Corner-Stone Bookshop

Time passes books in and out of local used bookstore

Story and photo by Gabrielle Bilik

Books are propped up in wooden display cases and pushed against the glass like subway passengers. The history contained within the little shop presses against the bindings of the books and the frames of the doors, sneaking out in whispers when any creak open. A musty smell of aging paper permeates the crowded rooms.

Everywhere you look in Plattsburgh's Corner-Stone Bookshop, you see books. Shelf upon shelf stacked with used books. Each book carries two stories — the story written within its pages, and the history created for it by the hands it’s been passed through.

Owner Nancy Duniho started the business with her ex-husband 35 years ago at the Skyway Shopping Center as the "Rambling Bookshop,” which was a bookshop on wheels. It was in a van-like vehicle, with two doors and "beautiful oak shelves," which held their expanding book collection.

They parked their bookmobile on the side of a tar-mat in a muddy little area using a 100-foot extension cord for electricity. Their bookmobile set-up was near an S&H Green Stamp Store, which existed from the 1930s until the 1980s as a rewards program. It was a tiny and seemingly unimportant practice in the lives of people at the time, but it is now unknown, and long since forgotten to most.

"History moves on and things get lost...”

By 1975, every last bit of available book space inside of the bookmobile was as exhausted as its old engine. It was time for an upgrade. Luckily, a new Pyramid Mall had just moved in on Route 3, influencing many of the downtown retailers to relocate, thus leaving the Dunihos an array of vacant shops downtown to choose from.

The Rambling Bookshop remained in the Duniho’s backyard for a long time after it stopped working, and over the years it was used for many things. It was a playhouse for Duniho’s children, a library for their own personal book collection, before finally being used as a storage unit. She was forced to get rid of it two years ago, because the town no longer allowed her to keep it on the property.

“I gave it away to the tow truck men. It was at a peak when the price of salvaged metal was running high, so they took it for free,” Duniho says. Just like that, The Rambling Bookshop was passed down and reused like the books it had housed for so many years.

"History moves on and things get lost,” owner Nancy Duniho says. “I've been struggling to keep this store because it's one of the things that might get lost. Old bookstores are dropping left and right. Immediacy and expediency are taking over the world and leaving relaxation and quiet time by the way side.”

In a world where new things are better things, and instant gratification is not only likely, but assumed, online books are becoming rapidly more obtainable. To keep up with the changing times, the Corner-Stone Bookshop has six online marketplaces featured on their website. They can also order books online at the store for customers.

"We started this business on a shoestring and we've been going on a shoestring for 35 years,” Duniho says. “We're all totally stubborn and determined to make a business succeed."

Duniho gets up to answer the persistent ringing of the phone. She leans against a wobbly stack of books as she hurries through a conversation with a late employee.

A man on the third floor, wearing a brown vest over a black T-shirt, is peering through his specs as he slowly goes along the banister that outlines the top floor; gluing and refastening each of the polls that make up the railing, one by one. It’s probably been weakened by age, or maybe because of the dozens upon dozens of books stacked up against it.

And there are dozens — and dozens — and dozens of books stacked against it.

The Corner-Stone Bookshop is filled with books. Yes it’s a bookstore, but it is FILLED with them. There is not a single area of space in the store that doesn’t have a book crammed into it. There are books lining the shelves. There are makeshift shelves built into the shelves. There are boxes of books placed on the floor around the shelves, and books stacked on top of the boxes. They are shoved vertically, diagonally, horizontally, and any which way in between, in every available sliver of space. They also have paintings for sale, and a section for old records. Not finding something to catch one’s eye in this store just seems implausible.

Sitting back down on a little blue school chair, Duniho goes on to describe the shop as a micro business with six employees including herself. “When I find someone who is good at a certain thing, I put them there. Each one has been able to fill a niche,” Duniho explains.

There are many jobs that need to be done to keep the place running. A big part of the work is the visible stuff, like cashiering, directing people, answering the phone, accepting, buying, and trading books. The other parts are the more behind-the-scenes jobs.

"…there’s more of a discovery here. You can find something that’s not on the best sellers list. Something you haven’t heard of and that your friends haven’t told you about.”

Vince Higgins is the bookshops entertainer. He wears white gloves because the books dry out his hands to the point of cracking, but he uses them to delight the children that come into the store.

“He sings and mimes. He’s our disk jockey,” Duniho says. He plays old and forgotten music. When he’s not here, people say, 'Where’s the music man?'”

Fergus Duniho, Nancy’s son, has been working at the shop since he was a kid. He works mostly with their Web site and the Internet aspect of the business.

“You have to be knowledgeable to work here,” says employee Vince Higgins. “Fergus is very qualified for this job because he’s an expert on obscure academic stuff. Professors make up much of the internet book market because they use it for their research."

“One of the benefits of working here is I often come across books that I probably wouldn’t come across working somewhere else,” Fergus explains. “Like right now I’m reading one about who built the moon. I didn’t even know that was an issue…there’s more of a discovery here. You can find something that’s not on the best sellers list. Something you haven’t heard of, and that your friends haven’t told you about.”

Duniho has noticed a resurgence of people to “downtowns.” People are showing a new tendency to stray away from “cookie-cutter” shopping malls, and they’re now looking for something more unique and eclectic. “You go in one [mall] and you know what to expect in all of them,” Duniho says.

Keenan Havey has been a regular to the shop for about two years. “This is the only shop I go to besides the restaurants and bars,” Havey says. “The prices are low and they have a good selection. I search for a book by whatever author I like at the time and they usually have it here.”

“It’s very rewarding to have a business where you get people from all walks of life every day, and you get to speak with them,” Duniho explains. 'They’re coming in here on their own free time. You get to know them by what they’re looking for in a book.”

“Most used bookstores carry a combination of used and new books. This is a very rare store, because it’s just used books,” Higgins remarks.

“We’re always shifting, shifting, shifting," Duniho says. “We have to always organize the books by genre and shelve them. We have to make room for all of them. We keep the duplicates on a rotary basis.”

When they’re done sifting through books, most are in pretty bad shape toward the bottom. Those are the ones that get tossed into the ‘free book’ bin outside of the shop. Used and abused, the books get scooped up and taken home with some new stranger.

“Yesterday we sold a book that we’ve had listed online for ten years,” Duniho says. “The book was written in Italian in 1748, and then ordered by a customer in Japan through a German website, who found it on an American website from us. Books find their way in a circuitous manner.”

Do you prefer to buy your books new or used?

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