About Bookstores

After a season when 80 new or prospective booksellers enrolled for Paz & Associates Bookseller School at BookExpo America and more than a few new independent bookstores opened, there are further positive signs in a sometimes bleak economic picture. In October and November, a number of independent booksellers are expanding or opening new or additional stores.

In late August, when the controversy over Unfit for Command (Regnery) reached a peak, many booksellers caught the ire of rightwing customers who accused them of censoring the book, which is critical of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, by not stocking it. While much of the criticism was proven baseless, as most stores simply did not have the book because the publisher was unable to supply them, the Unfit controversy highlighted just how polarized politics has become in this election year.

At the nation's only four-state juncture, in the grand expanse of the West, a 1,850-square-foot bookstore occupies a much larger space in the hearts of residents of, and visitors to, Durango, Colorado. Maria's Bookshop, celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, has purveyed general books and Southwestern art, and has created a sense of community and an atmosphere where quality and service are paramount.

On Friday, September 12, the company that owns WordsWorth Books and Curious George Goes To WordsWorth, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The store's owner, Hillel Stavis, told BTW, "We're not closing. We're looking for a buyer [or investor]. We would like to keep it open…. We think an infusion of capital will do wonders for the store and restore it to its legendary status."

Hurricane Frances slammed into the east coast of Florida early on the Sunday before Labor Day with 105 mph winds, causing massive flooding and property damage in the billions of dollars, and leaving millions of residents without power. According to wire service reports, Frances was notable for its broad reach and the leisurely pace it took, lingering offshore for hours, then battering the coast for much of Sunday morning before heading northwest. The eye of the hurricane, where the worst weather occurred, extended across 80 miles, from Vero Beach to Boynton, Florida.

It's been a tough three weeks weather-wise for businesses and residents in the southeast -- with a devastating hurricane hitting Florida, a tropical storm battering Virginia -- and now there's no rest for the storm weary as another massive hurricane is on the way.

For 20 years, owners Rose Joseph and Iris Yipp have found new ways to ensure that Magic Tree Bookstore meets the needs of their neighborhood in Oak Park, Illinois. With a section devoted to biracial and alternative families, adoption, and special needs children, the bookstore has maintained its standing as a vital community resource. On August 27, the store's longevity and sense of community were celebrated at a grand-scale anniversary event.

Corporate conglomerates and billion-dollar IPOs aren't the only newsmakers on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. On Tuesday, August 24, readers of the Journal were treated to an in-depth portrait of independent bookseller Neil Van Uum. Van Uum is the owner of Joseph-Beth Booksellers, with one store in Lexington, Kentucky; one each in Cleveland and Cincinnati; and the Tennessee-based Davis-Kidd Booksellers, with three stores in the state -- one each in Nashville, Jackson, and Memphis.

In the July White Box, bookstores with Book Sense were sent promotional materials for "The Best Books of the First Five Years of Book Sense" and were encouraged to create a "Best Books" summer display.

After surviving the stock market crash of 1929, World War II, a couple of recessions, and a four-alarm fire, Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore in Salt Lake City, Utah, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this August. What started out as a furniture and used-book store has evolved into a four-floor, 40,000-square-foot institution with six miles of bookshelves and approximately one million titles.

For some it was the storm that wasn't, but for others, whose businesses and homes along Florida's Gulf Coast were barraged with winds up to 145 miles per hour, Hurricane Charley was the source of devastation and injury. Most booksellers contacted by Bookselling This Week fared well through the storm, one of the worst in recent memory. Representatives of LIBRIS, the ABA-sponsored bookstore insurer, told BTW that all of the 20 bookstores in Florida covered by LIBRIS had been contacted and none were claiming property damage to their stores.

According to the calculations of Cheryl and Thomas Upchurch, a life of bookselling has aged them ... about five years more than their contemporaries. Putting in yeoman's hours at their Montgomery, Alabama, bookstore, Capitol Book & News Company, has meant that "for the past 25 years we've both worked a six day week (and actually, for the first couple of years we owned the store, a seven day week!). That means 52 Saturdays a year, and after 25 years that comes to 1,300 days we worked that most folks did not.