Bookish
I remember myself at 8 years old, reading with a flashlight in the Victorian home we lived in on Tennyson Street in Denver. Across the street was Elitch Gardens amusement park, carnival lights flashed through our stained-glass windows while I read “Pippi Longstocking”—Astrid Lindgren’s books meant so much to me, a little nearsighted girl in a bustling family, in a burgeoning city. Pippi gave me courage; she was my bravest and strongest childhood friend; it was she who started me on my lifelong journey with my most stalwart and true ally, the book.
Every night I read an hour or two; it is a gift I give myself, and a refuge from my “real” life. My 8-year-old niece Drusilla, like me, believes that books can take you anywhere and teach you anything. “It’s all up to your imagination,” she says. I believe that too. My friend Tom Rudloff, of Brownville’s Antiquarium bookstore, put so succinctly what I’ve known all my life: “The proper scope for people who love books is everything, it is the entire world. The excitement of the unknown seems to be the best method of dispelling ignorance. Being content with what you do know isn’t nearly enough.”
Jane Smith, who’s 50-year-long passion for Brownville (a village of 150 in southeast Nebraska that boasts of its bookshops, galleries and winery) has guided most things she and her husband Randel have dreamed into fruition, including the Brownville Lyceum Bookstore & Café, the River Inn floating Bed and Breakfast and the Spirit of Brownville cruise boat. Smith read an article in 2002 about Richard Booth, a bookshop owner from Hay-on-Wye, Wales. Booth started The International Organization of Book Towns—a loose affiliation of rural towns around the world that nurtures bibliophiles and encourages economic development by becoming a haven for bookshops and a heaven for book lovers. Smith opened the first of the village’s four bookshops in 2004: “I love having people come to Brownville. Many think they’ve ‘discovered’ it, and say more people should know about it.”
That sensation of discovery is rampant in Brownville and led Rudloff, a lifelong book lover who began selling books in 1969, here in 2008. His original Antiquarium, in Omaha’s Haymarket, is legendary now among book, music and art lovers in the region. “I am no less inspired by books, and the connection between people and books, today than I was then.” He moved to Brownville to join in the village’s Book Town movement. “The idea of having a book village is so enticing because bound books are passing from popular culture. But, there will always be a few people who revere books and will want to hold them in their hands. So it is particularly germane for book lovers and bookstores to be some place like Brownville.”
That desire “to hold” a book in your hand resonates with paper maker Christopher James and bookbinder Kevin Oliver; they opened shops in Brownville two years ago. Oliver, a craftsman who specializes in 16th- and 17th-century binding and book restoration, said, “My business is getting busier and busier because people are taking better care of the books they have.” James too understands the tangible luxury bound books offer; his papers are custom made and draw your hand to feel their texture and weight.
“I don’t think that e-books will ever replace real books,” explained one of the village’s first bookstore owners Cinnamon Dokken. “In some ways, it may increase the appreciation of real books. It’s nice to have shelves full of books in your home—they warm up a room and make it an interesting place. Our kids often graze from our bookshelves. It’s a good way for them to learn about the world—and about their parents.”
Dokken’s two shops A Novel Idea Bookstore in Lincoln and A Novel Idea Bookstore, Chapter 2 in Brownville, are popular among all types and ages of readers. “I’ve always loved books. My mother was an English teacher in our small town, and my grandmother worked at the local Carnegie Public Library. I spent all my paper route money on orders from the Weekly Reader Book Club. I really love what I do. People drawn to bookstores have a healthy intellectual curiosity and social consciousness that I value. The bookstore has a long tradition of community involvement. It just feels great to be a part of that.”
Dokken, Smith, myself and others have volunteered for years to organize and host the increasingly popular Wine, Writers & Song Festival, entering its ninth season and held this year on April 15, 16 and 17. This three-day festival features presentations from more than 35 writers, including Sherrie Flick, Brent Spencer, Allison Hedge Coke and Donald-Brian Johnson. There are food and music events to help polish the pleasure, and the village’s shops, galleries and boats will further enhance visits.
This year I’ll be scouring Brownville’s many book shelves for Pippi Longstocking books for my niece Drusilla (her imagination has been primed by my descriptions), baby animal books for my granddaughter Charlotte, pottery books for my grandson Winston, and survival skill books for my grandson Henry. I’ll continue to occasionally flirt with the idea of getting an e-book reader, but for now I’m a bound-book reader in Brownville … Nebraska’s Book Town. Come and look for your book; its waiting here for you.
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