Pursuers of the Eclectic Now Have Further to Go

Since August, river house residents may have found it harder to get hold of books like The Natural Science of Stupidity than before.

Citing expansion needs, Michael McIntvre and Daniel Moore have moved their Cambridge usedbook store from its 30 Plympton St. home of six years to 8 Mt. Auburn St.

The shop, McIntyre and Moore, had been a favorite among Harvard students searching for the off-beat near the heart of Harvard Square. Tucked in a 550-square-foot nook across from Starr Books, the shop was known for the piles of books stacked on the long desk behind its store-front window.

Students in pursuit of the eclectic can still find the shop, now further east on Mt. Auburn in a contemporary red brick building that boasts four times the space.

In business since 1983, Moore and probably many Harvard students felt a tweak of nostalgia as the owners rooted the last of the dusty, frequently yellowing books from storeroom corners en route to the new store. The move took nearly a year to complete.

"I have to admit I felt a little sad when I stepped out, looked back and saw an empty shell," says Moore, speaking from his new shop.

The collection is maintained at the Mt. Auburn location. In preserved piles, one can still find the Political Thought in Medieval Times lying next to volumes of early American literature, Polish and Hungarian poetry or Swedish cookbooks.

"We sell books in fields in which it's hard to be gainfully employed," McIntyre says, repeating a favorite saying.

That fact helps explain why McIntyre and Moore will spend $200,000 this year buying used titles, up from $104,000 last year.

To McIntyre, a large part of the fun of owning a used-book store is in fact the oportunity to buy works on all kinds of bizarre topics. As he says, "We don't mess with textbooks."

Workers, however, find little time to actually sit down and read the tantalizing reams of pages that flow through the store. Both owners have labored virtually nonstop to get the new location up and running.

Adding to their problems is a rent more than triple their old rate.

"It's been a fairly difficult year," Moore says, and both partners said their new store has just broken even.