BUSINESS

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Carey Loren: "You don't go into the book business to make money."

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Assistant Editor

irst, Cary Loren
wanted to Destroy
All Monsters. Then
he was into Night
Crawlers. Now he's
the manager of an Oak Park
book store.
But wait. This is no or-
dinary bookstore, and Loren
is no ordinary bookstore
manager. After all, this is a
man who was a rock musi-
cian with the band Destroy
All Monsters and co-editor of
the Night Crawlers art
booklet before settling down
several years ago as manag-
er of the Book Beat.
The Book Beat is filled
with a distinctive and exten-
sive collection of art and
photography books, many of
which are rare or out of

print, which many avid
readers say is the best in the
city. The store boasts every-
thing from a massive book
called The Buildings of
Detroit to Humor 2, a collec-
tion of cartoon illustrations.
The store often hosts pho-
tography and art exhibits in
a gallery in the back. Res-
ting in cases near the front
of the store are tiny, hand-
made books — some no
bigger than 1" — from
around the world.
There also is an edition of
Rimbaud's A Season in Hell
with original photographs,
one of only 1,000 copies
printed; a book with a copper
cover and pastel prints, pro-
duced at an ashram, another
with a cover of sandpaper
and a third book made of a
box of rat killer; Oscar Wilde
playing cards; and numerous
booklets of photocopied art

With the city's
best collection
of art and
photography
books, offbeat
exhibits and
poetry
readings, the
Book Beat is
anything but
an ordinary
bookstores

originals like Night
Crawlers.
The Book Beat also is
home to a large Judaica sec-
tion, which attracts many
collectors, and a cozy corner
for children, with a kid-sized
table and stuffed animals
galore, including Rotten
Ralph, the cat who is always
in trouble.
The children's books are
the biggest sellers, Loren
says, though most of the in-
ventory is tied up in the art
and photography works.
Then there are the books
conspicuously absent from
the store. It may be the com-
puter age, but Loren doesn't
like technical toys.
"When we opened I didn't
know a thing about com-
puter books," Loren says. "I
still don't have them."
He doesn't like psychology
how-to manuals or romances

or Westerns much either, so
he doesn't carry them,
though patrons ask for the
books.
"There are whole fields of
literature I completely ig-
nore, but I'm able to do it be-
cause I'm a small guy. To
this day, I don't consider
myself a good businessman."
Now decorated with
African masks, a kite and a
mermaid hanging from the
ceiling, postcards of
skeletons, and stamps of
former actress Theda Bera
and Glenda the Good Witch,
the Book Beat had its begin-
nings in a former maternity
boutique with purple walls
and carpeting in a small
shopping center on Green-
field Road. Loren's mother
discovered the store in 1982.
He loved the place from
the start, though he never
imagined he would be man-

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

49