Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/292443
Rare books are a specialty at Brattle Book Shop. continued on page 86 S ome people enjoy the thrill of skydiving or white-water rafting, but Ken Gloss, the second-generation owner of the Brattle Book Shop in Downtown Crossing, nails his adrenaline high hunting down old and rare books. For more than 40 years, Gloss has peered between the neat stacks of gently used, rare, and vintage tomes in his three-f loor shop, only to discover some of the city's leading minds—scientists, Supreme Court jus- tices, and heads of banks—scouring the shelves and purchasing his books. Celebrities, including Michelle Williams, Martin Scorsese, and Joan Rivers, have f locked to the literary mecca while filming in Boston. The store often fields requests to outfit movie sets with some of the 150,000 vol- umes in the store. The most serious bibliophiles climb to the third f loor, High Volumes KEN GLOSS, OWNER OF THE BRATTLE BOOK SHOP, IS A TREASURE HUNTER FOR RARE AND VINTAGE TOMESAMONG THEM SOME UNBELIEVABLE FINDS. BY JESSICA LANIEWSKI PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN RICHARDSON 84 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM SECRET BOSTON 084-086_BC_SS_SecretBoston_LteSpr14.indd 84 4/4/14 10:32 AM