Ask For It By Name: “The Book Store” a DeFuniak Springs Favorite By Bruce Collier November 17, 2005 Issue

It’s on a corner and it’s called The Book Store, making it, in all, the corner bookstore. Marilyn Louwerens first opened the store, with her husband, in 1990. Louweren’s daughter Liz and her husband David Sinclair came on board in 1999. Employee Kristen Sheffield, age 22, has been working there part time since she was in high school. Louwerens, Liz, and David are in their 15th year as small town book sellers. They have cultivated a loyal clientele. David estimates the Book Store’s customer radius is between 50 and 60 miles.

The store interior is 2200 square feet in size. Books are stacked up to eight feet high. Shelf space has been increased by 75 percent since Marilyn opened the store. The inventory keeps changing, and David admits that he “hasn’t the faintest idea” of an exact count. This becomes even more complicated when one factors in the additional four-offsite storage sheds, and the odd stock of books kept at home.

The Book Store sells both new and used titles, including “mass” and “trade” soft cover books. Mass books are those smaller-format paperbacks your parents called “pocketbooks,” while trades are larger and have more decorative covers. Used books come in from estate and library sales, and by armload, box, and bag.

“We have the most liberal trade-in policy of any book store I know,” says David. Generally, the Book Store gives a customer a store credit on both new and used books brought in, based on a percentage of the book’s original price. The limit on store credit at any given time is $100. The Book Store’s credit accounts have no expiration date; a feature that David says is not always the practice with other stores.

The Book Store does not specialize, but is willing to take “all kinds” of books in trade. A walk through the store shows areas labeled “romance, history, travel, reference, poetry, and books by local authors. A room in the back contains works loosely defined as classics.

Employee Sheffield is seated in an aisle, neatly sorting and classifying paperbacks. A native of Argyle, Sheffield is a student at Okaloosa Walton College, where she is pursuing a degree in microbiology. She began working at the Book Store while a student at Walton High School, and enjoys her work. “Working here gives me a chance to see authors I might not see otherwise,” she says.

The Book Store offers customers a chance to purchase books via the old-fashioned process of browsing, choosing, and giving payment to a cashier. One can add a little high-tech spin to this by asking for a special order. The staff can run online title or author searches; look for rare or out-of-print books, and find a range of prices for used titles. The Book Store lists such inquiries on abebooks.com, an Internet book marketplace.

The store does not do mail orders, except to prisoners. On file is a list of inmate customers in institutions all over Florida, as well as a federal prison in South Carolina. “Word got around that we did this,” says David. “There are some difficulties, but we figure everyone deserves something to read.”

In addition to these traditional services, the Book Store also hosts educational opportunities for students, such as a summer reading program giving kids store credit for books they have read. Local authors are frequent visitors, reading from their works and signing copies. There are no magazines, but the store stocks several free area publications, and a modest line of bookmarks, postcards, and unclassifiable literary paraphernalia.

An early morning “rush” having slacked off, both Liz and David take a moment to do some work behind the counter. Sheffield remains on the job in the middle aisle. All describe themselves as lovers of books (“book nuts” as David would say), doubtless a plus in this line of work.

Neither Liz nor David has a background in the book business. Both have English degrees, Liz from California’s Sonoma State University, and David from Dartmouth. Liz is a former investigator for a public defender, and David was once in the concrete water storage tank business. He adds he knew nothing about the book business going in, and is still learning six years later.

With some coaxing, both Liz and David admit to having written a little fiction—stories and poems respectively. Some of their work has been published in literary or “little” magazines. Until recently, Liz wrote straight news for the DeFuniak Herald.

Nowadays they make their living from the reading needs of others. “I parlayed my English degree into an entry-level retail position,” laughs David.

The Book Store is located at 640 Baldwin Avenue in DeFuniak Springs. Store hours are 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The phone number is 892-3119.

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