The Pleasure Of Buying Books

Thirty years ago, the demise of the printed book was predicted with some certainty. The rise of digital media and e-readers was supposed to sound the death knell of books and bookstores.

But, as with Mark Twain’s response to his premature obituary in 1897, reports of the death of books were “greatly exaggerated.” Three decades later, approximately 2.2 million new book titles are published globally each year, both traditionally and independently.

The demise of the independent bookstore seemed equally likely with the emergence of Amazon and corporate chains such as Barnes & Noble. But, once again, the odds-makers were wrong. The American Booksellers Association, which represents independent booksellers, estimates that throughout the United States there are 2,185 such businesses at 2,599 locations, a number that has been steadily increasing since Covid. Barnes and Noble, by contrast, has only 600 outlets nationwide.

So the tiny literary mice roared and the corporate giants yielded space. How can this be? Success for independent bookstores seems to lie in the experience. While Amazon excels in convenience and potentially lower prices for some titles, independent bookstores offer a unique experience with curated selections, community events and personalized service.

That is what we discovered on a mini tour of several of the most popular independent bookstores in the region: The Bookstore in Lenox, MA, The Shaker Mill Bookstore in West Stockbridge MA and Oblong Books, with outlets in both Millerton and Rhinebeck NY.

Success does, indeed, seem to rest in the experience. In an age when getting the attention of a salesperson seem well-nigh impossible in many stores, Matt Tannenbaum exudes bonhomie. As the door to his Bookstore in Lenox swings open, Tannenbaum greets customers with an outstretched hand of welcome.

Conversation is almost immediate with patron and customer exchanging ideas and stories. “If you clerk in a bookstore, you must love the product. And the people who walk into a bookstore are people who want to be here,” he said, reflecting his delight in his customers. “I enjoy people. This is a great way of being in the world and telling and hearing stories.”

Tannenbaum, who started working in bookstores when he was in his 20s, has loved the environment since his days as a stockboy. He purchased the Lenox location from a former owner “who was not committed to selling books” and now, 50 years later, entering his Jubilee year, still sitting at his little desk beside the door, a picture of the Delhi Lama pinned to the wall at his right and a cut-out of Bernie Sanders in the window behind him.

His store is so important in the fabric of the community that, when Covid struck in 2020 and he put up a Go Fund Me page to keep his operation going, pledges flooded in. “I asked for $63,000,” he said, “and I had it in 23 hours. People who knew the store from when they lived in Lenox told people I had never met that the bookstore was important. I am rich beyond money.”

His store is not particularly large but is well-stocked with a wide range of genres, from children’s books, to fiction, to classics and more. He said that, inevitably, the business has changed over five decades.

“There are fewer small presses,” he said. “And some of the books and smaller magazines that I might have carried, I don’t have an interest in anymore.

“My clientele has aged with me,” he continued, “but I have their children and grandchildren as younger customers. I have a little harder time with the new fiction. It doesn’t speak to me but there is some very good writing in it.”

Hearing that, a young customer stopped to check out two fantasy books she had selected from his shelves and began to talk about books she enjoyed and the “universes” they introduced her to. “Isn’t that wonderful, when a book can introduce you to a whole universe,” he said, as he jotted down the names of series she recommended.

Another long-time veteran of the trade has set up a new shop in West Stockbridge. There, Eric Wilska, who owned the Bookloft in Great Barrington for 41 years before selling it and “retiring,” opened the Shaker Mill Bookstore. It is situated in two adjacent buildings –the ancient mill and the main store. The mill is filled with books as well as items Wilska has crafted out of them. “There is no heat in the mill, so it doesn’t open until June,” he said, “but it has been a real hit.”

That is evidenced by reviews online. “What an absolutely wonderful place,” raved one reviewer. “This delightfully quirky bookstore rambles across two buildings: the main shop, which is already packed full of treasures on multiple floors and the seasonal ‘book mill,’ which the owner describes as being intentionally disorganized to encourage browsing.”

Wilska said that when he opted to sell the Bookloft, “it was “time to slow down,” but that the West Stockbridge site was always part of his exit strategy. It had already been in operation for three years before he left Great Barrington.

In West Stockbridge he deals in rare, used and remaindered books. “It’s going very well. It’s big business now,” he said, observing that many Baby Boomers are downsizing and selling their book collections.

So plentiful is the material available, he has 200,000 volumes available in a warehouse in a former factory and he merchandises his stock both through the store and online. “I don’t have to have the latest titles, to do advertising or hold events,” he said. “I did enough of that.”

When customers ask him if he has a given book in stock, he may say he does not. “I don’t know when I will have a book,” he said. “But I tell them, ‘I have all these other beautiful books.’ My motto is, ‘This is where you find what you are not looking for.’”

Perennial favorites among area readers are the two Oblong Bookstores, in Millerton and Rhinebeck. Once again, it is a venerable business started 50 years ago by Dick Hermans, who has weathered the storms of technology and come out on the other side stronger than ever.

“Amazon had an impact in ’90s and took a piece of business out of everyone,” he acknowledged. That impact has now been absorbed as has the early craze for e-readers. “Everyone spends way too much time on screens and holding a book is psychologically different,” he said. “What really impacted the Millerton store was opening another store in Rhinebeck. We cannibalized ourselves.”

Technology was a two-edged sword, however. While it redirected some trade, it also lightened the business burden. “In early days, we didn’t even take credit cards,” he said, “and we had no computer until the business was 10 years old. Our inventory was on three-by-five-inch cards. We would call up, place an order and two weeks later the books arrived. It was like slow-motion. Now we put in an order and in four days, three days, we have the books.”

Purchasing books has also been streamlined by technology. “The sales rep monitors our sales history, so he can say, ‘You sold this author’s book and sold this many of them.’ It’s a more in-depth analysis. It’s his job to look at the list and make recommendations before we have a meeting so, instead of three hours, we meet for half an hour—but we still order too many books.”

He has always been astonished at how diverse his customer base is intellectually. “The educational backgrounds are really diverse which has been good for us. We were never afraid to buy something that just looked interesting. A lot of people come in and find something that they didn’t know they wanted and didn’t know existed.

“Every day is different,” he concluded. “Every interaction is unique. People come in because they are looking for a pleasurable experience, so staffing is the key thing. The communities need us as much as we need them.”