When I walked into Todd Pratum’s apartment in Eastlake earlier this summer, I gasped audibly. The walls were covered with books — old spiritual tomes, religious histories, eccentric scientific texts. It was the stuff of old-timey movies; the kind of mysteriously inviting library you expect to discover in a historic mansion, not a two-bedroom Oakland apartment.
I was there with a photographer to report on Pratum’s looming eviction and his related attempt to sell the 13,000 rare books that live in his home before he was potentially forced to leave it.
I expected Oaklandside readers to share some of my awe at the sight and description of Pratum’s scholarly collection. But I didn’t predict just how far the story would travel after it was published…