Park Hill Bookstore: ‘A Bookstore Is A Matchmaker’

There Is Beauty In Finding The Perfect Fit

There is no “I” in Bookstore, and “We” here refers to the members, volunteers, board, Park Hill community and sometimes Me, the manager, of the Park Hill Community Bookstore from 2002 to 2012.

A bookstore is a matchmaker, bringing together people and information, facts, fantasy and enlightenment. Sometimes the person entering the store knows exactly what he or she wants, and other times new vistas are about to unfold.

I think We should be proudest of the boxes of kids’ books on the floor near the door, suitable for little fingers to open. These small about-to-be readers usually came in with adults, but sometimes grade schoolers investigated on the way home from school. Thanks to the generosity of the community, these books were donated and could then be given to the children interested in them.

Park Hill’s books also help adults. Our next-door neighbor, Dr. Tom Croghan, DDS, on Fridays worked on the dental problems of prisoners in area institutions. We would assemble bags of paperback books for him to distribute among his shut-in patients. Prison officials only allowed paperbacks; hardbacks could be used as weapons.

Someone donated a few boxes of books written in a Middle-European language. We determined the language but didn’t think they’d ever move off a place on our shelves, so We called a reference librarian at the Denver Public Library, who gave us the number of a center for that ethnic group. They were overjoyed to get the books.

And We helped Our members — people just walking in and visitors to Park Hill. Book conversations are always fun, a sharing of enthusiasms. It’s exciting to see someone find that James Patterson or Rex Stout they’ve been searching for for years.

In order to do those good things We had to do well enough to pay the bills and stay in business. A number of strategies — some even successful — were tried or continued from the previous manager, Bettina Basanow. The 21st Century brought competition from internet book sales. So under the leadership of Sue Weinstein and her band of inputting volunteers, the Bookstore started sharing its bounty of books donated by Park Hill residents with the world. Who would have thought that that book on piano tuning, which probably hadn’t moved off its shelf in years, was actually scarce and would find a happy home and untuned pianos in Vermont?

Internet sales probably saved the Park Hill Bookstore so it can continue to serve the Park Hill community and others.

— Mike Stickney, Manager, 2002-2012