On Pilgrimage

I'd been feeling the metaphysical pull of Archer City since I first read of Larry McMurtry’s used book store (Booked Up) that occupies several of the downtown buildings in his hometown.

The small town is remote enough to ensure any daytrip to its endless shelves would occupy an entire day.  But, as a veritable bilbio-mecca, I knew its allure would eventually reel me in.


Finally, one Friday morning last summer, my cousin picked me up at 6 a.m. and aimed his Jeep toward the northwest, circumnavigating the Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) metroplex and moving in the general direction of the panhandle -- away from suburbia and across the mesquite-covered plains, through the small communities that occasionally dotted the map.

McMurty has declared that the West begins at Ft. Worth, and I do get a since of what he means.  It's almost as if the stockyards in Ft. Worth and its fabled pseudonym of Cowtown signal the change in topography and density of population in the grassy plains and stark landscape of a more rugged existence -- where people work the land and live off it.

My cousin and I have talked about making this trip as far back as 2001, and possibly earlier than that.  But, setting aside a full day and synchronizing schedules proved too bothersome to overcome.  The desire always lurked, though, routinely rebuffed by the consideration that (roundtrip) travel time would likely require more than double the amount of browsing time -- and gas money would considerably damage the book-getting budget.

We arrived around 10:30.  I was armed with information from the website about which buildings held which book categories and topics, mindful that there was no strict system of cataloguing and shelving that would help locate a specific author or book.  I knew the adventure would be about excavation and discovery, a sort of forced browsing.

But, I did bring a small piece of paper with a wishlist of titles I hoped to one day own.  I soon knew that wouldn’t matter.  It was apparent the day would be about walking along, staring at books, and picking one up when it caught your eye.

Booked Up has its stock distributed throughout several building in the downtown area.  Somewhat surprisingly, I never encountered any employees in buildings 2 through 4.  As a patron, you were expected to bring any book you wished to purchase to the cashier located in building 1.

So, I wandered for hours and looked at things and enjoyed things and smelled the books.

Ultimately, I didn't purchase anything...partly due to the price of the used books.  I mean, I often shop at Half Price Books.  So, I'm accustomed to more affordable fair from used books.

But, I'm certainly glad I went.  And, if I hadn't, I'd have always wondered about it.