans or digitally.

“You look at what university students have now and you can see the future of this stuff,” Logan said.

Logan intends to leave his store by the end of the year. Ideally, he’d like to find someone willing to buy his shelves and 30,000 books – “lock, stock and barrel,” Logan says. He believes having a used book store is important to Farmington. Library sales, literacy groups and swap shacks are limited in how many books they can accept. Logan worries that the “serendipitous discovery” of discovering a book you didn’t know existed – Logan said that he experiences it daily – might soon be lost.

Logan doesn’t have a closing date in mind, if a buyer doesn’t come forward, but he doesn’t intend to be in business by the end of the year. Twice Sold Tales will not be selling gift certificates moving forward and anyone with a certificate is encouraged to come spend it. Anyone interested in purchasing Logan’s stock should contact him at 207-778-4411.