We take the paperback for granted.  Yet, in the 1950s and early 1960s the paperback revolution was, well, revolutionary.  The spinner rack was once the domain of comics.

But then came paperbacks.  Floods of paperbacks.

And a new use for the spinner rack.

Paperbacks brought great literature to the masses.  Dangerous!  Democratic!  And Cody’s was at the Vangaurd, along with several others.

And all across the country, newstands selling books.  What a thought!

These ads from the Berkeley Barb illustrate the enthusiasm that Cody had and projected for the novel paperback.

An early ad with the confusing “near Durant.”  Later ads quickly corrected that to “near Dwight.”

This ad references the Espresso – the Espresso Forum in what is now Amoeba Records.

Just a taste, I know.  But I remember the rush of walking into Cody’s or the University of Pennyslvania bookstore or the paperback bookstore in Admore that name of which I can’t remember.  It was behind the Suburban Theater in Suburban Square.

And – to be clear – I don’t mean the Admore Theater on Lancaster Pike.

But I still can’t remember the name of the bookstore that I went to in high school.  Dang!  My sister can’t remember it.  And she doesn’t even remember the store.  Double dang.

I showed my friend the Cody ads.   He wasn’t impressed with all the intellectual titles.

What about this?

Or this?

 Or, he wanted to know, this:

I stopped him.   I went over what the paperback revolution did.  What Cody’s did.  What the ads were saying to us.   He nodded.  And said –