ABDebs Books & Gifts: A First for Knightdale, North Carolina

New bookseller Alyce Boyd-Stewart worked as a civil rights lawyer for nearly 25 years before retiring. But she hadn't stopped working for long, she said, when she "started messing around with the idea of owning a bookstore." After attending BookExpo America in Washington, D.C., two years ago and completing a Paz & Associates booksellers school, in March Boyd-Stewart opened ABDebs Books & Gifts in Knightdale, North Carolina, population 9,000.

Boyd-Stewart's longstanding love of books began when she was a little girl, spending hours in an Ohio public library, an "old beautiful building with marble floors and brass rails." Her father, she said, could barely read, and although her mother had only a 7th-grade education, she instilled a love of books in her daughter.

In 2005, both Boyd-Stewart and her husband, Edward Stewart, were at home trying to enjoy their retirement. "We were sitting around doing nothing," said Boyd-Stewart. "And I said, 'I'm opening up a bookstore.' My husband said, 'You're nuts,' as usual. And I ignored him ... as usual."

Boyd-Stewart dove into the research, attending BEA and booksellers school. Her first foray into finding a space for the store didn't go so well, however. "I spoke to a landlord who said I could rent his space, but I had to have my husband cosign," she explained. "I said, 'Excuse me? Do you know who you're talking to?'"

Boyd-Stewart soon found another landlord, whom she told straight out, "I don't want to hear anything about my husband cosigning. It's my bookstore." She got the space. ABDebs Books & Gifts, named after Boyd-Stewart and her daughter, is now famous for its golden tangerine walls. "It's the prettiest bookstore you'd ever want to put your foot into," she said.

It's also the first and only bookstore Knightdale has ever seen, according to Boyd-Stewart, and the town appreciates that it's there. ABDebs quickly established itself as a place with devoted customer service and a willingness to track down titles in and out of print. The shelves are filled with 12,000 books in 900-square feet of selling space. An additional several hundred square feet is reserved for a community center called The Meeting Place. ABDebs hosts meetings of local organizations, including Toast Masters and a group opposed to Wal-Mart.

Sections include a "young folks" section, history, classics, poetry, humor, biography, health, history, African-American literature, and a large fiction area. Although, since attending the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance trade show, Boyd-Stewart plans on rearranging the fiction shelves. "I'm about to take out all the mysteries from the fiction section, and they're going to get their own home," she said.

ABDebs also has an active reading program/contest for kids. "We tell the kids that they don't have to buy the books from us, they just have to commit to reading 15 minutes a day. The kid who reads the most books in his or her grade wins." The prize is a small pizza party and a $25 gift certificate at ABDebs. Several area papers have reported on the contest.

The bookstore launched its reading series soon after opening and holds several monthly. Upcoming author events include book signings with Andrea Ferrell (Autumn Seclusion, Trafford) and Ella Logan (Life After the Storm, AuthorHouse).

After owning a bookstore for just over six months, Boyd-Stewart said her new career has been "gratifying." And, she added, "My husband, who said, 'We're not opening a bookstore' -- guess who works in the bookstore all the time and has one thousand ideas about how to make it better? His profession was computers. He worked for 30 years for the Department of Defense. So he can make Anthology jump up and down." --Karen Schechner