What’s black and white and red all over the door? The facade of Sidney Johnson’s book shop in Barrington, of course. And her books have been read all over town for 18 years.
“I’ve always been a reader,” Johnson said. “As a youngster in Oak Park, I rode my bike to the library with my brother’s red wagon attached and heaped it with books.”
Her books now are heaped on tables, shelves and racks in the cozy shop on Main Street that acts at times like the town’s front parlor.
“Oh, people use us as a central point. They drop things off for other people. They drop in for a chat and love to tell us about their travels,” Johnson said. “We never have a dull day. We’re a personal bookstore. As personal as you want to get. We’re completely cued into our customers and what they want.”
Johnson thinks that’s what makes her different from the book superstores. “We work for our loyalty,” she said. “I made three long distance calls for a man today and didn’t charge him anything. I hope he’ll come back some day.”
Johnson tells of the 12-year-old boy who came in recently with the name and publisher of a book written on a slip of paper. “He’d seen the book in a big book store and wanted it,” she said. “But he wanted it from our shop.”
Is Johnson up to compete in the bookstore wars? Well, as a child, she rode Riverview’s Bobs roller coaster six times in a row in the front seat. Add to that her derring-do in flying solo in a single-engine plane across country.
“Besides doing what we’ve always done,” Johnson said, “we’ve started a new policy of taking 25 percent off all books in the store. Our motto is `Save time and gas.’ We also have sale books year-round at 50 to 80 percent off. And we get tons of books in for our annual tent sale the first weekend of August.”
She probably didn’t hold on to the Bobs’ safety bar either.
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Sidney Johnson Bookseller, 119 E. Main St., Barrington, is open 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Call 708-381-0084.
