“I have lived in the Cape Girardeau area my entire life. I’m originally from Scott City, and I’ve lived here in Cape and Jackson for the last 40 years.
“Our family opened the original version of this bookstore in 1977. This here is a new location. After my dad died in 1993, I bought the business from the family in 1997, and we’ve been in this location since 2004.
“I have enjoyed living here my whole life, especially because of the people here. They are my favorite thing. There is always something to do, and somebody will always wave at you.
“Since I work in the book business, in particular, we get to meet all kinds of people from all over Southeast Missouri. We get people from Poplar Bluff all the way to Illinois. It’s nice to see a common thread amongst them, which is a love of books. They’re always very talkative, never mean, and always friendly to us. I simply love this area because of the people here.
“Whenever the bookstore originally opened, I’d always been a reader. My dad had always purchased books for me. When I was a young man, we would travel places and he would go to truck stops, for example, and there would be a rack of paperbacks that he would encourage me to buy things from. This business is kind of my childhood fantasy all in one store. I am able to share my book collection with the entire community. My favorite part is being able to share books with other people and then finding a new book that they love that I knew they would love. It makes me happy.” – Cape Girardeau, Missouri