By Shelby Brooks
For 15 years, Jim Gregory has hunted across the country for unique and interesting books to fill his Pakenham book store.
Mr Gregory thinks his shop, the Centre Court Book Exchange, could hold between 30,000 to 35,000 books, ranging from popular fiction and crime to westerns and hard to get pulp fiction.
But last week the suspicious fire which broke out in the Centre Court Arcade on Tuesday 3 August left Mr Gregory’s legacy hanging in the balance.
He predicts about half of his books will be unsalvageable, but he hasn’t been able to assess the damage yet.
“They’re doubled up on the shelves so the ones at the back might be able to be saved,” he said.
Mr Gregory said time was of the essence and was worried that with every passing hour the risk of his books and store being infested with black mould increased.
“I believe it was mainly smoke, soot and water damage from putting the fire out,” Mr Gregory said.
“Books only need a few drops of water to be wrecked.
“The longer it stays all wet, the bigger the chance of black mould in the shelving.”
Mr Gregory, who turns 70 next year, said he may be forced into early retirement.
“If I’ve got the energy I’ll clean up what I can and find another shop on a temporary basis because I don’t think I’ll get in the arcade for a while,” he said.
“Just to clean 30,000 books, at two minutes a book would take 1000 hours which would be 125 days working non-stop just to clean them.
“I’d then have to have them sorted and ordered, install new shelves and then put them on the shelves.
“If they’re too badly damaged they’re not worth cleaning, it would be better to dump the whole lot and go out and buy fresh ones but it that takes time to build up reasonable stock.”
Pre-Covid-19, Mr Gregory would take trips around the country every three months to visiting op shops for interesting books.
“I’d do it not for quantity but for quality to get different things to spice up the stock,” he said.
He is also a regular at local op shops and accepted trade-ins and donations.
“There would be quite a few rare books in there, really unusual things,” Mr Gregory said.
“A lot of history and war history that is a bit unusual and hard to get.”
