Off in Zora: A Modern-Day Tale of a Traveling Bookseller

by Alan Armstrong

Tales of a modern-day traveling bookseller. Presentation copy. viii , 159+ 1 pages. printed wrappers. 8vo..

Paperback

Published January 1, 1997

About the author

Alan Armstrong started volunteering in a friend's bookshop when he was eight. At 14, he was selling books at Brentano's. As an adult, every so often, he takes to the road in a VW bus named Zora to peddle used books. He is the editor of Forget Not Mee & My Garden, a collection of the letters of Peter Collinson, the 18th-century mercer and amateur botanist. He lives with his wife, Martha, a painter, in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Joan Lieberman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in 2000 when I was in the middle of trying to finish my autobiography. I shelved it with my other unread books for twenty years! That choice turned out to be my loss because Alan Armstrong is a wonderful writer. I loved following his trail through small town New England with his companionable dog Jefe. An extremely astute observer of human behavior, the author's open tolerance of others, mixed with his expansive knowledge of literature make him unique among both men and booksellers. Alan Armstrong is the Match.com for readers searching for books to love.

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author takes a sabbatical from his law practice (which doesn’t sound very active) and takes up the profession of selling used books out of his van, the eponymous Nora. The sales seem to be of dubious legality, as Armstrong sets up by the side of the road sans license, and one wonders if an out-of-state van-based bookseller pays sales tax. The author puts up a sign saying “Good used books talked and sold,” and this is largely what the book is about as well.
Armstrong and various helpers and hangers-on talk about the books they carry, read sections aloud, and generally inspire people to buy books they had never heard of. Off in Zora does the same thing, and readers will find themselves more than once reaching for a pencil to note down the title of a book while reading it. There’s a helpful list at the end.

There is no plot to speak of. The chapters describe different trips the author takes, who he met while on the road, their book conversations, what books he sold, and how he got rained out (or how he got kicked off the beach for illegally camping, etc.). Musings on the importance of reading and books occupy his mind when on long drives.

Frankly, I cannot bring myself to recommend such a book. It has no plot, very little in the way of serious discussion, only a bit of characterization, and so on. However, I enjoyed it a lot. The author’s personality must be very attractive, because you become interested in whether he will be rained out or whether he’ll convince the obdurate buyer to Santayana’s The Last Puritan, and so on. The discussions of different books, albeit quite short, are of interest to book nerds.

Furthermore, many readers will fall in love with the idea of tossing it all away and becoming an itinerant bookseller. Such a dream will never become reality for most of us (and it becomes more and more remote every day, as actual physical books are becoming a thing of the past), but we can live vicariously through this entertaining memoir. I think the book does best if read in short doses, as the absence of plot and development would become a problem if one were to try to read it for a couple of hours at a time. I kept it by my bedside and read a chapter or so before sleep every night for a couple of weeks. Those were pretty good weeks.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in 1997, this retired academic takes to the road in his VW bus named Zora and his dog to sell books along the side of the road. It's the perfect escapist dream, with no real cares, obligations or need for money- Armstrong takes it a day at a time, a buck a book and calls it good. Finds friends along the way, and perfect moments in the sun, or by the ocean. A real booklover, Armstrong hand sells his stock by reading from and talking about whichever book takes his fancy. He probably only had a couple of years where this sort of buying and selling was possible, before online book sales took over the industry.

Published as an imprint of Booksellers House, a subsidiary of the American Booksellers Association. I suspect that Armstrong lived the dream life of many.

--Ashland Mystery