Is there life after the used-book business, he is asked.

"I'll let you know, " he said over lunch the other day. "I've already interviewed at two places. My future is strictly volunteer. I'm not interested in the money."

But before he moves on to his third career, I wanted to talk to Marks about his nearly 20-year run as proprietor of Book Marks, a small store on the second level in the Carriage Shops complex on East Pleasant Street.

Marks, now 82, opened at that location in December, 1982, after retiring from a 30-year career as an agent for New York Life Insurance Co. in New York City.

Marks' store was tiny by the standards of the many used bookstores in the area, housing perhaps no more than 3,000 volumes. Marks, who bears a strong resemblance to the late Alfred Hitchcock, surrounded himself with books on subjects that were personal favorites - photography, art, classical music, literature, theater and movies. And the longer he toiled in the Amherst community the larger his selection of volumes by and about Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. "They were naturals, of course," he explained.

The goal of the store, he admits, was "to provide people to talk to me about subjects I enjoyed. I looked upon the book store as a quasi-social enterprise. I didn't look upon it as a business. If people came and wanted to talk that was the point."

Having already had a successful career in New York, Marks could pretty much operate his new venture in a way that served his interests. "It was strictly a self-pleasing endeavor. I wasn't in it for the money, for the glory. It was strictly for the pleasure."

That said, Marks claims that the store did provide him with income, although that alone would not be enough "to live very well." Yet it was not a money loser.

It was more than 20 years ago that Marks and his wife, Barbara, started the process of relocating to Amherst from Long Island. They had discovered the area as a result of traveling back and forth from New York over the span of six years to visit their son Graham, while he was a student at a music camp in Weston, Vermont.

"We loved what we saw," Marks said, so one night over dinner at a Greenwich Village restaurant they decided they would explore housing possibilities in Amherst.

By 1981, they had bought a piece of land on South East Street and soon Ted Blauvelt of Florence was building them a new home, one designed by Barbara. "Let's put it this way," Fred Marks says, "Barbara was always designing a house and we finally had the good fortune to see it rise in its full glory. It works beautifully."

Recalling the first time he visited the site on which the house was built, Marks said: "The minute I saw it there was no question it was ours, overlooking a beautiful valley and the Pelham hills." In intervening years, the view has not changed much because below them is wetlands, which remain undeveloped.

By November, 1982, the house was ready for them to move in and so Marks turned his attention to opening his book store a month later.

There had not been much question what he would do when he retired the first time around. "Whenever Barbara and I hit a new town, the first place we'd head for was the used book shop.'' Thus, he already had a large collection of books when he retired.

"It seemed very natural to open a used book store," he said, and so he accelerated his book purchases in anticipation of starting his own business.

His inventory was small when he first opened his door, but eventually as his stock grew "it got the point there was no more room for books."

What were his expectations when he started out? "I was playing it by ear, what happened, happened," he said. "I later discovered each bookseller's experience is different."

He believes his store's success was based on specialties that were "a little off the trodden path," especially his deep selection of books about classical music. Most used book stores don't have a strong music section, he said, "because you have to know something about music."

His traces his musical roots back to the 1930s when he was 10 or 11 years old. He tells of getting home from school and finding his mother listening to a radio broadcast of Wagner's opera "Siegfried." "I said to her what is that music?"

Whereupon, he got on the subway and headed off to the Metropolitan Opera's box office and asked when the next Wagner opera would be performed. It was "Tannhauser."

"I bought a ticket way up in the family circle, and that was my first experience, he said. "Brother was I hooked."

Of all the classical genres, opera remains his favorite and accounts for the largest segment of his personal music collection. Through his passion for music, Marks has forged a close friendship with John Montanari, program director at radio station WFCR, who was a frequent visitor to Book Marks, and, in turn, Marks frequently turned up for the station's on-air fund-raising.

"John is very generous, very good about playing opera," says Marks. "That's unique. I've got to give him a plug. John is loyal to the form and as a result he has made many friends for opera."

It was only very recently that Marks decided the time had come to close his shop. Business was not great - fewer people were coming into the shop and buying fewer books. More used book buyers are turning to the Internet and purchasing out-of-print titles from on-line booksellers.

"The Internet is changing the used-book trade, "he said, "but I don't know how." Marks himself never made the switch to doing business through the Internet.

"I find a great number of book people still enjoyed being surrounded by books in a book shop environment," but not enough in the last several months, he observed.

Thus, he was gratified when the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. decided to purchase his entire inventory, which was very quickly spirited away to New York State.

"I felt damn lucky I got out so clean, " he said.

Of the last 20 years, he said: "I looked forward to every day because you never knew who would come in, or whether anyone would come in. But there was always a hard-core of serious book-buyers who preferred to come to an individual shop with a point of view."

"I have no regrets. I had a good run."