{"id":66015,"date":"2025-10-08T01:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T01:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/66015\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T01:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T01:53:11","slug":"tough-read-the-fight-to-keep-autobooks-aerobooks-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/66015\/","title":{"rendered":"Tough Read: The Fight to Keep Autobooks-Aerobooks Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

The little shop at the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Catalina Street in Burbank, California, may be unassuming on the outside, but to the automotive world, it\u2019s the most important bookstore in America.<\/p>\n

Autobooks-Aerobooks<\/a>, generally referred to by its original name, just Autobooks, is a mecca. Loyalists\u2014at least those who still know how to read\u2014migrate to 2900 West Magnolia Boulevard from all over the world, where they find like-minded auto enthusiasts and 2200 square feet of automotive titles, many of which you can\u2019t find anywhere else, and that includes on Amazon. And yes, there is a solid selection of aeronautical books, not a surprise since one of the owners, Chuck Forward, is a retired aeronautical engineer. Though the store was originally just Autobooks, years ago it combined with a failing aviation bookstore to include aircraft.<\/p>\n

\"Autobooks-Aerobooks-Exterior-Wide-edit-crop\"Brandan Gillogly<\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

This morning, the other owner, Tina Van Curen\u2014who is married to Forward, who\u2019s manning the cash register up front\u2014sits at an elevated desk at the rear of Aerobooks, where she handles the paperwork. There is a lot. Not only are books getting harder to sell, they\u2019re getting more difficult to acquire for booksellers like Van Curen. There\u2019s a confusing contraction in the number of book distributors, especially those willing to ship important European titles to America.<\/p>\n

She recently sent a big order to a book distributor, and instead of getting books, she got an email: \u201cEffective last Friday, we\u2019ve closed down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Automotive Tina Van CurenSteven Cole Smith<\/p>\n

If it rattles Van Curen, it doesn\u2019t show. \u201cWe\u2019re working hard. It\u2019s an uphill battle for print media in general. Look at all the magazines that have gone away, let alone books.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she and Forward persevere. Autobooks is an institution, founded in 1951 by Harry Morrow, a Southern California open-wheel racer and SCCA champion who, according to multiple sources, once owned part of Road & Track magazine. Forward and Van Curen bought the store from Chet Knox, a photographer and hot-rodder, who came out of retirement to take over Autobooks for six years. \u201cI was the store\u2019s best customer, so I bought the place,\u201d Knox said. He promised his wife he would sell it and re-retire when he turned 80. He did.<\/p>\n

That was in 2007. Forward and Van Curen can\u2019t say they weren\u2019t warned. \u201cYou really don\u2019t own Autobooks-Aerobooks,\u201d Knox said. \u201cIt owns you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"autobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

But for Van Curen and Forward, it\u2019s time to move on. Past time, actually: They announced in April of 2024 that Autobooks-Aerobooks was for sale. Why? Here\u2019s an example: \u201cIt\u2019s Saturday, and where are we? We\u2019re here!\u201d Van Curen says. \u201cThere\u2019s a big Italian car show we\u2019re missing.\u201d She\u2019s an Alfa fan; he, however, drives a Citro\u00ebn. \u201cIt would be fun to go to these things. But we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were hoping to be former owners by now, nearly a year and a half after putting Autobooks-Aerobooks on the market. \u201cWe can\u2019t just walk away,\u201d Van Curen says. \u201cFirst of all, it\u2019s a tradition. We don\u2019t want to do that. As much as I want to get out and have some kind of life, do some traveling\u2014I\u2019d like to have gone to the Audrain Concours in Rhode Island\u2014We\u2019re Southern California born and raised. If we\u2019re going to go to New England, I don\u2019t just want to go for a couple of days; I want to go see some things, look at the fall colors, visit some friends in Philadelphia. But we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That the store has survived for nearly 75 years is extraordinary. A topic on Reddit<\/a> has this headline: \u201cHow is the Autobooks-Aerobooks store still open?\u201d One poster left this comment: \u201cLove that store, you\u2019ll see Jay Leno in there pretty regularly. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if he alone kept it afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

Ah, comedian and former NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno, the gift who keeps on giving to the automotive community. Leno\u2019s personal car and motorcycle collections are legendary, as is his legitimately encyclopedic knowledge of wheeled vehicles. He\u2019s a regular visitor to Autobooks and frequently leaves with an armload of merchandise.<\/p>\n

Leno often attends the Saturday book signings at Autobooks, of which there are many. On October 25, John Oreovicz, a respected journalist who covers IndyCar and sports car racing, will be signing his new book \u201cClass of \u201999: Triumph and Tragedy in the 1999 CART IndyCar Series.\u201d It was a pivotal season for IndyCar, lowlighted by the death of 24-year-old driver Greg Moore, and a points battle that ended in a tie between veteran Dario Franchitti and \u201cbrash 23-year-old rookie, Juan Pablo Montoya.\u201d<\/p>\n

November 8, Don Emde will sign \u201cFlying Floyd: The Motorcycling Life of Floyd Emde,\u201d about his father, a pivotal part of two-wheel culture in the 1940s and beyond. Floyd (1948) and Don (1972) became the only father and son to win the prestigious Daytona 200 motorcycle race. The following Saturday, Dave Wolin will be autographing \u201cThunder in the Desert: Stock Cars at Riverside,\u201d an account of how stock car racing almost saved the doomed road course, which held its last race in 1988.<\/p>\n

Van Curen and Forward do what they can to help authors. \u201cNobody gets rich writing car books,\u201d she says. \u201cMost of them either have another job, or they married well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

She is aware that she and Autobooks are fighting an uphill battle. A genuine issue is getting younger enthusiasts to rediscover books. \u201cThere are really two problems,\u201d Van Curen says. \u201cOne, the majority of young people barely know what books are. And the other problem is, they don\u2019t drive. A lot don\u2019t even have a car! Or if they do, it\u2019s a Prius, and that\u2019s not a car. The car is an appliance to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily,\u201d she said, \u201cthere is hope. Some of them have inherited a car from their grandpa, a Model T or a \u201957 Chevy, and they want to learn about it, and that brings them in.\u201d Also, online sales are doing well. \u201cIt\u2019s a third of our business,\u201d Van Curen says.<\/p>\n

Still, they\u2019d like to move on. Any nibbles? Yes, she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some people talk to us about it, but for one reason or another, it just hasn\u2019t happened.\u201d They\u2019ve been at this address for 15 years, and it\u2019s well-established. They don\u2019t own the building, but they have four years left on the lease, with an option for three more.<\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

So, how much? \u201cWe\u2019re asking $350,000,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m offering it at a very reasonable price, and I\u2019m negotiable, within reason. It\u2019s going to take someone who wants to keep Autobooks alive as a labor of love.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne guy said, \u2018I\u2019d love to have it! Can I quit my job and live off it?\u2019 I told him no, and that\u2019s the problem.\u2019\u2019 Still, \u201cOur inventory is worth over $300,000. We\u2019re not asking for pie in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

If only there were a wealthy automotive enthusiast who was a regular customer\u2014say! It\u2019s obvious! Jay Leno should buy it. After all, his collection is housed at the Burbank Airport, just a 10-minute drive from Autobooks!<\/p>\n

Van Curen laughs. She\u2019s heard it before.<\/p>\n

\u201cJay does not need a bookstore. He has plenty of books of his own, he has a good library, and he also has that great big car collection to take care of, and his own life to manage. He still works all the time.\u201d And it\u2019s no secret that Mavis, his wife of 45 years, is battling advanced dementia and requires constant care. Leno is 75, Mavis is 79: he probably does not need more responsibilities in his life.<\/p>\n

He is, however, a very good customer. \u201cJay\u2019s here about once a week,\u201d Van Curen says, and he isn\u2019t shy about talking to other auto enthusiasts or posing for a quick selfie. \u201cYou can ask Jay about his cars, and he\u2019ll talk all day long,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\"AutobooksBrandan Gillogly<\/a> <\/p>\n

Given that people know that Leno frequents Autobooks, they\u2019ll try to use the store as a way to contact Leno. \u201cThere\u2019s one guy who came in and said he owned the first El Camino with seat belts. Which made it very important! He said he would sell it to Jay for a hundred grand, but only if he could watch the restoration. I said, \u2018This is not Chop Cut Rebuild!<\/a>\u2019 Jay got a good laugh out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the search continues, and Van Curen and Forward know they aren\u2019t getting any younger. Autobooks-Aerobooks is internationally known, with a lot of walk-ins and online customers from all over Europe, Australia, New Zealand\u2026 \u201cIt\u2019s a famous place\u201d for auto aficionados, she says. \u201cWe have more books than you\u2019ve ever seen on cars. Pick a make, or pick a topic, and we\u2019ve got something on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no other store like this in the country. If you want a book on a car, this is the place.\u201d <\/p>\n

And hopefully, it will be for years to come. The store\u2019s website is autobooks-aerobooks.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AutomotiveSteven Cole Smith<\/p>\n

\"AutomotiveSteven Cole Smith<\/p>\n

\"AutomotiveSteven Cole Smith<\/p>\n

\"AutomotiveSteven Cole Smith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The little shop at the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Catalina Street in Burbank, California, may be unassuming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[44894,288,811,14365,93,2284,61,60,44893],"class_list":{"0":"post-66015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-alfa-romeo","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-citroen","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-history","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-jay-leno"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}