Barnes & Nobles’ Resident Bibliophile
While American workers play musical swivel chairs, plopping into a new job every 4.4 years on average according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, John McDougal has marched around and around as the workplace Muzak has changed from Madonna to Sheryl Crow to Alicia Keys to Taylor Swift.
Earlier this year McDougal celebrated his 30th anniversary at Barnes & Noble Booksellers. The Ventura store even has a banner on proud display recognizing the rare feat.
Talking books and writers over a beer with John McDougal is a real treat.
McDougal has seen the bookstore landscape change greatly over the past three decades. For starters, Barnes & Noble was still B. Dalton’s when he began working at its small store in the old Esplanade Mall in Oxnard.
He next worked at the single-story Barnes & Noble in Ventura at Main Street and Telephone Road and a decade ago was part of the lock-stock-and-books relocation into a grand new two-story B&N where the old 101 Drive-In theater used to be.
“A lot has changed,” McDougal reminisces. “I remember when we used carbon copies for orders. We looked up books on microfiche – and we still couldn’t tell you if we actually had it. But it was a small store, so we kind of knew.”
Today’s store is a much larger with countless more titles, but McDougal still usually knows if a book is in stock without checking the modern computer system; where it is located; and what’s inside the cover.
For good reason here is how one fellow employee introduces him to customers seeking a reading recommendation: “This is Mr. McDougal and he knows every book in the world.”
John McDougal, born and raised in Oxnard, says he was a “library kid” and to this day reads more than a book a week. Asked for some of his Hall of Fame reads, he replied: “One of my all-time favorites is T.H. White’s The Once And Ancient Future King. I re-read The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame again and again. Little Big Man by Thomas Berger. Steinbeck, of course. Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It . . . .”
He was just getting started.
John McDougal is 56 years old with a boyish mop of curls – albeit now salt-and-peppered with a matching goatee – that defies gravity. Add in round wire-rim glasses and he brings to mind a wise and kindly college professor.
The 8-year-old library kid is now an adult bibliophile as evidenced by the three glass bookcases in the front room of his home, each filled with “my treasures” as he calls his rare collection.
While he loves old-fashioned bound books, McDougal is a growing fan of e-readers because they allow him to find out-of-print titles he has been searching decades for in used bookstores.
“Not everyone likes to read what I do,” McDougal allows. “Everyone has different tastes. Some people want to read what’s popular right now; others are open to wider suggestions.
“I ask questions and then do my best,” he continues of his magic formula for recommending books. “It’s pretty gratifying to have someone come back and say, ‘Thanks! That was great! What should I read next?’ ”
A new question McDougal hears, prodded by the anniversary banner, is: “When are you going to retire?”
“Maybe in another 30 years,” he answers. “I’m having too much fun.”
In honor of his loyalty and longevity, McDougal is being given a celebratory trip anywhere in the world. He plans to take his wife LoRena to London, which will bring this tale full circle.
You see, while McDougal’s official bookstore anniversary is Feb. 22, 1983, he actually worked at B. Dalton’s for two years following graduation from UC Santa Barbara in 1979. After saving some money, he quit and packed his backpack for Europe.
“I wanted to travel before going on to the next stage in my life,” he recalls of the 13-month odyessy that followed. He eventually rushed home when his girlfriend informed him she had met another guy.
“It had a happy ending,” McDougal says, smiling because that girlfriend became his wife. This time LoRena will be at his side flying across the Atlantic – no doubt with a carry-on book that comes expertly recommended.
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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for the Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. His new memoir WOODEN & ME is available at www.WoodyWoodburn.com and Amazon.com.