MIKE MASTERSON: A dream built

Eight years have passed since Janice Castleberry decided to build her dream by offering used products on the Harrison Square. And customers have come by the thousands ever since to purchase and peruse in awe at the scope and content of her creation.

At 69, the grandmother of seven still finds it difficult not to spend time at work reading, which is perfectly understandable since she has steadily built what I believe must be the best-stocked used bookstore in Arkansas.

Moving her Books on Main Street from downtown two years ago to a much larger two-story location several blocks north along U.S. 65 proved to be a wise decision for the space Janice badly needed to process and display so many shelves filled with books on virtually every subject imaginable.

It's a safe bet she has accumulated more books over the years than a lot of towns' libraries contain throughout the South. I'm betting even literary-oriented Southern communities like Oxford, Miss. (with its nationally regarded Square Books) don't surpass what Janice has amassed in this Gateway to the Ozarks community.

Among her greatest challenges today is keeping up with the inflow. "We receive such a large volume that we never get them all processed," she said. She often encourages many of the 300 or so weekly customers to rummage through boxes of as-yet-unprocessed books (if they have the patience).

"Some who come are travelers and tourists, but most are repeat customers who've shopped since our first days in business," she said, adding she occasionally becomes a customer herself of other used booksellers. Just last week Janice said she and husband Ron purchased books that caught their eye while on an out-of-town trip. "We're always looking for things when we travel that we need for the store, and books we know our regular customers would want."

Born in the Harrison hospital, Janice grew up just south in Newton County, graduating at Mount Judea High School. She married Ron and settled in Harrison in 1966 where they had three children.

I found her story especially fascinating because over the past decade we have lived in a society immersed in electronic devices that divert our attention from the printed pages we've historically held and smelled and turned and marked to hold our place. In that respect, this soft-spoken lady has defied the odds with her business in 2018 wireless America.

"There was no used bookstore in Harrison or close by and I thought there was a need," said Janice. "I wasn't employed at that time and it seemed like good timing. Today, the most difficult part of my life is not to spend all my time reading."

The vastness of her creation becomes apparent as soon as you enter. Wall-to-wall shelves packed with books stretch deep into the expansive store and spill through two additional large rooms. Then there are two equally vast private storage rooms packed with boxes.

"A difficult part of what we do is definitely keeping them all properly shelved." And that's with her oldest grandson, Powell, as a full-time employee and a younger one, Cade, working after school each weekday.

The work can prove time-consuming since incoming books are shelved individually by genre and the author's last name in the fiction section and in other areas that can be alphabetized in that manner. "It's hard to say what sells best. I can say paperback fiction sells most by volume, including Christian fiction, which is very popular in this area," she said.

"I have several customers who have tried electronic reading devices and still prefer paper books. Audio books are good sellers for readers who are on the road a lot and those who like to multitask with needlework or other hobbies and housework while listening."

She said she offers store credit for books customers have bought and returned, which entitles them to a discount on the newest purchases.

Few of us in the more experienced population would argue that, although we have cell phones, laptops and notebooks to keep our minds occupied (as long as we have electricity to power them), they can never replace the books we grew up holding in our hands. Janice believes the market for used books will only continue to grow, although I can't see where she has room to keep many more. Perhaps her car trunk?

The late cosmologist Carl Sagan so eloquently explained in 1980 their intrinsic value when he reminded us just how astonishing books are to humans. He called them flat objects from trees upon which are printed many "funny dark squiggles."

"But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."

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Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial on 10/28/2018

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