At Wonder Book and Video Gaithersburg

At Wonder Book and Video Gaithersburg

Last month, while returning from a weekend trip to Baltimore, I decided to make a detour to the Wonder Book and Video store at 15976 Shady Grove Road in Gaithersburg. I hadn't been there in 15 (?) or so years, so I was overdue for a visit.

This is the smallest Wonder Book and Video store, and not an easy one to find. It's located in the 'Shady Grove Center' plaza on Shady Grove Road. You have to turn off Shady Grove Road into an alley that runs alongside a Sherwin-Williams paint store, and ends up behind Shady Grove Self-Storage (photo below).

Looking up the alley from Wonder Book, towards the plaza entrance at Shady Grove Road

There is a large selection of CDs and vinyl in this store. You can spend a couple of hours (if not longer) poring over the inventory.

The aisles are pretty cramped; if claustrophobia is a problem for you, then preferentially you may want to visit the Hagerstown and Frederick outlets.

There is the usual large selection of paperbacks. On the day I visited, they had just gotten in a sizeable number of Very Good / Like New DAW books, and vintage sci-fi titles, all on display up front.

The older sci-fi paperbacks, back in the shelving, tend to be in Acceptable and Good condition. There also are some hardbound sci-fi and fantasy titles shelved in the back, too. And pinned to the ends of the shelves are vintage magazines and digests.

As is the case for the Hagerstown and Frederick stores, there are sections for westerns, classics, general fiction, and horror.

I came away from my visit with some nice old school DAW books and a Six-Gun Samurai western novel, at prices ranging from $4 to $8 (below).

One caveat about the Gaithersburg Wonder Book and Video: Shady Grove Road, even on a weekday afternoon, is heavily trafficked, and on the weekends, it's a mess. Trying to get into and out of the plaza where the store is located is not going to be for the faint of heart, whether you are coming from the east or the west. Stuff to think about prior to visiting !