The Pooh-Bah – Another View of Tijuana
Another person with an enviable life style in the book trade is Lynn DeWeese Parkinson.
The former Oregon attorney and Latin American specialist, is living a very different book seller fantasy in Tijuana, Mexico, where from all reports the weather is warm and life is good.
Though some of you may have read about Tijuana as a place where gun fights and decapitations are a regular event, Lynn claims “if you’re not in the narco trade it’s a pretty good place to live.”
Some of you already know him as the “Great Poohbah” of the long-running biblio list.
His list is a by-subscription on line meeting place for the bookish for going on 15 years. It has about 1,000 subscribers who each pay $30 a year to belong. Members buy, sell, chat and commiserate daily. It’s one of the liveliest groups on the internet. As the owner he does not so much “moderate” it as keep the tone civil and the discussion mainly on-topic.
That, in itself, is a reinvention of the form: it is fun, he’s the boss of it (as the name would imply in kind of a Gilbert and Sullivan way) and, it brings in a regular income stream.
In the meantime he uses his exalted position to praises of his new home town and his new favorite sport - surfing.
Mind you he is not a kid and surfing as a beginner in your 60s can be physically demanding. Never the less, at regular intervals we are all treated to his musings on the cultural resources of folks south of the border and the joys of riding waves. In addition, at least some of the excitement of his present life comes from running with the bulls, Pamplona style.
Since moving to Mexico a few years back Lynn reports his business has become more focused on ephemera, posters, photos related Tijuana and bull fighting. He and his wife bought a house on the beach. He is part of a co-op, he still has a presence on-line, but most of his trade is retail.
