Hook’s Books offers old-fashioned neighborhood bookstore
By HOLLY LA PAT
APPLE VALLEY REVIEW
Remember those neighborhood book stores where you could trade in used books for store credit?
You can still do that at Hook’s Books, an independent bookstore tucked behind a gas station on Highway 18 near Apple Valley Road.
Karen Munoz, who has owned the store since 1999, sells used paperbacks at 50 percent off the cover price. Trade-ins are worth 25 percent of the publisher’s price in store credit. Munoz says the average customer leaves with about six to eight books.
“They bring in a stack and take out a stack,” she said.
However, modern technology has taken a bite out of her business.
“I’m seeing less because of the Kindles and the Nooks and all that,” Munoz said. “But there are some people who have (e-readers) — they say they need to read and feel a book every once in a while.”
Of course, Hook’s Books offers something else that e-readers can’t: personal contact. Munoz says many of the store’s visitors linger to chat, sometimes swapping recipes with her. One regular customer who passed away even remembered her in his will.
And despite the march of digital technology, after 15 years, new customers still keep finding Hook’s Books. Some learn about the store by word of mouth; others drop in after a visit to neighboring businesses like DiNapoli’s Firehouse and Maxwell’s.
“They’ll come in after they go to the drug store or something and say ‘Oh, I never knew you were here,’” Munoz said.
While romance used to be her top-selling category, Munoz says mystery and suspense novels seem to have the edge these days. Her bestsellers section boasts books from authors including Mary Higgins Clark, Lee Child, Robert Ludlum and Patricia Cornwell.
Then there’s the overstock section, where $2.50 buys a bag of books — either 10 full-length novels or 20 Harlequin Romances.
“I like the people, I like the books,” Munoz said. “These are friends. I make friends with all these customers.”