Last year Amazon sold more than 300 million books in the U.S., and not one of them was the ecstatic hot-rod manual 4-Bangers! And Me! or Pegaso por Monsalve, a lush and loving tribute to Spain’s peak sports car. While Seattle’s overachieving online bookseller has broadened its mission to sell virtually everything to everyone, a corner store on an unremarkable retail strip in Burbank, California, has mastered the art of going deep.
”Autobooks-Aerobooks is 2200 fluorescent-lit square feet of printed car porn, starting in the front window display, with its deep dives on the GT-R and hyperlocal photo books such as Van Nuys Blvd 1972, then moving back into shelves of manuals, memoirs, and biographies of racers, designers, and industry legends. Toward the middle of the store are a robust how-to section and a magazine rack that looks like it was lifted from Frankfurt Airport circa 1995.