Leaving Few Pages Unturned : Bud Hatcher Has Checked Out Thousands of Books From the Manhattan Beach Library

Bud Hatcher is reading a comparative economics book called “Head to Head.”

The Manhattan Beach insurance salesman is also plowing through separate works on finance, the stock market, business, the U.S. Navy and World War II.

And American Indians. And Montana.

Oh, and Hatcher is interspersing that reading with literary forays into his latest passion: trout fishing.

And those are just the books on the reading table now. There are more on the way.

Lots more.

Numbers are difficult to come by, but Lila Held, head librarian at Manhattan Beach Library, estimates Hatcher has checked out several thousand books during the past 20 years.

“We’ve got about 80,000 volumes, but we don’t have enough for Mr. Hatcher,” Held said. “We have a number of prolific readers, but he’s tops.”

Said Hatcher, 57: “With each book it’s a different adventure and a different story, and you just don’t forget them.”

Hatcher borrows as many as 15 books a week from the Manhattan Beach Library, which is only a few blocks from his home. It’s a given that he will request the books on both the Los Angeles Times and New York Times bestseller lists.

But bestsellers rarely appease Hatcher’s voracious literary appetite. Frequently, he will immerse himself in an exhaustive study, often checking out all the books the library has on a particular topic.

“He has runs on topics. Right now it’s on trout and fly-fishing. But before that it was cooking,” said April Nelson, the reference librarian at Manhattan Beach. “Before that it was nonfiction stuff, like Wall Street things like on Ivan Boesky.”

Sometimes getting those “have-to-have” books isn’t easy. Last year, Hatcher requested a title on the history of bandannas. During his naval service, Hatcher used to buy bandannas for family members. When he discovered there was a scholarly work on the topic, he wanted it.

But the local libraries couldn’t oblige his request: The title wasn’t checked out; they just didn’t have it. The search for the bandanna book was on.

The call went out to libraries throughout the county, state and even east of the Mississippi River, but none had the tome on the bandanna. Finally, it took a library in Fort Wayne, Ind., to satisfy the request.

“I was real surprised when they found it,” said Hatcher, who recalls that First Lady Martha Washington was fond of making bandannas for husband George.

Of course, anyone with a library card can check out books, but does Hatcher actually read them all? Not entirely. If he becomes bored with a book, Hatcher skims it, reading only the first and last paragraph of each chapter. He rarely reads for more than an hour at a stretch, and even though he’s had two speed-reading courses, he still doesn’t consider himself a fast reader.

Hatcher’s love affair with the word began with the Bible, the first book that he read. Today, he ranks Ernest Hemingway and James Michener among his favorite authors. He enjoys embarking on the “vicarious trip” gained through reading and takes a dim view of television and videos, branding them “one-dimensional.”

“I’ve been a lot of places mentally,” he said.

No matter where Hatcher’s book travels may have taken him, he once found himself at a crossroads where all bibliophiles arrive: Do I want to own or rent? For Hatcher, the answer led him straight to his local library.

“Most of the time, I don’t want to have the books around after I’ve read them. It’d be a waste of space,” he said. “They’d just sit around and gather dust.”

Of course, Hatcher does pay his own form of rent--in overdue library charges.

“I pay a fine every now and then, sure,” he said. He paused for a moment. “I pay a lot of fines, but I’ve never had to pay for a whole book.”

What Bud Hatcher Is Reading

Here are the titles, authors and subjects of books Bud Hatcher is reading now:

* “Inside Hitler’s Headquarters,” by Walter Warlimont (World War II).

* “Trout Bum,” by John Gierach (a contemporary look at fly-fishing).

* “Fishing Yellowstone Waters,” by Charles E. Brooks (prose and photography guide to trout rivers).

* “Fly-Fishing the High Country,” by John Gierach (tips on fly-fishing).

* “Selective Trout,” by Doug Swisher (scientific approach to trout fishing on Eastern and Western rivers).

* “Safe Investing,” by John Slatter (how to make money without losing your shirt).

* “Market Wizards,” by Jack Schwager (interviews with top traders).

* “Sierra Club,” by Tom Turner (photography).

* “Louis L’Amour--Far West,” by David Muench (photography).

* “Conspiracy of Silence,” by Lisa Priest (detective story).

* “Head to Head,” by Lester Thurow (comparative economic study).

* “Fred Zinnemann: A Life in the Movies,” Scribners (entertainment).

* “Playing Hardball With Soft Skills,” by Steven J. Bennett (how to prosper with non-technical skills in a hi-tech world).

* “A River Runs Through It,” by Norman MacLean (biographical fiction).

* “Wind Fall--The End of the Affair,” by William F. Buckley Jr. (Buckley’s take on events during his lifetime).

* “Hitler’s German Enemies,” by Louis L. Snyder (portraits of heroes who fought the Nazis).

* “The Year of the Trout,” by Steve Raymond (observation of trout).

* “The Traveling Angler,” by Ernest Schwiebert (20 five-star vacations for anglers).

* “Fly-Fishing for Rainbows,” by Rex Gerlach (strategies and tactics for snagging America’s favorite trout).