Sunrise Bookshop To Close Its Doors

After 37 years in business, Berkeley's is closing its doors at the end of the month.  

But until then, owner Richard Cook is still scuttling around the store, arranging its merchandise and greeting its customers with a shy hello and nod, as if the end weren't near. Fliers advertising a sale of 20 to 30 percent off are taped to windows and surfaces around the store. 

The small, sunny Telegraph Avenue bookstore is filled with new and used metaphysical books on philosophy, spirituality and religion. Titles include A New Model of the Universe by P.D. Ouspensky, The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, Living Dharma by Jack Kornfield and a bookshelf full of purple tomes featuring the work of Plato and Aristotle.

Cook describes "metaphysical" as "any tradition or religion or philosophy that explores something beyond the physical reality in which we find ourselves submersed," or more simply, books that hypothesize about the meaning of life.

He doesn't have a typical customer, and laughs thinking about it. "Some of them are very scholarly and maybe have a spiritual practice and are interested in the various teachers and philosophers," he said.

"Others are just starting to get an interest in something beyond the ordinary," he said.  "Maybe they had a reading from an astrologer and want to see what that's all about." 

Cook got the idea to open his own bookstore while working at the from 1968 to 1973. He would visit on Ashby Avenue on his lunch break.  

"A wonderful woman who worked there — her name was Florence Bowers and she was a wonderful palmist and astrologer — one day she asked me if I would like to be partners with her in a bookstore," he said.

"Unfortunately, she died before she could implement the idea," he said.  "But she planted the seed, and that seed is Sunrise Bookshop."

Although a few customers have been around since the bookstore opened in 1974, most of the 20 to 25 customers Cook said Sunrise has per day are new to the area. "Berkeley is one of those places that has a lot of movement."

Customer Pamela Saint John is an example of that change.  She found the bookstore after moving into the neighborhood a year and a half ago.  

"There are books here that are more rare; books you don't find in larger bookstores," said Saint John. "You get a variety from different authors — like this book here by Krishnamurti. They've got about eight or ten books from this guy."

But with sales down and despite a helpful landlord, Sunrise can no longer pay its rent and overhead costs. "The same thing that happened to Shambhala's and Cody's is happening to us," said Cook. Both of those bookstores and Black Oak Books closed within the past decade.

With fewer small booksellers in Berkeley, Cook said book lovers will have fewer quality selections to browse. Recently, Amazon.com declared that , based upon book sales.

"Obviously, this place isn't for everybody," said Cook. "For people who are interested in this stuff, they'll lose some scope."

But there are still other local stores, he said. "There's , there's still ."

Sunrise has survived what Cook calls "the two enemies of books": water on two occasions when the upstairs studio apartment had plumbing problems and fire.

"We had an arson here in 1985," said Cook. The culprit was never caught.  

"There was a suspicious and odd member in the tarot class, and people thought it was him," said Cook. "But who knows?"

Ultimately, it's the economy that's causing Sunrise Bookshop to close.  "In 2009, we seemed to still be afloat," said Cook. "But 2010 was bad."

He said that customers who would have bought six or eight books before now purchase one or two. This brings each sale down from around $100 to only $30.

Cook avoids blaming the internet for the decline of small bookstores. He plans to find a part-time job, enjoy gardening, spend more time with his wife and continue to sell books online.

What he'll miss most is seeing his customers.  "You have customers you get to know," he said. "They become part of your life."