Nestled in the northern Catskills, the small village of Hobart in upstate New York is home to around 400 residents and millions of fascinating characters, all stacked high on the shelves. Hobart is a book town. Just one block from Main Street, there are Seven various bookstores.
When Kathy Duyer retired, she moved to Hobart to surround herself with beautiful scenery and lots of books. She had no intention of selling them at first – she was purchase she said. “For the first two years we were here, we were the best customers the bookseller ever had,” she said.
But eventually she and her husband opened two small stores – one, Creative Corner Books, which sells cooking and craft books, and another, New York Books and Ephemera, which focuses on all things New York. “We really try to avoid any overlap in our assortment, so each store has something different,” Duyer said.
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There is a shop that specializes in crime novels (Quarry Books). Behind the children’s library (The Book Nook) there is another shop that sells special travel books (More Good Books).
The inspiration for the village comes from Hay-on-Wye, a thriving Welsh book town that has become a world-famous destination for book lovers.
Don Dales has never been to Hay-on-Wye and doesn’t even consider himself a “bookish guy.” But he does consider himself an entrepreneur. Dales grew up near Hobart, which was once a major supply point for the surrounding farming community. When he returned to the area two and a half decades ago, times had changed. “This town was a ghost town,” he said. “I always say that Main Street was overrun with tumbleweed. It was depressing.”
Dales bought several buildings on Main Street. Around the same time, a couple from Manhattan moved to town and opened William H. Adams’ Antiquarian Bookstore. Dales believed that the number of visitors could give him strength, so he began to remodel his buildings in more Bookstores. “I went out and bought a lot of books,” he said, “and a lot of lumber and built a lot of bookshelves.”
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Old books gave Hobart a new identity – and new residents, like Emeritus Professors Barbara Balliet and Cheryl Clarke, owners of Blenheim Hill Books. Clarke said: “I think Barbara always dreamed of opening a bookshop because of her love of books. I didn’t. I just wanted to retire!”
Clarke knows books – she has published several books of poetry. She also knows many writers and is co-founder of the Hobart Festival of Women Writers, an annual weekend of readings and workshops for women.
Writers and readers today make pilgrimages to Hobart, partly because of what the city represents. “They want to feel like they are in a place where books are important,” said Balliet. “Because I think many people are in places where books not important. And when they come here, they are just so happy!”
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In Hobart you won’t find all the latest bestsellers, almost everything is second-hand. And nobody gets rich here. For the shop owners, these shops are a labor of love – a new chapter in their lives.
For two dollars you can get a book and a cookie at young Mixali Asgarian’s table at the Hobart Farmers’ Market. Who knows? Maybe one day he’ll open the village’s eighth bookstore.
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Don Dales believes there is still room for improvement: “People like books. They like to see them on the shelves. They like to see the spine and say, ‘Oh, I remember that book, that was a wonderful book!’ And besides, a home without books is a boring home… unless it has a cat!”
For more information:
- Hobart Book Village
- Antiquarian books by William H. Adams, Hobart, NY
- Blenheim Hill Books, Hobart, NY
- The Book Nook (children’s lending library), Hobart, NY
- Creative Corner Books, Hobart, NY
- Liberty Rock Books, Hobart, NY
- More good books, Hobart, NY
- New York Books & Ephemera, Hobart, NY (Facebook)
- Quarry Books, Hobart, NY
- Hobart Women Writers Festival
- Hobart Farmers’ Market, Hobart, NY (Facebook)
Story produced by Aidan Trevisan. Editor: David Bhagat.
