Lonely Planet Bookstore Tour -- Day 5

On Saturday, May 8, Lonely Planet, the independent travel publisher, began a tour of independent bookstores that will end on Thursday, June 3, in Chicago at BookExpo America. BTW reporter Karen Schechner joined Lonely Planet staff on the whirlwind road trip in the eye-catching blue RV as it wended its way to stores in New York and New England.

At The Bennington Bookshop in Bennington, Vermont, are (l. to r.) owners Ellen and Rick Havlak, and bookseller Mary Dermody.

On Wednesday, May 12, day five of the Lonely Planet Independent Bookstore Tour -- bearing a dozen doughnuts -- we stopped at The Bennington Bookshop in Bennington, Vermont, where we received an amiable reception from owners Ellen and Rick Havlak and bookseller Mary Dermody. Ellen Havlak proclaimed the arrival of the Lonely Plant RV "the most exciting thing that's happened here all month."

In November, the Havlaks will be celebrating their 25-year ownership of The Bennington Bookshop, which has been in existence for 80-plus years on the same square block on Main Street.

Leaving Bennington, we drove past the spire of the Bennington Battle Monument, where in 1777 American forces successfully defeated two detachments of the invading British army. After driving through more of bucolic Vermont, we felt obligated to get at least one shot of some seemingly happy Vermont cows on our way to Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center.

Booksellers (l. to r.) Tim Higgins, Erik Barnum, and general manager Chris Morrow in front of the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vermont.

Chris Morrow, Northshire's general manager, gave us the grand tour of the newly renovated bookstore, which has doubled its size to 10,000 square feet. Morrow said of the changes, "The main goal of the expansion was to keep the feel of the old place, but add space and loosen things up. They were getting very cramped." Rough-hewn boards and lots of small rooms help Northshire maintain its particular New England feel.

Campaign for Reader Privacy petitions were displayed at Northshire's front counter, and Morrow said customer response was "amazing" adding that "page after page was filling up without even putting up a sign."

Before heading to our next stop, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, New York, we picked up scones and coffee from the Spiral Café, a separately owned café in Northshire.

Staff members at Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, New York, are (l. to r.) Janka Bialek, Julia Payne, Dan Schreffler, Susan Frye, Jacqueline Kirkpatrick, Laura Glazer.

Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, which opened in 1975, will soon have a second location in Troy, New York, and bookseller Dan Schreffler explained that the new store will be about 3,000 square feet, half the size of the original Book House. "It's in a beautiful, old building, but it'll take a lot of work. We're aiming to open this fall," he said.

The last stop of the day was Ariel Booksellers in New Paltz, New York, where owners Susan and Dean Avery invited us in, and Susan Avery talked about the Book Sense Gift Card Program. "I was going to send an e-mail to Avin [Mark Domnitz, ABA CEO] about how great the program is doing," she said, explaining that Ariel had just ended its fiscal year and sales were up, which she attributed, in part, to gift cards. "Last year, we sold about 750 gift certificates. This year, we're at least 350 cards beyond that."

"See you at BEA!" was our parting refrain as the RV headed for ABA headquarters in Tarrytown, where this reporter left the tour, tired, but having met many wonderful, enthusiastic booksellers along the way. --Karen Schechner