Joseph and Mikayla Shearer have officially taken over the Hooked on Books location at 3918 Maizeland Rd. in Colorado Springs, Colo., from previous owners Mary and Jim Ciletti, the Denver Post Gazette reported. Their first day in business as the store's new owners was April 1.
The Cilettis, who will retain ownership of the Hooked on Books location on East Bijou St. in downtown Colorado Springs, ran the bookstore for 42 years. The Shearers moved to Colorado Springs in 2017 and quickly became dedicated customers. Over the years they thought of opening a bookstore of their own, and when the store went up for sale they "decided to just go for it."
Mikayla Shearer noted that it was "a little sooner on the timelines than we had anticipated, but you don't really see these opportunities come up. It's always been a place that we've loved." She has a background as a family law attorney, while her husband works with veterans; he plans to start working at the bookstore full-time in the near future.
The Shearers are busy learning the ropes, and one of their major goals is modernizing the store's inventory system. At present, Joseph Shearer explained, "we need to know off the top of our heads where every book that we have is physically located in the store." Once they get their bearings, they plan to host events pertaining to books as well as the outdoors.
So far, Mikayla Shearer told the Gazette, the response from the community has been great. On a recent Saturday there were "over 100 people" in the store, constituting one of the store's busiest days "in a long time." Given the store's long history, she continued, "it's been neat seeing how much this place means to so many different people."