Intentionally misspelled, Farenheit 451 in Carlsbad, Calif., has yet to open its doors officially
to the public, but a few lucky bibliophiles have already made purchases
at the used books purveyor. "We've been selling books to people we
know," said Phil Phillips, who owns the store with his wife, Carol. "If
people look sad enough when they come to the door, we let them in."
Many of these eager consumers are also patrons of the Old Julian
Bookhouse, a used bookstore owned by the Phillips in Julian, a town 60
miles north of Carlsbad. "We have a lot of customers down here already,
and we didn't even know," noted Phil, who expects to open Farenheit 451
in the next couple of months after completing work on the store's
interior.
Farenheit 451 owes its name to a
fire that claimed the Phillips' home three years ago. One of the worst
wildfires in California history, it destroyed more than their
residence. "We lost about 60,000 books," said Phil, most of it stock
for the Old Julian Bookhouse. Ironically, he said, "we had been worried
for years about the store burning up, and so we stockpiled our
inventory at the house--all the expensive books, the botanicals, old
leather-bounds, signed editions, ancient books. We had books going back
to the late 1600s."
After the fire, the Phillips left the mountainous regions surrounding
Julian and moved south along the California coast. They had been
looking for space for a new store and signed the lease on the Carlsbad
location earlier this year. Although there is "a diversity between the
two stocks that's developing now," said Phil, they are considering
selling the Julian store. "If the right person comes along and can
afford it, I would not hesitate."
For now the Phillips are looking forward to opening Farenheit 451. The
store's name draws comments from area residents "who have read the book
and seen the movie," said Phil. (A few also remember the two Laguna
Beach stores called Fahrenheit 451.) An appearance by Fahrenheit 451
author Ray Bradbury at the Carlsbad City Library in April further
heightened awareness of the connection between the story's plotline and
the store's moniker. "People make the link between books burning and
the name," commented Phil. In fact, he added, Bradbury's visit prompted
some "to think that's why we named the store what we did." Only in this
case it's not fiction that mirrored reality but the other way around.--Shannon McKenna