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| Taylor Rose Berry, owner of Harbor Books. | |
"I always found that the book and restaurant industries are similar, because at the end of the day it's all about customer service," said Taylor Rose Berry, the owner of Harbor Books, which opened in Sag Harbor, N.Y.--on the far eastern end of Long Island--on Black Friday. Before opening the store, Berry had worked at Book Hampton, first as a bookseller and then as their community navigator; for many years before that, she worked in the restaurant industry. She lives in Sag Harbor, and after watching the number of bookstores in the community drop from five to just one small primarily used bookstore, she felt compelled to do something about it.
"It was just very sad to me that such a literary community no longer had a literary homebase in a sense," she explained. "I've always just loved books and being in the book business. I was inspired to open up a new store."
Harbor Books is a 2,200-square-foot, general-interest bookstore with a range of titles for adults and children. "I'm a strong believer in the idea that you should be able to walk into a bookstore and get anything your literary heart desires," she said. "I don't believe in editorializing what people read."
While Berry has no plans to stock used books, she may eventually stock first editions and rare or out-of-print books--and may offer some food or drinks down the road. For now, customers are all welcome to bring in coffee and snacks and relax.
Harbor Books' space previously housed a culinary supply store and, earlier, one of Sag Harbor's lost independent bookstores. A great deal of renovation had to be done, Berry recounted, to get the space ready to be a bookstore once again. "I re-did the entire space," she said. "It was important to me to give the space a new soul, so to speak."
She described the interior of the shop as very open but still warm and cozy. There are dark wood floors and bookshelves, tin and copper ceiling tiles, and big, comfortable chairs throughout the store. Her favorite thing in the store, Berry said, is a replica of the phantom tollbooth from Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, which serves as the entrance to the kids' section. Another beloved item is a working Royal portable typewriter on which customers leave notes and messages.
"People have written so many things, from music quotes to their favorite books," Berry said. She has the most fun, she added, reading what little kids write on the machine. "When it's working, you hear it throughout the store. There's something magical about that sound. It's incredibly enchanting."
Philippe Petit, the French high-wire artist who walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers in 1974 and the author of several books, including this year's Creativity: The Perfect Crime, dropped by the store unannounced recently to sign books and talk to customers. He also used the typewriter. "He just wrote about being marvelous," Berry recalled.
With the store's opening coinciding with Black Friday and the beginning of the busiest shopping season of the year, Berry has yet to host any events, but in the new year she'll start the store's events program in earnest. In addition to the standard author events, she intends to host workshops and book clubs, among other things.
"I believe that if you're not growing, you're dying," Berry said. "We're always going to evolve and grow with the times. Events will be a really big thing."
Berry described the Sag Harbor community's reaction to the store as incredible. "One of our staff members said, I've never seen so many people walk in and be so happy," she recalled. "People thank me for doing this. It's been such a warm welcome. It's been truly, truly touching." --Alex Mutter