About Us

One day in 1995/6, a very good friend, Justin Blake called. He said “Mickey, this is your next business.” He then told me all about selling books on the Internet, which he had started doing a few months before. Always having had an interest in books, and being a reader, the whole thing intrigued me and the added good fortune was that I had an abundance of books that I knew I wasn’t going to read again, and with those and more than several boxes of books in the garage loft at my Mother’s house, I was on my way.

Of course we needed a name, and because I had just lost two of my Uncles, I decided I wanted some kind of name that would be a tribute to the men who had so much influence on my life. A friend, Stuart Watson, really got into the name thing, and sent me a list about a mile long, and so Uncle Books was named.

Right around then, Justin found a bookseller that was going out of business and wanted to sell his whole inventory! Long story short, I bought the inventory, called another friend in from Arizona, Dwight Morgan, who engineered the move, and let me tell you moving 20,000 books from San Bernardino to Burbank was not a small task. I remember when we had loaded the last box into the truck, the second day, in San Bernardino, Dwight said, “that was what we were looking for, the last box.” It was the first time, but certainly not the last, that I realized books in boxes are really, really heavy.

While I supervised unloading the books into a storage facility, Dwight built bookcases in my little two bedroom apartment able to hold about 3000 books. Those were for the 2200 books that were already on-line from the book dealer and space for more. Justin had separated out the books he felt were going to be the best to start putting on-line while we were packing up, and we had already held back the ones that were on-line, so those boxes went to the apartment while the rest went into storage. For the next five years we had three chairs to sit on, one in front of the computer, and a path from the front door to the bedrooms, every other open space including the couch was taken up with boxes of books.

Since then the books have been moved 3 times. Each time those boxes got heavier, I swear. And each time, I called on friends and family to help with the work, boxing, moving and building shelves. Don Morgan and Tommy Harris and my brother Gilbert Escobedo. The last time, my grandson Joseph Franco, and his wife Sheri moved them and built the shed that houses part of the un-inventoried boxes. When I said I hoped this was the last time they would have to moved. Joseph just smiled, “Don’t worry Gram”, his favorite saying, and I’ve been worrying for 36 years.

I have spent the last fourteen years typing and shipping, spending more or less time as other responsibilities allowed. So … I hope you like my story, and my selection of books for sale. Wishing you well, and a quiet place in your heart or home... to enjoy a good book.