Shopkeeper Weds Words, Music

It’s a strange-sounding scenario: A shy shrink gives up a successful, two-decade career in Albuquerque, N.M., to carve out a Mecca for musicians amid the unlikely environs of a used bookshop in San Diego.

Sounds like a wild tale from Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” But then neither the Words & Music bookshop at 3806 4th Ave. in Hillcrest, nor Victor Margolis, its indefatigable, pianistic proprietor, are very usual.

Walk into the shockingly chic used bookshop where customers browse to the melody of a Chopin nocturne, say, or maybe a Gershwin lullaby played by Margolis, and it’s a fair bet you’ll think you’ve stepped into a trendy design store or an upscale coffee shop.

“Used bookstores don’t look like this,” Margolis acknowledged in a recent interview. “They’re crowded, dirty and disorganized.”

Margolis, 56, keeps Words & Music squeaky clean, even giving the interior a weekly touch-up of paint. Customers get a handout that charts the location of each subject from Africa, animals and antiques, to ecology, economics and essays, and wars, women’s studies and writing.

Designed by local architect, Ralph Roesling, the space won design and architecture awards its first year. Visually the black, white and gray decor of this “book gallery” departs from the stereotype of used-book stores. Words & Music has much open space and only about half as many shelves as one might expect for a typical bookstore this size.

It is a radical use of space for a bookshop, Margolis said. But it goes with the radical change Margolis and his wife Ann made when they closed their joint psychology practice in Albuquerque five years ago and came to San Diego. Despite the glamorous image of psychology, after two decades it had become a drudge for Margolis.

“It was stultifying after 20 years listening to people’s problems,” Margolis said. “I got no intellectual stimulation at all from being a therapist.”

There is plenty of stimulation now, however. He enjoys chatting with the customers, who like the books he stocks and the music he plays.

And Margolis has developed what is arguably the most comprehensive music-lecture concert series in San Diego. Words & Music presents a year round weekend concert series that features some of the city’s finest popular, classical, jazz and folk musicians, not only playing but explaining the music.

He enjoys the role of arts maven, of being a cross-pollinator of sorts.

“It’s an attempt to create a place where most of the arts can be experienced,” Margolis said of Words & Music. “There’s literature here. There are concerts. We have (monthly) architectural forums--paintings and prints on the wall.

“I think we have people come here to sample things they have never sampled before. People who don’t like jazz will trust me and come to hear a jazz artist.”

As concert master of ceremonies--he does not perform formal recitals--Margolis has shown a dramatic flair, occasionally indulging in a mock spat with the featured musician to the audience’s amazement. More often, though, he is the gracious host.

The concert series developed almost by accident after an early stab at using the store walls as a small art gallery failed.

Now the concerts bring in at least 20% of the store’s income, Margolis estimates--the difference between making a profit and breaking even.

Among the regular musicians at Words & Music are classical guitarist Fred Benedetti, singer-pianist Bill Wright who performs the music of Broadway composers, folk singer Sam Hinton, classical pianists Howard Wells and Peter Gach, flutist Mark Attebery, soprano Deborah Davis and the New Expression folk band.

“One of my biggest kicks is meeting the wonderful performers,” Margolis said. “I’m in show biz now. I’m star struck. I always wanted to meet Henry Fonda and Mel Torme. Well, I don’t meet them, but I meet people like Bill Wright and Sam Hinton and Mike Wofford, who is one of the greatest jazz pianists in the world.”

It was Margolis who suggested a recent tribute that recognized Hinton’s many years of public service to San Diego.

Humor and wit are essential to Margolis, who also enjoys penning poetry. The store’s answering machine carries this original poem that alludes to bookstore chains: “Beware my friends of the Dalton Gang, and in Walden’s pond don’t fall. It will be our Crowning derring-do, to undersell them all.”

The Words & Music selection of books reflects Margolis’ likes or what he at least tolerates. He loves biographies, for instance, and stocks seven categories including artists, dance, film, general, literary, music and theater.

However, customers will find few textbooks, Westerns or science fiction novels at Words & Music. And Margolis prefers the company of books about or by liberals over conservatives.

“I have a hard time buying George Will,” he said. “I will not buy Richard Nixon’s Memoirs new, but I will buy a used copy of it. The store reflects me and my tastes. Very little have I compromised to be successful.”

Margolis said he works seven days a week, averaging 100 working hours a week. Each day, he comes in at 2 a.m. to practice the piano for several hours before doing the work he has to do before opening.

“I’m anything but a natural pianist,” Margolis said.

Although he played the piano in his counseling office between clients, learning to play in public has been a trial. He wanted the piano set off to the side, but the architect designed it on a raised platform in the center of the store.

“I think you have to be better when it’s up on a dais like that,” he joked.

The unusual switch from successful but bored psychologist to struggling but happy bookseller does not suggest any repressed childhood desire, he said. After deciding to quit counseling, Margolis and his wife wanted an occupation they could both enjoy together. Since they like browsing through books, they settled on a bookstore. It has worked out, but not for them both.

Ann found she hated running a bookstore, and after two years quit to attend nursing school. Margolis said he is staying right where he is.

“I’ve created a life for myself in a nice environment. I can play music, talk about books, talk politics in a liberal way because most of the people who come in here are pretty liberal. Every morning, when it’s time to come to work, I really look forward to it. “