Bird Song flies on

The used bookstore has closed its location on Central Avenue just west of the University of New Mexico. Sometime in mid-January it will open at a new location, 526 Washington NE, just south of Lomas, said Morwyn Mullins, co-owner of the business with her husband, Asa Mullins.

“It seemed like the most opportune time to move because our lease is up and we’ve seen the vanishing retail in the area,” Morwyn Mullins said.

“The most interesting thing about the move so far is the reaction. And I’m not exaggerating: Ninety percent of our customers have said, ‘That’s terrific. I live over there.’ It’s nice to know we are moving closer to where they are and where they shop.”

The Mullinses have owned Bird Song Used Books since 1997. The bookstore specializes in literature.

“That’s our first love and it’s also our biggest section. We probably have one of the biggest literature sections in town,” Mullins said.

“We might not have numbers of copies but we sure have numbers of titles.”

The store also stocks mysteries, science fiction, history, science and math titles, but no romances.

Mullins thinks they’re taking about 30,000 books to the new location, about the same number that it had in its inventory at the former location.

Bird Song buys, sells and trades used books.

Mullins said the recession hasn’t seemed to have hurt the store’s business.

“I can’t say that it’s any better or any worse than it as been for the last five or six years. But it feels like it’s getting better,” she said.

“I don’t think e-readers have made an impact the way it was predicted because it’s just another way to read books. My favorite saying is ‘Television didn’t kill radio, and they said it would.’”

The store will keep its same phone number, 268-7204.

To find out its exact reopening date, email birdsongbooks1@gmail.com or go to the store’s Facebook page.

“We’re really excited and happy about this move,” Mullins said.

These are some other stores in the Albuquerque area that carry used books: The Book Stop, 3216 Silver SE; Bookcase Used Books, 113 Cornell SE; Don’s Paperback Book Exchange, 1013 San Mateo SE; Menaul Book Exchange, 9409 Menaul NE; Page One, 11018 Montgomery NE; Title Wave Books, 2318 Wisconsin NE; and Under Charlie’s Covers, 240 S. Camino del Pueblo, Bernalillo.