The Book Rack ends its story after five decades

There was a time not so long ago when used bookstores were something of a given. They’d been around in some form since the advent of the printing press, but really took hold in the early 20th century, when “Book Rows” in large metropolitan cities began spawning smaller stores, ones that focused on cheaper products, the non-antiquarian stuff, dime pulps and magazines, later comic books and mass-market paperbacks. By the 1960s and ’70s, used bookstores were all over the place, selling old and sometimes visibly loved books for a buck or two.

Which was exactly the retail world into which south Denver’s The Book Rack opened its doors back in 1977. It was the summer of “Star Wars,” and science fiction was all the rage again — and there was a plethora of sci-fi paperbacks still circulating after a similar couple of booms in the 1950s and ’60s. Lancer’s “Conan” novels, Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” plenty of Asimov, Brooks, Donaldson, Eddings, LeGuin, Zelazny, and much more. And that was just the sci-fi section. For fans of other genres — westerns, romance, even kids (“Choose Your Own Adventure,” anyone?), there was always something for any interest.

But all good things must end, and so The Book Rack closes its doors after 49 years of operation on Sunday, Sept. 13, if not before. Current owner Cathi Kern says she hopes to sell most of her current stock before then, and if she runs out of customers or paperbacks before then, she may close the store sooner. “The store’s closure is a financial decision,” says Kern, who adds that from now until the end, everything in the store is 50% off in order to move merchandise.

People don’t generally start bookstores as solely a financial venture. It’s usually as much about the books and fellow readers, if not more so. It’s too late to know if that’s true of Ann and Fred Milenovich, who founded the store in 1977 and sold it to a trio of ladies one of whom was a longtime employee by then — in 2013. Kern purchased the store in 2023 from the estate of one of those women after her passing, and took over in April of that year.

And Kern can confirm that her motive in buying it wasn’t monetary. “I was a regular customer,” she says. “I live about a mile from the store. I just loved having a used bookstore in the neighborhood. These are places where you can make connections with your neighbors. And of course I have a lifelong love of reading, but it was really about trying to keep a neighborhood institution alive.”

Despite The Book Rack being a local shop for nearly five decades, it began as a part of a national chain, if one only loosely connected from location to location. It began with a location in Tennessee in the early ’60s, spreading across the country. At its height, it boasted over 300 stores that shared a name, at least. The brand dissolved slowly over time, and the current number of loosely affiliated Book Racks is reported to be somewhere around 60 these days. Most old Book Rack stores either closed or did what Old Firehouse Books up in Fort Collins did, and re-branded themselves.

It’s probably no coincidence that paperback-only stores like The Book Rack are fading from the marketplace at around the same time the very format they were built around: the mass market paperback has similarly breathed its last as a format. “I focused on paperbacks mainly because the store always had,” Kern admits, and then laughs. “Also, that’s what my shelves were literally built for!” But Kern adds that she loves the size. “Paperbacks were made for accessibility. I love that — making these great books available at a great price. That’s been the mission of used book stores too. Providing an easy access point for people to try a new author or genre. That’s so important.

“People forget that paperbacks got so popular because they were produced for military use,” Kern continues. Sized so as to fit in a soldier’s front pocket, the books increased morale, and soldiers returning home remembered that format and liked it, and that was part of its surge in popularity post-war. “I had one customer come in and tell me how he’d picked up this Nicholas Sparks book and carried it around with him during his service. He said he must have read it 37 times. It’s amazing how those ripples continue to spread, even today.”

It’s easy to blame the passing of good bookstores on Bezos and his Amazon juggernaut. They’ve changed the market for sure, and that’s putting it very, very kindly. But Kern says while online competition has affected the viability of stores like hers, it’s also about the readership. “I think it’s right to say that readers are reading more,” she says, “but it may not be true that more people are reading.”

Kern also thinks that shopping itself has changed. “You have to offer more than just a product on the shelf these days. Customers expect a custom experience. We’ve tried to do that — we want to provide for the community, since that was the reason we really got into it — but it’s tough, and still transitioning, I think.” It’s the lesson of the pandemic that we didn’t learn for the long-term: support your local places, or they will go away.

Still, the legacy of The Book Rack will continue, even if the store is no longer. Those ripples again, which reach far and unexpected shores. “It’s been an incredible experience,” Kern says with emotion. “So much surprise and delight with the connections I’ve made. I’m so grateful for that. I thought I knew a lot about books, but you know, the thing about books is that there’s always more to learn. And that’s beautiful, right? What a gift.”

The Book Rack, 4061 E. Wesley Ave., will be open through Sept. 13, with everything in the store discounted 50%. To contact the store or for more information, see the Book Rack website.