>>Pick these up and find
a place in the front,
we can put them down they're
gonna be table books.
>>Electronic books are becoming
more and more
popular all the time.
Yet there are still
people who firmly believe
you can't just beat the look,
feel and smell of a real book.
Our guest today has
been providing people
from far and wide,
with a huge variety of used
paperbacks and hardbounds
along with many personal
stories, for over 41 years.
Join us today as we
visit with Sandy McAdams,
owner of Daedalus Bookshop
on the Downtown Mall.
Come on.
>>Everybody's gonna find
something remarkable
in here I think.
>>Thank God nobody has
a pair of scissors,
but this would be
like a barber shop.
People come in and get
the news and gossip.
>>So Sandy, when did you
first fall in love with books,
and why?
>>Well, I grew up
where there was books
and my mother loved books.
And I had a pretty
decent speaking voice,
so I would read different
things in school.
And even in early grades
I could do it okay
so they kept asking
me and I enjoyed that,
and I just grew in to me
being mesmerized by them.
And then I was going to school
and there was a guy whose
shop I passed everyday.
It was called Martin's Book
Shop, it was a wonderful shop,
but he didn't care
much for fiction
so I'd go in there and look
at fiction all of the time.
But I didn't have any money
but he knew I was interested,
so he took me on my
first book-buying trip.
>>And that began the whole idea
of wanting to have your
own used book store.
>>Yes.
>>What brought you
to Charlottesville?
Why did you decide to
open a book store here?
>>I had sort of a book store
in the house I was living
in Westhampton in Long Island.
And then a guy, a
friend of a friend,
gave me a picture
of this building.
The building just
looked like a bookshop.
Although there was
a barber shop here
and a private
detective in the back.
>>And now the store is three
levels, three different floors.
How many books do you have here?
>>It's certainly a guess, but
I think an educated guess,
probably 100,000.
>>How do you keep track
of all of those books?
>>We don't.
>>You don't.
(Terri laughs)
Alright Sandy, explain that?
(Terri laughs)
>>We're very very well,
divide it in to sections.
>>Okay.
>>And so if you want
a book on psychology,
we have a lovely group of
psychology books in one place,
they're non-alphabetized
but they're in one section-
>>Right.
>>And that there wouldn't be
anywhere else you need to go.
>>Okay.
>>We have a wonderful
hardback section of fiction,
a wonderful paperback
section of fiction
and those are alphabetized.
As are the westerns,
as are the mysteries,
and then for instance, in
this room the kids books,
Virginiana books,
and first editions and
signed first editions
and erotica and it
goes floor by floor,
with different sections.
>>So tell us about
the inspiration
for the name of the bookshop.
>>When I first had even a
little bit of a bookshop,
was in a bar in Westhampton.
My favorite writer at the
moment, "God of my Universe",
was James Joyce.
And so I thought Steven
Daedalus is the main,
the protagonist
both in the Portrait
of an Artist and Ulysses,
so I thought let me name
it after Steven Daedalus
in his honor.
Joyce named Stephen Daedalus
because Daedalus in
Greek mythology was
the great artificer.
And he built the Labyrinth,
which many people
see as our bookstore.
>>My grandfather was a writer,
and so he used to
love to come in here
when he was visiting us,
and we actually lost
him once in the shop.
He's very hard of hearing
and so he just went
and got lost around the
twisted passageways in here
and we couldn't find him.
(Eleanor laughs)
But it's funny little
quirky things like that
that I enjoy about this place,
it's just kind of a
Charlottesville staple.
>>I'd always had trouble
with my eyesight.
I had heard that Aldus
Huxley had written a book
about the Blake Method,
and I'm sort of looking
around and this fellow
with a ZZ Top beard comes
right up in my face and says,
"What are you looking for?"
I said wow, that's
a little strong,
but (laughing) I'm
looking for this book.
He said, "It's right here."
And he reached over... I don't
know if you remember this,
it reached over his shoulder,
pulled it out and gave it to me.
>>It's neat, there's books in
here come in and look at books
that are two or three
hundred years old.
And I just think it's really
cool that you can pick
that thing up and look at it
just like somebody did
when it was brand new
back in the 1600's.
>>I'm the Shelver
and Weeder here,
yeah, basically putting
books on and taking them off.
Of course when you're
putting a lot of books in
it doesn't leave a lot of room.
And so the other half of my job
is going through the shelves,
picking out books that have
been on there for too long,
and bringing those back down
for Sandy again to decide
whether we want to keep
them here after five or ten
or sometimes more
year(Philip laughing)
>>What do you read?
>>Well, I think when I turned
60, I thought to myself
I've got enough facts,
but I don't have enough
wisdom by a long shot,
so I better just read fiction,
that's what I've done.
Well, and then you also had
this great romantic idea
when you started the store
that you'd be sitting
around reading all day.
What happened with that?
Sandy, I've never read
a book in this building.
(Terri laughing)
>>Cause you have the work-
>>Because I'm always
marking books.
>>And then some of the
books that come through,
explain the pictures
on the wall behind you.
>>Oh, the pictures on the
wall are pictures that came
out of books that were
marked except for three.
>>So, don't know anybody
except for three,
you don't know
anybody on that wall.
>>Not a one
>>They just came with the book.
>>They came with the book and
we haven't put up all of them
but ones that intrigued us.
And there's one, it looks very
much like President Wilson,
so that's been fun.
>>So many different people
have come through this store
over 41 years.
>>That's the best part,
that's why being online
would just be silly.
I do it 'cause I
love the books but,
just some enormous number
of people who come there
would never have a
chance to meet him.
>>Yeah.
>>And that happens every day.
>>We'll talk about the other
gentleman who came through.
>>There's a-
>>Oh, the publisher?
>>Mm-hmm.
>>Yeah, that was a fine moment.
One day I looked up and there
was a Lawrence Ferlinghetti
who wrote the book of poems.
And I was able to get
dates in high school,
because I knew that book
and the girls were
really impressed.
(Terri laughing)
But I admire him enormous so
he came and I saw his face
and I thought, I know that guy.
And so as he started
to come in, I said
"Mr. Ferlinghetti, it's
such an honor to have you."
Here and wonderfully
enough high point,
he said,
"No, it's such an honor for me
to be in such a famous bookshop.
>>Yeees.
>>So it was very nice.
>>Yes, okay, so let's
talk about the importance
of having a physical book
shop and physical books.
I'm assuming I'm correct
in that you don't really
like electronic books.
>>No, I'm not sure I even
have the vaguest idea
what they are and I have
no wish to explore it.
>>Talk about the
importance of a real book,
a physical book
>>Well, you can hold them.
It's different than you
can feel like this book.
For instance, if you can
get "The Poetical Works of
Thomas Gray",
but you wouldn't have this
beautiful decorated cover,
which nobody's
going to do again.
>>Yeah.
>>So you'll never get
to feel these things
and see these things.
>>Or smell these books.
>>I love the smell of books.
I was looking through
the paperbacks and
the hardback fiction,
Where did you use to?
It depended on whatever it was,
I was interested in at the time.
So I would become infatuated
with one particular writer,
and then I would want
to buy all those books.
And so I couldn't afford them,
but I often could
afford them here.
You know, sometimes I would
sit in the corner upstairs
and read books (laughing)
that I did not buy.
(Thomas laughing)
>>Okay. So you're also famous
because you actually
started a newspaper,
several years ago,
talk about that.
>>That's when I...
Very early days when I
had the enormous energy.
with some friends,
we started a thing called
the Times Charlottesville
and we type all this
up on an IBM Selectric.
It was wonderful to
see these people write
these wonderful stories,
and it lasted two years.
>>Let's talk about the
other thing you're famous
for in Charlottesville
is starting
and renovating the
C & O restaurant.
What was that project
like in the beginning?
>>I'd been there two yearsú
but I'd been working so
much building the shelves,
and putting the books up.
I didn't have a chance,
much of going around
meeting many people, some.
But one of the guys I
met was Phil Stafford
who was still my best friend
but he came by the
bookstore one day
and for some
unknown reason said,
"You wanna have a
business together,
"I just inherited some money."
So we decided to do that,
we bought the C & O building-
>>Uh-huh.
>>Took us a year to renovate it,
and it was wonderful fun.
>>Yeah, and you were
saying too, I mean
that people didn't quite know
what to make of the food.
Like they didn't quite
know what to make
of a restaurant like that,
because it was fine dining.
>>Yes, when we opened?
>>Yeah.
>>Not a clue-
>>Yeah.
>>But the upstairs was
very serious stunning,
and it was all white,
the white floor,
no pictures, no music,
and our service I've never
seen anything close to it.
>>Now, 15 years ago you
were diagnosed with MS.
>>Right.
>>So how has that affected
your ability to work
and run the store, if at all?
>>I think up till maybe now,
it was just another implement
that I had needed to
have to be able to work.
But it's been getting
harder now in a sense as
just a hindrance that I have
to worry about falling out of.
But I still work
and it's still good
and when you come in and am
on the desk being very quiet,
it means up close.
(Terri laughing)
>>Okay, so you've done
this for 41 years.
>>Mm-hmm.
>>Are you just going to do this
for another 10 or 20 years?
Or are you gonna you
know, I don't know
open another restaurant or
something (Terri laughing)
>>No, no, this is it.
My wonderful wife of 34
years, Donna McAdams,
she's really allowed
me to do this
because she's been a nurse,
and I never had any insurance
till we were married.
>>Huh.
>>So she's provided not only a
paycheck which is twice mine,
but she's provided
insurance and love.
>>They call him the
Sage of 4th Street
but what you got to
remember is 4th Street's
very short street.
>>Sandy is a character,
he's definitely, he's a gem.
>>When you see him
with the customers,
you realize he cares
about both books
and the other people
who care about books,
and he makes
connections with people.
>>This bookshop is one
of the treasures of town.
I'm sure Sandy's
heard that before.
But it's a true resource and
it's just a wonderful thing,
just not nothing like it.
(Jazz music)