Jay and Dick Rohfritch examine a rare book on display in the Good Books in the Woods, 25915 Oak Ridge Drive. Dick and his son, Jay, opened the store a little more than a year ago. Their niche is rare books, but has more than 40,000 hard cover and paperbacks for readers to choose from. Photo by David HopperBY KIM MORGAN
Chronicle correspondent

It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, but when Dick and Jay Rohfritch strike gold, they hit it big.

Dick, 66, and his son Jay, 37, relentlessly comb estate sales for books.

Even though 95 percent of the time their search is fruitless, they do it to stock the shelves at Good Books in The Woods, 25915 Oak Ridge Drive.

"We're not a dusty used bookstore," Dick said. "We have more than 10,000 first editions in hardback that have been collected by collectors."

Case in point is a recent estate sale in Houston, where the men walked away with 500 books.

They acquired a first edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s "Kidnapped," written in 1886; Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea," written in 1952; and a signed first edition of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," written in 1962.

Dick is hesitant to provide exact prices, but suffice it to say these books now sell for thousands of dollars.

Often, Dick finds affordable options overseas.

As a salesman in the chemical company industry, Dick travels to the United Kingdom four to six times a year. While there, he combs the bookstores.

"The U.K. has been publishing books a lot longer than the U.S. has," Dick said. "You can find 18th and 19th century books. There are specialized bookstores in the U.K. that are not found anywhere else in the world."

Dick's most recent trip overseas was in January, and taking advantage of frequent flier benefits, he returned with three heavy suitcases full of books.

Dick opened Good Books in the Woods just over one year ago, after purchasing 12,000 books from a deceased collector who had gone out of his way to get them signed by the authors.

That's something Dick still strives for, so when Irish writer John Banville came to Houston recently to promote his new book "The Infinities," Jay headed to the city – but not to buy a copy.

"In our first edition collection, we have 10 of his books," said Jay, manager of Good Books in The Woods. "He was nice enough to sign all of them, but he was a little annoyed."

The store now boasts more than 40,000 titles throughout. Some of those come through Dick's 36-year-old daughter Wendy, who lives in Fort Worth.

In addition to rare and first edition books, Good Books carries the Conroe ISD reading list, which they discount at 10 percent.

Students can find classics such as the "The Great Gatsby," Jane Austin's "Emma," "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte, and all manner of Shakespeare.

There are books on the list that Dick has never read, like "Tuesday's With Morrie" by Mitch Albom and "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer, even science fiction titles such as "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card.

"Science fiction certainly wasn't recommended when I was in high school," Dick said. "In other words, the reading list has more breadth to it than when I went to school."

Originally from New York City, Dick was raised overseas due to his father's line of work. Because of that, Dick is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish.

"I knew how to speak Spanish before English," Dick said, "which horrified my grandmother back home in New York."

Dick went to college at Wesleyan in Connecticut, where he was an English major.

While he has always enjoyed books, beginning with the Hardy Boys in his childhood days, Dick didn't begin collecting rare and first edition books until approximately 10 years ago.

The rarest book in his personal collection, a 1919 first edition of John Maynard Keynes' "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," ended up in the jaws of a teething puppy, but Jay replaced the book for him the following year.

Dick's desire to collect led to the next chapter in his life, that of bookstore owner.

While in Maryland for a work trip, Dick visited a warehouse and found himself whipping out his credit card to purchase 12,000 first editions by authors including Gore Vidal, Julian Barnes, Vladimir Nabokov, and Saul Bellow.

Further negotiations with the warehouse owner resulted in a 40-foot trailer's worth of first editions and rare literary magazines.

Dick came home, found a 4,000-square foot two-story house, renovated, and set up shop.

Dick's wife of 39 years, Marta, said they had been talking about opening a book store; it just happened a littler soon than she expected.

"We were going to do it when he retired so he would have something to do instead of being here driving me crazy," Marta joked. "He loves books, and for him to be surrounded by books wouldn't be a chore. Dick is still working, which is a good thing, because we're not making any money yet."

If they were, Dick would have been quite tempted to snap up an extremely rare find he came across at a London book fair recently - Columbus's 1492 letter, written in Latin, to Queen Isabella. But the one million British pounds price tag was a little more than his plastic limit could carry, he said.

The same thing happened when Dick and Jay were at a book fair in San Francisco, where they found a 1670 book which Nathaniel Hawthorne gave to Herman Melville as a birthday present. The book contains both signatures, and was priced at $80,000.

It's stories like this that intrigue Dick's customers. Even if they're not buying, they're coming to hang out.

Local groups and organizations are welcome to hold meetings at the bookstore.

Manny Mireles, organizer and owner of the Spring and North Houston Film Group, began meeting there in December, after being referred by The Woodlands Writers Guild President Alberto Arcia.

Mireles said the group aims to produce one short film a month for 12 months.

In April, the group will not only meet at Good Books, but shoot a scene or two for a film about a murder in a bookstore, Dick said.

Dick and Jay want to continue supporting the local arts community, and do so by sponsoring literary contests, hosting writer's workshops, and bringing in guest speakers.

Dick said folks around here are hungry for local literature, as was apparent when one of the largest turnouts he's seen at Good Books was for the "Texas Poetry Shoot-Out," at which Texas Poet Laureate Paul Ruffin and Montgomery County Poet Laureate Dave Parsons went head to head.

Good Books also has a variety of book clubs.

There are three to choose from – the Author's Book Club, in which members choose a different author each month and read any book by that author. The Poetry Book Club is the same idea, but with poets. And the Nonfiction Book Club is where participants choose a nonfiction book for reading and discussing.

It seems Dick, along with book lovers around the world, is dedicated to preserving the written word.

"I think most people still want to hold a book," Dick said. "I've got about 500 on my night table."

Good Books in The Woods, 25915 Oak Ridge Drive
- opened Dec. 2008
- owned by the Rohfritch family: Dick, Marta, Jay and Wendy
- holds more than 40,000 titles
- stocks used, rare, first-edition books
- provides all titles on the Conroe ISD reading list
- for more information visit www.goodbooksinthewoods.com

Book Clubs:
- Author's Book Club meets at 7 p.m. the third Tuesday of the month
- Poetry Book Club meets at 7 p.m. the fourth Wednesday of the month
- Nonfiction Book Club meets at 7 p.m. the fourth Thursday of the month