About Bookstores

It just seemed that Green River Books in Princeton, Illinois, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, was meant to be -- and that LuAnn Salz and her author husband, Trey Barker, were destined to own it. Though Salz and Barker had plans to move from Denver to the Princeton area to open an independent bookstore, it was through good luck -- and, of course, hard work -- that they happened upon their dream location for the store.

On Monday, August 18, Borders Group Inc. announced that it had acquired the assets of Hawley-Cooke Booksellers in Louisville, Kentucky, from owners Graham Cooke, Martha Neal Cooke, William Schuetze, and Audrey Beach Schuetze. Borders plans to shut down both Hawley-Cooke stores for a short time in early September and plans to re-open them as Borders Books & Music stores on September 13. A Borders Books & Music, currently under construction in Louisville, is also scheduled to open on the same day, and a fourth Borders opening is planned for next year.

Blogs, short for Web logs, are rapidly becoming ways for individuals to share information about their lives and work. Teenagers love them, authors communicate with readers, even politicians are chronicling their activities and philosophies through blogs. Some booksellers are experimenting with blogs to pass on information of interest to dedicated customers.

Maybe somebody up there likes independent booksellers. Or maybe it was simply a coincidence that the majority of Northeastern booksellers who spoke to BTW about last Thursday's blackout explained that -- while all around them other business owners fumbled through the dark -- for reasons sometimes unknown, their lights never went out. And for one night, these independent bookstores were not only a symbolic, but also a literal, beacon of light in their communities.

Kim Dickie, the new owner of Hobbit Hall Children's Bookstore in Roswell, Georgia, sees plenty of room for growth in an arena small booksellers have largely left to others -- school book fairs. When Dickie took over the reins of the 12-year-old bookstore from Anne Ginkle in March 2003, the school book fair division was a growing component of the store.

"Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated," bookstore owner Larry Abramoff told BTW, quoting Mark Twain. Abramoff, owner of Tatnuck Bookseller & Sons in Worcester, Massachusetts, was featured in a new dinner theater murder mystery as the victim (he played himself as a ghost). The sold-out show was performed at Tatnuck to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Worcester. Actors mixed with the audience during the three-hour, interactive, buffet-style dinner.

"Among the three of us, we have over 50 years of bookselling experience," said Lynne Almeida of Spellbinder of Bishop Books & Coffee, as she addressed the benefits of the recent merger of her bookstore, Spellbinder Books & Coffee, with Bishop Books & Coffee, which took place this past June.

In 1980, Steven Morado Stout, now owner of New Mexico's largest independent bookstore, had a doctoral degree in anthropology and years of related work experience when the poor employment situation in Albuquerque left him jobless. Not wanting to leave the city, he needed to open his own business and create a job for himself. He considered an auto paint shop or a bar and restaurant, he told BTW.