American Book Exchange is more than the name implies. It\u2019s also a nifty little piece of software, designed to lead the consumer to rare and out-of-print books with minimum effort. “It\u2019ll change your life,” one La Jolla bookseller said idly a couple years ago\u2014little did he know it and programs like it would become a key component in altering the life of San Diego as well. Wahrenbrock\u2019s Book House, formerly located downtown at 726 Broadway, abruptly closed its doors July 31 after a 74-year run that featured a 2006 fire that destroyed nearly 25,000 books and a dwindling customer base amid Internet-sales inroads. The store also terminated its online service. Its 250,000-volume inventory is up for grabs, and owner Chuck Valverde Jr. is seeking buyers. Vernon Wahrenbrock opened the three-story venue in 1935. The store never quite recovered from the fire, whose aftermath kept it close nearly three months. It\u2019s the latest casualty among an endangered species\u2013the 109-year-old American Booksellers Association now has barely 2,000 members, down from about five times that number during World War II.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
American Book Exchange is more than the name implies. It\u2019s also a nifty little piece of software, designed to lead the consumer to rare and out-of-print books with minimum effort. “It\u2019ll change your life,” one La Jolla bookseller said idly a couple years ago\u2014little did he know it and programs like it would become a […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":290146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Book end: iconic Wahrenbrock\u2019s closes","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}