The few, the proud, the independently owned

Fireworks and books. They don't seem to have much in common: fireworks are a loud spectacle best appreciated with others; books, on the other hand, are enjoyed quietly, and alone. One produces sparks, the other is highly combustible. Yet they have closer ties to each other than it might seem. This Friday, fireworks will commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence; books fed the spirits and inspired the minds of many of those signers. "I cannot live without books," Thomas Jefferson famously wrote in a letter to John Adams, who was an avid reader himself, and Benjamin Franklin, a printer in private life, founded one of the first circulating libraries in America. The Weekend is honoring history today by highlighting Bloomington booksellers who have declared independence themselves whether by staying in business or by opening their doors for the first time in the face of heavy competition from superstore chain bookstores.\n"You have to love books . . . they're not widgets," says Joie Canada, owner of Howard's Bookstore in the Fountain Square Mall. A lot of the work of a good bookseller "is knowing what you've got and matching the proper people up with what they need." Large chain booksellers have too much stock for any one individual to have a comprehensive knowledge of it; because of that, assistance can be more luck-of-the-draw. Canada -- who shares her store with two cats: a black one called Oscar "Moderately" Wilde, and a brown one, Miss Claudie, named after a Fats Domino song -- compares buying from a chain bookseller to clothes shopping at K-Mart or Walmart, while she says a small bookstore is similar to a small clothing store with a tailor: the first may have cheaper prices and more volume, but the second can offer more personalized services. The owner of an independent bookstore has more control over his or her stock than the manager of a chain store, and can more easily offer books that would only appeal to a few people, Canada says.\nJanis Starcs, manager and co-owner of the used bookstore Caveat Emptor, agrees that bookselling is a highly personal activity that requires lots of time and dedication to be done right. As part of that, he reads newpapers and magazines to keep up on "intellectual currents," in an effort to "every year to try to... increase the overall quality of all the shelves and all the sections as time goes on... and keep the sections fresh," he says. \nHoward's and Caveat Emptor opened at approximately the same time: when Canada's parents were setting up a bookstore as something to do in retirement, five recent Indiana University graduates decided Bloomington needed a used bookstore. Starcs, Don Wilds, Jim and Lynn Rock and Joe Greene originally opened Caveat Emptor on Fourth Street, selling, along with used books, records, greeting cards, posters and new books. Today the store, selling only used books and CDs, has moved to Walnut Street on the Square, and all but two of its founding partners -- Starcs and Wilds -- have left Caveat Emptor for other pursuits. One thing that hasn't changed, though, is the name of the store. Even though, Caveat Emptor, Latin for "let the buyer beware," might arouse suspicion in potential customers -- it made sense when they named the store.\n"The late '60s and early '70s were a very consumer conscious sort of time," Starcs explains. Now the store has been in business for over thirty years under one name and "it would be kind of foolish at this point to change it."\nAn independent bookstore, Starcs says, reflects the person who owns it, and his store tells a lot about him. Books fill all the shelves, of course, but they are also piled on the floor and in boxes stacked four or five high. At the front, wedged in among more books, Starcs sits listening to classical music under an old car crank mounted on a plaque with the inscription "He's a Crank." Almost completely the opposite of Caveat Emptor, though no less indicative of its owner's personality, is the used bookstore Books, Crooks, & Spacemen, located on Morton Street, across from the Showers Plaza. Karita Musgrave, "a stay-at-home mom for thirteen years," opened her store in November 2002, fulfilling a long-time wish to own a bookstore. Although she enjoys going to Caveat Emptor, Musgrave says she had no interest in copying it; her store has a smaller selection, wide aisles, short bookcases and pictures on the walls. Her stock is mostly science fiction, fantasy and mysteries. In addition to books, Musgrave sells greeting cards and jewelry.\nMusgrave has yet to make a profit on her bookstore, and, even though "every month it's getting better," the future probably doesn't hold great wealth from selling used books. Both Canada and Starcs talk about the lack of financial incentives in the business. Starcs says he hasn't made what would be considered a good middle-class income in his 32 years of business, and he will probably never retire; Canada describes the lot of an independent bookseller as a life where often you're "eating beans" to get by. But Starcs, Canada and Musgrave are doing what they are good at and what they enjoy, which, while it doesn't pay the heating bill, does make up for a lot of beans.