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Many more stories to be told
Published 5:08pm Friday, July 9, 2010By JESSICA SIEFF
Niles Daily Star
Inside A Casperson’s Bookshop, the scent of pipe tobacco and classical music fills the space not filled with books.
Those are two delicate but intricate touches the owner, Al Casperson, had in mind before he moved the shop, which had been his father Ralph’s, from its former location behind the home Ralph shared with his wife Doris.
Several members of the community made their way to the shop Thursday to celebrate its grand opening with the Four Flags Area Chamber of Commerce, and as they did, a portrait of Ralph Casperson, hung just over the desk at the new shop on Fourth Street, looked on.
“First of all, it wouldn’t have happened without Doris,” Casperson said. “Following through with dad’s request on his deathbed, he said three phrases. He said, ‘books to Al, books to Al, books to Al.’
“From there, my mind was made up,” he said. “I knew what to do.”
The bookshop houses 30,000 rare and used books. In the little house on Niles-Buchanan Road, which many may have passed by without notice, a warehouse and bookshop was home to 100,000 books – an inventory acquired by Casperson’s father over many years that will continue to feed the new shop for many to come.
“I have an inventory back there to draw from until I’m 95 years old and I may just be here that long,” Casperson said.
But if the start of the collection begins with Ralph, the story now belongs completely to his son.
Every detail of the shop – the paint on the paneled ceilings, the light fixtures and moldings on the bookcases, the leather chairs and decorative curtains and that scent of pipe tobacco – were all part of Al’s vision for the shop, now under his name.
Row upon row of bookcases filled to the very top line the walls of the shop’s interior, leading to the back and twisting around.
Over the course of 81 days, with help from kids through Wesley United Methodist Church, boxes upon boxes of books were moved into the new space, unloaded and stocked on shelves, Casperson said.
Eager readers will find everything from local history to subjects like gardening and music, art and politics and a children’s section.
“The building seems to lend itself real well from the outside for an old used and rare bookshop,” he said.
A basement is also waiting for eventual renovation, where Casperson said he will bring in the shop’s ephemeral and rare papers, magazines, newspapers and even vinyl records.
Casperson and his wife Linda are also adamant on their feelings about the community they’re in.
“We like to make this like a complimentary business,” said Linda, “where if a person comes in for a book and they like the coffee, we’ll send them over to buy coffee … if they’re looking for a new book, there’s Majerek’s downtown.
“We hope that this will be a complimentary business,” she said. “And we will send them to other businesses downtown.”
With a continual inventory, one that keeps growing as Al continues to purchase as well.
“It’s fun to find the books,” he said. “It’s even more fun when people come in and discover things that you found and you thought were worthy to put into the shop. It’s a thrill to watch somebody buy that and walk out with it because they love it.”
As a “browsing bookshop,” Al hopes to give those who stop inside more than just the opportunity to find something good to read.
He hopes to give them an experience.
And as he begins taking the shop with such a sentimental history into its next chapter, he may just give them all quite a story to tell.
