Cherry Valley Bookstore Celebrates its Seventh Anniversary

By BILL COMPTON
CHERRY VALLEY

On June 3, 2019, we walked into Will Green’s office in Cooperstown and bought a used bookstore. Having never owned a small business before, much less a bookstore, collectively we asked ourselves—what have we done?

The first few weeks were a combination of cleaning and organizing the bookstore, getting a tax ID number, creating a website and social media accounts. Cleaning and organizing were paramount. There were many books that were mildewed because of water leaks—removing them, cleaning the ones that could be saved, replacing the roof and repairing windows became our priority. Because of the dust and the mildew, we had those blue masks that became popular during COVID a year before anyone else.

We visited local booksellers, particularly those down in Hobart, known as the “Book Village.” Booksellers are quite collegial, and they were all more than happy to lend advice and encouragement. We had a soft opening in mid-June as we continued to clean and organize. A bookcase on a raised hearth was relocated upstairs and a perfectly gorgeous fireplace that had been installed by Paul Bley in the mid-70s was revealed. A bookcase containing paperback fiction, poetry, and drama was removed, opening up the space in front of the fireplace, and those books were moved to other areas in the store.

By late summer, shelves had been organized and my wife, Lynne, had handprinted labels for all. We were starting to feel like we were getting the hang of it. Importantly, we were learning how much the community appreciated our efforts. Time and again we heard “thank you for saving the bookstore.”

In January of 2020, we went to our home in Florida for a winter break. In February, there were rumblings on the news about a deadly new virus and, in March, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. It looked like we would be stuck in Florida for an undetermined amount of time. We called a friend in Cherry Valley that had keys to the bookstore and told her where our supply of blue masks was and asked her to send some to us and share the rest with her family and friends. We finally returned to Cherry Valley in June of 2020. We marked six-foot spaces on the floor with tape, bought hand sanitizer, and put up signs requiring masks and social distancing. This was not how we envisioned our second year of being booksellers.

But 2020 turned out to not be so bad after all. Customers were compliant with COVID rules, and we found a house in the village. We spent the year painting the interior and having a bathroom installed downstairs. By 2021, we were both business owners and homeowners in Cherry Valley. The momentum continued and we painted the bookstore in the summer/fall of 2021. After more than 75 years of being red, the bookstore is now a cheery yellow.

Bookselling is rewarding. We thoroughly enjoy it when our customers find an unexpected treasure or just the book they were looking for—even though sometimes they didn’t know that was the book they were looking for when they walked through the door.

We especially enjoy the children’s book selection. It’s one of our biggest sections and located conveniently right as you walk through the front door. We try our best to keep copies of the classics. We’ve lost count of how many copies of “The Little Engine That Could,” “Mouse Soup,” “Danny the Dinosaur” and “Ferdinand” that we’ve sold. We carry children’s books that date back to the 19th century and many of the popular series, like Nancy Drew. It’s always wonderful to hear adults remembering their favorite book as a child, or telling their now adult child “this was your favorite book when I read it to you when you were little.” We love how the tradition of loving books continues.

We have so many categories that we’re almost sure we’ll have something you’d like. While we don’t specialize in antiquarian and rare books, we have a nice selection of books dating to the early 1800s, even some from the 1780s. The oldest book we ever sold was a four-volume set, the Charles Jarvis translation of “Don Quixote”—the first definitive English translation—printed in 1766. We currently have a copy of Byron’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” printed in New York in 1825, the year after Byron’s death, and a bible from the 1840s printed in Philadelphia, with a four-leaf clover pressed in the Book of Psalms.

Over the past seven years we’ve met so many interesting people, had so many interesting conversations and magical moments. Customers have become friends and the bookstore has become a comfortable and welcoming space for all. We can’t wait to see how the story continues.