Page 5 - BusinessWest March 20, 2023

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The Bookmill in Montague operates under the slogan “books you don’t need in a place you can’t find.”
Staff Photo
It tells Tannenbaum’s story, but it also tells the story of all own- ers of small bookstores across the country who have fought — for decades now — to keep the doors open.
“It’s a lovely portrait of what we do here — that’s the best way to describe it,” said Tannenbaum, adding that the film portrays the bond that can, and should, exist between a community and its bookstore.
As the documentary chronicles, independent bookstores, including those in this area, have faced a continuing wave of chal- lenges. And many have not survived, including institutions (that’s the only word for it) such as Johnson’s and Edwards in downtown Springfield, and, more recently, Big Bear Used Books and Café in Easthampton.
But overall, and to paraphrase one of the authors whose classics are sold in these landmarks, the death of the independent bookstore has been at least somewhat exaggerated.
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Indeed, many in this region are still ... well, doing business. ‘Thriving’ might be too strong a word, but then again, most of these stores never really thrived, as Grenier and others will tell you.
But they have provided a decent living, while also providing an important service, one that is still relevant, to one extent or another, at a time when one can have the latest Louise Penny thriller delivered to their home a day after executing a few simple keystrokes.
They have survived, they said, by providing more than books on shelves — although that’s certainly a big part of it. They also provide, in many cases, a relaxing experience, an oppor- tunity to meet authors, maybe a chance to sample a bottle of wine.
For the owners of these stores, they say what they do isn’t work as much as it is a pas- sion, something that found them as much as they found it.
“It’s a place that isn’t home and isn’t work. It’s a place where you can go and be. People come here to sit and read, they come to sit and work, students come here, professors come here to grade papers; a lot of books are written here.”
It was that way for Susan Shilliday, owner of the Bookmill in Montague, which specializes in used books and operates under the slogan “books you don’t need in a place you can’t find.”
She said she had no real intention of buying thus landmark, but then...
“It was a total, crazy fluke,” said Shilliday, who was a screen- writer before she took this gambit — Thirtysomething and Legends of the Fall are among her credits. “It was a joke with my daughters that all I really wanted in life was to come here one day and see a ‘for sale’ sign in front of the Bookmill.”
Instead of a sign, then-owner David Lovelace sent out an email in 2007 to a number of people letting them know that it was time for him to move on. One thing led to another, and Shilliday is now
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