After Long Absence, A Book Store Comes To Reading

Before you read any further, she knows what you're thinking, and you're wrong.

Book stores are not yesterday's news, heading down the path taken by movie rental stores and the VCR. Liz Whitelam, a Reading resident of 15 years, is betting her future on it.

"Yes, years ago, people were like, 'digital books, that will be the decline of the print book.' It has not proven to the case because at the end of the day people who like books want to hold a physical book in their hands," said Whitelam, 48, who is just weeks away from opening Whitelam Books in Reading center. "They love books. People go into book stores and they smell books. People go into book stores and you see them stroking the books. This happens all the time."

What hasn't happened in a long time is a book store in Reading. In fact, the town with 19 places to get a cup of coffee on main street and more pizza joints and nail salons than you can count, hasn't had a book store since the Chapter One Book Store on Woburn Street closed around 2001.

We've all read stories about people in high-pressure jobs who suddenly step away to chase a dream. Whitelam's story is a version of that. Born in Chicago, her family moved to Massachusetts and she graduated from Masconomet, followed by Middlebury (class of '91), where she majored in German with a minor in elementary education.

After school she worked for a range of companies including biotechs in Cambridge, advertising agencies in Boston, Lycos, Sapient, WGBH, and most recently a small marketing company in Beverly. There was also time off to add the job of motherhood. "I figured creating life was enough of an occupation," said Whitelam, whose daughter Lucy is in the eighth grade at Parker Middle School.

That moment when you say it's time for a change, started about a year ago for Whitelam when she said to Paul, her husband of 16 years, "I am at the point in life where I need to be near the books." That meant it was either going to library school or opening a book store. She applied to Simmons College but it wasn't long before the pull of opening her own book store took over.

Her leap from corporate America to suburban book store isn't as big as you might think.

"I have always been a book person, I love books, I love reading, I read all the time, I just got to a point in life where I wanted that to be my focus. And, living in this community for years and years I had heard from people that this town really needs a book store, and I agree. It's missing from our retail landscape.

"Book stores are so much more than just a shopping destination. They are usually a community hub, they're a gathering place, a place for people to meet, people of all ages to spend time. Usually there are compelling events that bring people in. There's just a feeling in a book store that is just welcoming and comfortable. And so I was hoping to create that kind of space in our town. After years of agreeing with everyone saying, yes, we need a book store here ... there's that great quote of 'why doesn't somebody do something about this,' then realizing, well, I'm somebody."

Book Store 101 had already started, a combination of her liberal arts base and years of work in which she said she's picked up pieces of the business puzzle. She researched opening a book store and discovered Paz and Associates, a Florida company that helped people open independent book stores. She took an on-line course, all the while keeping an eye on real estate openings on Haven Street and downtown, what she calls "the walkable part of commercial Reading."

Then she went to Paz's Book Store Boot Camp in March, still not 100 percent convinced a book store was the right move and hoping the camp would help her decide.

"I went and by the second day I called my husband and said 'at this point you're going to have to talk me out of it ... this is absolutely the right thing.' "

But where? She just missed the Caffe Nero space. Snap Fitness at 30 Haven was another thought but it didn't work out. Green Tomato was slotted for the space next to D'Amici's. But it pulled out. Then Orange Leaf Frozen yogurt moved in ... and failed to attract enough business and closed. The space was open again and she signed the lease on July 3.

Confident and organized, it was a well thought out, well-planned, straight-forward business decision that was ...

"Terrifying. I haven't slept in months," said Whitelam. "I couldn't tell you the last time I slept through the night. I am riddled with anxiety at all times ... in a good way, if that's possible. Because it's very exciting. At the end of the day when I want to open the doors to this store, if I don't have everything in stock that I hope to have in stock, or I don't have the right fixtures hanging on my wall yet, wars will not start, children will not starve. This is a huge undertaking and part of what makes it fun is that there are so many components to it."

Some of those components have already had a test drive. She had a booth at the Reading Street Fair in September with her staff -- Paul and Lucy -- operating the cash register, inventory management, and point-of-sale system. "It was a great trial run."

The trial run included figuring out what Reading wants to read.

"That's part of what a good book store eventually does, they learn their community and what the community is looking for," said Whitelaw, who has been involved in numerous town groups over the years including being the former chair of the Reading Cultural Council. "You can go on Amazon and get just about any book in the world. But good luck finding it if you don't already know about it. It's like going to the Cheesecake Factory, when you look at that menu, if you don't come in there with a strategy of what you want to eat that day you end up in the fetal position under the table because it's so overwhelming.''

Work is coming along at 610 Main Street. The shelves have gone up and much of the furniture is in place, even while Whitelaw is fending off questions about the future of a store that won't open until Nov. 6. The enemies of her book store are everywhere, e-books along with a newly renovated town library.

"They're not my enemy," protested Whitelam, who admits to owning a Barnes & Noble Nook. "I may end up selling e-books thru my store eventually. The thing about them, for someone like me who would take a physical book any day of the week, if it's 11 at night and I've finished a book and I don't have another on deck, the library's closed, and I can't get to the bookstore, thank god the technology exists that I can beam a book from the sky and start reading again right then. I love that that's there.

"Ten years ago people thought maybe only 20 percent of books will be physical and 80 percent will be read digitally. In fact the reverse is true at this point. Books are back. Books are fine."

One thing you won't see at her store is a sign prohibiting food and drink. Though she won't be selling food, banning it would miss the point.

"I wanted this space because it's next store to coffee and food. I'm entering one business at a time. That's hard enough. The goal is go to Nero, come here, grab your coffee, get your sandwich, your pastry, whatever and then come in," said Whitelam, who made sure to keep the store's fireplace and make it the center of the room. "When I picture this fireplace area, I am picturing at 10 a.m. on a Monday that hopefully people will come over from the Pleasant Street Center and there will be senior citizens sitting there or there will be new mothers there with babies, or the ultimate goal, new mothers there with babies with the senior citizens, talking to each other and the senior citizens giving the mother a brake and holding the baby so the mother can go do something.

"Part of the idea of a bookstore is that it is a destination. It should be comfortable, it should be a place where you want to go and stay for a while."

Stay for a while. Sounds like a business plan she's determined to fulfill.

Photo by Bob Holmes and courtesy Whitelam Books.