The Spine Nine: Willis Monie Books

While in Cooperstown recently, we stopped by Willis Monie Books to do some browsing and shopping. The owner of Willis Monie Books, Will Monie, was then kind enough to participate in our recurring series of Q&A with bookstore owners called "The Spine Nine."

Thanks, Mr. Monie!

Name: Will Monie
Bookstore: Willis Monie Books

1. When did you know you wanted to be a bookstore owner? Why? After 37 years, still not sure I want to be a bookstore owner. But honestly, this is what I like to do. My wife always tells people I’m “retired” because now I’m just doing what I like.

2. Do you have a book which is your white whale? If so, would you actually sell it? For years I collected John Milton—I would not sell a first edition of Paradise Lost if it ever came my way.

3. If you could assume the life of any character from a classic work of fiction, who would it be and why? Elizabeth Bennett -- she gets all the good lines.

4. What was the experience of selling your first book like? Too long ago -- sold books long before I started the book store.

5. The Kindle/Nook/etc. is ... an invention of the devil.

6. Describe your most memorable acquisition experience. The time I pulled a first edition of The Book of Mormon out of someone’s trash.

7. If classic novelists were like rock stars or athletes, which three posters would be on your walls? Jane Austen, Laurence Sterne, and, of course, James Fenimore Cooper.

8. In 25 years, used-book stores will be ... used book stores will be very scarce, but an antiquarian bookstore will still be very viable as we will have collectors for a long time.

9. If someone wrote a novel about your bookstore, what would it be called? For the Love of It