AGE: 58
OCCUPATION: Owner, Cottonwood Books
HOMETOWN: Baton Rouge
Behind a striped wall of blue mosaic tiles near the Perkins Road overpass, Cottonwood Books is about to burst. Wall-to-wall shelves sag under the weight of countless books. Even more are piled up on stools and in the corners.
This is home to Danny Plaisance, who sits behind the front counter with Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets” softly playing on his small plastic radio.
“Twenty-eight years next month,” he says, reading the first interview question upside-down off the notepad before it’s even asked. The book specialist is also a speed-reader.
After a brief and unenjoyable venture in outside sales, Plaisance opened Cottonwood Books as a project to share with his wife. She still takes care of most of the “computer stuff,” while Plaisance oversees their stock of thousands of volumes—mostly donated or salvaged from estate sales. He meticulously sorts the books and prices each one in pencil inside the cover.
“Most of the time, if someone comes in and asks for a book, I know exactly where it is without having to think about it,” Plaisance says. “I spend a lot of time with these books.”
No matter how obscure, every book brought to Cottonwood’s register earns a comment from the owner as he rings it up the old-fashioned way with a handwritten receipt. Few vendors know their products like he does.For Plaisance, books are life.
Plaisance encourages people to buy secondhand books for two reasons: lower prices and greater character. And with an inventory of books ranging back to 1756, this self-made curator offers up some of the rarest and most unique finds in the region.
“I had someone come in this week and say, I just moved into town, and I’m glad to know that there is an option other than the big chain stores,'” Plaisance says. “We’re something a little bit different.”
