The first time I ever set foot on that black-and-white checkered tile floor of Wonder Book and Video on the Golden Mile , I was just a kid . You could still find Super Nintendo cartridges for sale .
Actually , though you might have to look harder , and wait longer for those now , you might still find one for sale on any given day . Just like you can find Playstation One games , vinyl records , VHS movies , CDs , cassettes , and even 8 tracks for sale , as well as DVDs and blu-rays to rent over on the video side . Yes , a walk-in video rental establishment , there are still a few left in the world !
On the book side , where I usually spend all of my visits , you ’ ll obviously find books , but better than that , they have used books — some obscure or very old . You ’ ll see shelf after shelf of used books on dozens of subjects . At times , those subjects are loosely defined , but there is a charming organization to the volumes that make up this classic Frederick shop .
Little has changed at Wonder Book since my first visit . The floor plan has shifted a bit here and there over the years , the organization has improved to some degree . However , gone is the charming disaster of book stacks in every aisle and the free-for-all pile of art prints that threatened to collapse and bury you as you browsed .
Yet , plenty has remained marvelously unchanged within those walls , like the sign on the door that greets visitors with the message , “ FREE OLD BOOK SMELL ,” and it ’ s not a lie . It permeates every corner of the shop : that mix of glue , ink , yellowing pages , a bit of dust and the combination of aromas from all the previous homes of the books — now waiting to be explored by customers .
You can even smell that fragrance outside the store , where the table of last-chance bargain books wait during business hours . Should Wonder Book ever vacate the space , ( perish the thought !) I imagine the smell of books would linger on for years afterward .