Rare books are also a hot commodity on the Strip

What reward does one buy after winning at the gambling tables in Las Vegas or sitting through an excruciatingly dull convention there? A Rolex? A designer handbag? A new bracelet?

How about a rare book?

It was 11 years ago that David and Natalie Bauman, the owners of a successful rare book store in Manhattan, open since 1988, decided to expand to Las Vegas, opening a store on a relatively quiet second floor walkway among the Grand Canal Shoppes between the Venetian and Palazzo. On the main floor, ersatz gondolas with gondoliers ferry tourists from end to end.

Their shop is wedged next to Lazarou, a custom men’s clothing store, and just across from Mezlan, which sells shoes. Its two-story, elegant bookcases are filled with carefully arranged volumes, many bound in embossed leather. A reading table at the center of the store recalls an Ivy League library. A patient saleswoman awaits visitors at a podium close to the entrance.

On a recent day, in a locked vitrine, were first editions of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-glass” in full leather pictorial bindings. Printed in 1866 and 1872, they sell together for $23,000. For $700 one could buy a first edition of Margaret Thatcher’s “The Path to Power,” signed by her.

In a town of sparkle and flash, rare books are an anomaly, but for the Baumans, they are lucrative. One visitor spent $400,000 on “The Great Gatsby” and Mckenney and Halls’ “History of the Indian Tribes of North America” in a single visit. Another, a quiet man in shorts, flip-flops and a T-shirt, spent $15,000 on a first edition of “Huckleberry Finn” and then several weeks later returned to pick out a first edition of “The Catcher in the Rye” for $17,000. (One can only imagine what Holden Caulfield would think of that.)

But most receipts are well under $1,000, Natalie Bauman said. Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” is a bargain at $850, and a 1996 first edition of Chuck Palahniuk’s “Fight Club” goes for about $1,000.

One Las Vegas visitor started with modest purchases. Then he became fascinated with

ISAAC BREKKEN / THE NEW YORK TIMES David and Natalie Bauman are owners of Bauman Rare Books, in the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian and Palazzo. In a town of sparkle and f lash, rare books are an anomaly, but for the Baumans, who have owned a successful rare-book store in Manhattan since 1988, it has been a lucrative trade.