Bookshop Memories — 30 Penn Books, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
30 Penn Books — Oklahoma City, OK
This was a nice used bookshop. Good books, a nice selection that was well organized. A little higher priced than some of the other used bookshops in town, but still good stuff. I specifically remember being on the lookout for good niche local, state, and regional history books here. This shop was close to a place I liked to get BBQ — a little shack two brothers ran out of the parking lot of a nearby grocery store. I had gotten to know one of them well in my time in Oklahoma City, so I always called it Crain Bros. BBQ, but I think I was the only one to bother giving their smoke shacks a name. This younger brother, working on a Ph.D. in philosophy, ran this one near 23rd Street and Penn. They had a very nice lady who ran the till for them and packed up the orders inside the grocery store. The other brother ran other smoke shacks with other helpers at a couple of other locations. It was more his empire than the philosophical younger brother’s, who was helping out. The younger brother finished his PhD and is now a philosophy professor in the area.
The smoke shack made a nice stop on a Friday when I felt like I could get away with a little extra long lunch break and could have a little drive. From the Oklahoma Historical Society, where I worked, down 23rd Street, I would grab some sliced…
