Moore Books! Much Moore Books!

SOME OF YOU will be content to spend four years buying only the books handed to you by the Coop, books that your professors have requested as the most suitable to nurture and develop your fledgling mind. Even if it is possible to get through Harvard without opening a non-Coop book, you are still beating the national average. "Only three percent of the population bought a book last year," claims Michael Patrick, manager of McIntyre and Moore, a used bookstore at 8 Mt. Auburn Street. "Less than half of those bought used books."

If you feel like rebelling against the majority of the U.S. population, the staff at McIntyre and Moore will gladly act as enablers. The store occupies a subterranean room on Mr. Auburn street, two blocks past Quincy House. It was founded in 1983 by two former bookstore employees to sell books that "you want to read, not that you're forced to read," says Patrick.

Although McIntyre and Moore refuses to stock many textbooks, the majority of the books are still fairly serious. If you desperately want a junk-book fix, look elsewhere for the latest Harlequin romance. On the other hand, when Patrick comes across a Danielle Steele or two in a batch of other books, those novels go out on the clearance table for a quarter each.

This is not to say that McIntyre and Moore doesn't stock novels and science fiction. The owners buy some, but they are selective in their choices. The fiction section is no larger than that of any other subjects: poetry, travel books, philosophy, Byzantine history, archaeology, advanced math, history of science, Greek, Latin and more.

The individual books on the shelves, bought from estate sales and private collectors, form an eclectic collection. Patrick admits that looking for a specific book "is like playing the lottery. Odds are, I'm not going to have it." But, if you are hoping to browse or look at a range of books on a chosen topic, McIntyre and Moore is designed for you.

A friend and I wandered into the store during shopping week, looking for some books for a history core. I found only one of the ten books that I needed, although for a great price. My friend ended up buying a fantastic book of annotated Mother Goose nursery rhymes on sale for half price.

Books still in print are generally marked at half the cover price, although common books and books with highlighting cost less. When I confess to highlighting my textbooks, Patrick sympathizes. "I hate it, but I understand. Going to Harvard you pay $26,000 a year. What's $40 for a book?"

In addition to being generally affordable, McIntyre and Moore features a weekly half price sale on selected books from one subject. Last week, economics was the targeted subject. Of 26 shelves of economics books. 14 shelves were marked fifty perent off.

Who bears the responsibility for deciding which books will be on sale? "I do. It's my job," Patrick answers with pride.

He continues, "It's not that we want to put the books on sale, but it helps create space." In the book business, "you always buy more than you sell. If you don't, you're dying." McIntyre and Moore has a warehouse with twice as many books as the store holds, and the owners are constantly buying more.

Patrick divides the world into two categories. "You are either a reader or not," he says. "Most people have no time. They do not want to read. They'd rather have a beer." Luckily for McIntyre and Moore, they have an international reputation, cheaper rent than the Square, and devoted customers, including some "who come in every single day, seven days a week." That may seem extreme to some, but McIntyre and Moore is certainly the place to fulfill your longing for books that aren't on the syllabus.