The tiny N.Y. town where bookstores rule

Nestled in the Northern Catskills, the tiny village of Hobart, New York, is home to around 400 residents, and millions of fascinating characters, all stacked high on shelves. Hobart is a book village. Within one brief block of Main Street, there are seven different bookstores.

When Kathy Duyer retired, she moved to Hobart to surround herself with beautiful scenery and plenty of books. She initially had no intention of selling them – she was buying them. “For about the first two years we were here, we were the best customers of the booksellers that they’d ever had,” she said.

But she and her husband eventually opened two small shops – one, Creative Corner Books, that sells cooking and crafting books; and another, New York Books and Ephemera, focused on all aspects of New York. “We really try not to overlap very much on what we carry so that there’s something different in every shop,” Duyer said.

There’s a shop that specializes in mysteries (Quarry Books). Behind the children’s library (The Book Nook), another shop stocks niche travel books (More Good Books).

The village was inspired by Hay-on-Wye, a thriving Welsh book town that’s become a world-renowned destination for bibliophiles.

Don Dales has never been to Hay-on-Wye, and doesn’t even consider himself a “book guy.” But he does think of himself as an entrepreneur. Dales grew up near Hobart, which was once a key supply stop for the surrounding agricultural industry. When he moved back to the area two-and-a-half decades ago, times had changed. “This town was a ghost town,” he said. “I always say that tumbleweed was going down Main Street. It was depressing.”

Dales purchased several buildings on Main Street. Around that same time, a couple from Manhattan moved to town and opened the William H. Adams’ Antiquarian Bookstore. Dales thought there might be strength in numbers, so he started turning his buildings into more bookstores.  “I went out and I bought a lot of books,” he said, “and a lot of lumber, and made a lot of bookshelves.”

Old books gave Hobart a new identity – and new residents, like retired professors Barbara Balliet and Cheryl Clarke, the proprietors of Blenheim Hill Books. Clarke said, “I think Barbara had always fantasized about having a bookstore because of her love of books. I didn’t. I just wanted to retire!”

Clarke knows a thing or two about books – she’s published several collections of her poetry. She also knows a lot of writers, and co-founded the Hobart Festival of Women Writers, an annual weekend of female-focused readings and workshops.

Writers and readers now make pilgrimages to Hobart, in part for what the town represents. “They like to feel like they’re in a place where books matter,” said Balliet. “Because I think a lot of people are in places where books don’t matter. And so, when they come here, they’re just so happy!”

You won’t find all the latest bestsellers in Hobart; almost everything here is secondhand. And nobody here is getting rich. For the shop owners, these stores are a labor of love – a new chapter in their lives.

Two dollars will get you a book and a cookie at young Mixali Asgarian’s table at the Hobart Farmers’ Market. Who knows? He may one day open the village’s eighth bookstore.

Don Dales thinks there’s still room to grow: “People like a book. They like to see ’em on the shelves. They like to see the spine of the book and say, ‘Oh, I remember that book, that was a wonderful book!’ And besides, a home without books, that’s a boring home … unless it has a cat!”

     
For more info:

• Hobart Book Village
• William H. Adams’ Antiquarian Books, Hobart, N.Y.
• Blenheim Hill Books, Hobart, N.Y.
• The Book Nook (Children’s lending library), Hobart, N.Y.
• Creative Corner Books, Hobart, N.Y.
• Liberty Rock Books, Hobart, N.Y.
• More Good Books, Hobart, N.Y.
• New York Books & Ephemera, Hobart, N.Y. (Facebook)
• Quarry Books, Hobart, N.Y.
• Hobart Festival of Women Writers
• Hobart Farmers’ Market, Hobart, N.Y. (Facebook)

     
Story produced by Aidan Trevisan. Editor: David Bhagat.