In a downtrodden village, a plot twist
Friends recommended that we make a visit to the Hobart Book Village in Delaware County, and on a raw and rainy recent Saturday, my wife, Mary, and I headed west on Interstate 88.
Our dog, Lily, curled up in the back seat.
We are book lovers, but I also wanted to learn if a half-dozen used bookstores along Main Street could save a down-on-itsluck Catskills village of fewer than 500 people.
The origin story of the Hobart Book Village resembles the plot of a novel, filled with interesting characters and twists of fate.
Bill and Diana Adams were pioneers. They lived and worked for decades in Manhattan, she as a lawyer and he as a physician. A detour driving back from a wedding in Detroit 20 years ago landed them in Hobart. On impulse, they rented a storefront. Their book addiction overflowed their apartment and they needed space. “It was cheaper than storing the books in New York City,” she said. “We started with three bookcases.”
They bought a house on 3
acres and came on weekends to tend a large garden and small bookshop.
“We didn’t know what we were doing. We hoped to pay the bills and travel to buy more books,” she said.
The couple, now in their 70s, are proprietors of Wm. H. Adams Antiquarian Books, established in 2000, the first bookstore on Main Street. Its motto: “Uncommon books at reasonable prices.”
Shelves of books cram small rooms on three levels with creaky wooden floors, comfortable chairs and an electric kettle for tea and individually wrapped cookies to encourage lingering. It is a clean, well-lighted place with a large selection of rare, collectible and signed first editions. Like the other bookstores, the Adams’ antiquarian domain is a dog-friendly shop. Diana made another loyal customer when she brought Lily a bowl of water and a dog biscuit.
The founding father of the Hobart Book Village is Don Dales, 79, who grew up in neighboring Stamford. A concert pianist, he returned in 2000 after a 40-year hiatus following careers at IBM and restoring furniture. He was shocked by the derelict buildings on Main Street, bought a Victorian house dirt cheap and moved back. “Nobody wanted to be here,” recalled Dales, who purchased abandoned buildings and renovated them, but attracted no tenants even after advertising a year’s free rent.
Diana and Bill Adams mystified him. “I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard, an antiquarian bookstore in a ghost village,” Dales recalled. He rolled his eyes when the antiquarian booksellers suggested opening more bookstores.
Somebody mentioned Hay-on-wye, “the town of books” in Wales. Since the 1960s, it has drawn tens of thousands of bibliophiles and tourists annually to two dozen used bookshops and a literary festival. “I knew nothing about the bookselling business,” Dales said. He built bookshelves, ordered hundreds of used books online and opened The Library Shop. A few years later, he opened Mysteries & More in his own home on Main Street to indulge his passion for reading mysteries.
“Every bookstore is a work in progress, with ups and downs,” Dales said. “The Catskills has a history of heydays and hard times, but we’re succeeding as a book village.”
His next-door neighbor is Blenheim Hill Books, owned by partners Barbara Balliet and Cheryl Clarke, both retired faculty members and administrators at Rutgers University. Balliet taught women’s studies and Clarke is a poet who taught English. Their inventory is particularly strong in children’s literature, young-adult fiction, poetry, women’s studies, and feminist and LGBTQ literature. The cozy cubbyholes of bookshelves are patrolled by the store’s greeter, Greta, a shih tzu who showed little interest in our dog. She preferred the fawning attention of human customers.
Running a used bookstore has advantages over academia. “First of all, no meetings,” Balliet said. “This is a fun second life for us. It’s nice to see people find books they love and leave happy.” They also are organizers of the Hobart Festival of Women Writers, which has been held for eight years.
Liberty Rock Books, opened in 2013, is a 5,000square-foot restored space with a view of the West Branch Delaware River. They carry thousands of books in a wide range of genres, along with vintage vinyl, historic postcards and ethereal airbrush landscapes painted by store manager John Mahoney.
“Each bookstore is different and we complement each other,” he said. “It has a nice, friendly vibe.” His brother, James Mahoney, retired director of the Nyack Public Library in Rockland County, is co-owner with Thomas Liotta; they previously ran used bookstores in Rockland and Washington counties.
Kathy and George Duyer are newcomers, proprietors of adjoining shops, Creative Corner Books (hers) and New York Books and Ephemera (his). The couple, who are in their 60s, retired and relocated in 2014 from Rockville, Md. She was an attorney and he was a sales rep for a custom glass company.
“We had no plan to open a bookstore, but we lived in the Book Village, so why not,” Kathy Duyer said. They finished a gut renovation in September. She brought from home an extensive collection of cookbooks and craft books and acquired books on New York history. “This completely changed our lives,” she said. “We used to live in the suburbs, didn’t know our neighbors, spent 10-hour days at the office and long hours commuting. Now, we’re part of a friendly book
village and it’s fun.”
Julie Rockefeller operates the Book Nook, a free lending library for children and adults. There is no nearby public library. She also sells woolen scarves, hats and gloves she knits in between helping library patrons. She shares the space with a vintage clothing shop. “I feel like I’m providing an important service,” she said.
The pandemic has increased used book sales this year to record levels as people are reading more while trying to save money. The largest core of customers come from New York City, specifically Brooklyn. They arrive at the Book Village on a day trip or for a weekend stay at The Bull & Garland, a hip gastropub and inn run by a British expat and his American wife since 2016.
Next year, Dales plans to celebrate his 80th birthday by opening a new bookstore, the seventh on Main Street. Tavern Books will offer an eclectic selection of used books along with craft beer, wine and light fare. “I haven’t the faintest idea how to run a tavern, but it will be an adventure and we’ll have some fun,” he said. “That’s the story of the Book Village.”
All bookstores in the Hobart Book Village are open winter hours, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Details at www.hobartbookvillage.com.