A Corner of the World Just Around the Corner

If your friendly ATM machine refused last weekend to provide you with much needed cash, don't blame the person you sent three dozen red roses to on Valentine's Day--and who still refused to go out with you. Most probably, the negative balance in your account has been caused by all the books you bought for your classes.

It's not unusual for students to shell out three hundred dollars for books at the beginning of each semester; maybe even more for those concentrating in the humanities. But if you think you've got it bad, just ask someone who is concentrating in Romance Languages, German, Slavic Studies...anyone, in fact, who is taking classes with required books in other languages. For them, the semester beings with a visit to Schoenhof's Foreign Books, located on 76A Mount Auburn St. Sure, they don't have to wait in those impossibly long lines at the Coop, but the price they pay for expediency is high: foreign volumes are pricier than even the most obscure of social theory tomes.

If books seem to cost more at Schoenhof's than at other bookstores, store manager David Leyenson explains, it is due to the high price of foreign books and the expense of getting them to Cambridge. To fight the high cost of foreign books, German Studies concentrator Jeanine L. Morey '96 expailned, professors limit the number of books that students need to buy by placing numerous readings on reserve.

"The amount of money I spend there varies each semester," she says, "but this spring I was asked to buy only one book. Although it cost $50, I still spent less than if I had bought many cheaper books at the Coop."

Prices at Schoenhof's Leyenson maintains, are not higher than they are at other bookshops specializing in imported books, such as the Librairie Francaise in New York. And, if you don't like Schoenhof's for some reason, New York would actually be the closest place to get hold of foreign books. Schoenhof's definitely has a monopoly in the area. Students from Harvard, MIT, Tufts, and other nearby institutions invade the store at the beginning of each semester, looking for reading material that is unavailable elsewhere in the vicinity.

But there's more to this bookstore than reading material for classes. Schoenhof's sells grammar textbooks and dictionaries in 250 languages, comic books, current novels, mysteries, children's books, and books for specialists. It also functions as a wholesale retailer for institutions and bookstores throughout the country. This effort, according to Leyenson, is unparalled by any other bookstore in the country. "Others have tried but gone out of business," he says. "It's a tough job."

And grateful students take advantage of the bookstores' ample repertoire. "I love the kids' books. I have learnt so much German through them," Morey says. And, according to Gabriel Piedrahita '96, "They have the best Asterix and Obelix selection around."

Professor such as Reisinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Professor of comparative Literatures, Jurij Striedter, have been ordering books from Schoenhof's for years. "Ordering books there is now better than ten years ago," Striedter commented. "They have improved their service."

Receiving a book that has been ordered can still take a long time and is frustrating for those who, like Striedter, are "not book orderers but book buyers."

Striedter prefers to buy the books I need in Europe." Nice, but not viable option for many students. Students, however, usually find all the foreign classics they need on Schoenhof's conspicuous tables, labelled by class. It is when looking for a highly specialized or more obscure book that one might run into trouble.

Schoenhof's due to its pleasant atmosphere, interesting books, and frequent discounts, has a dedicated clientele outside of academia. The staff is friendly and helpful, always willing to turn a bookshelf inside-our to find that slim and elusive book which insists on hiding behind some heavy hardcover. As Cambridge resident Marco Calahonra, a native of Argentina, says, "It is the only place where I can find books in my language. They are more expensive than they would be in Buenos Aires, but the prices are not bad and the selection is very good."

If you've only been to Schoenhof's to buy Confucius in the original, consider returning when the rest of your Chinese class is not there fighting for the last copy. If you've never been there, Schoenhof's is a great place to find Tintin in French, German or Russian...in fact, it's the only place.