"I searched on the net and my next stop needed to be a bookstore or library," Weaver said. He ended up at Old Number Six Book Depot in Henniker, where he bought a $65 book on New Hampshire government, written by New England writer F.B. Sanborn in 1904, and a $75 two-volume set of writings by the same author.

The store's owner, Ian Morrison, 70, who also runs Northwood Old Books in Northwood, has been selling since 1975. He has more than 210,000 volumes between the two stores, with prices from 50 cents to $1,000. He makes about $90,000 in gross sales in Henniker and $70,000 in Northwood, he said, but admits business has gotten tougher. "The price of books has gone up, staff salaries have gone up, but sales stay the same," he said. When a full-time staff member left two years ago, Morrison hired a part-time employee instead.

Many stores say they have lost a vital source of revenue: dealers. Carol Cullinan, 63, has owned Books by the Lake in Bradford for 13 years, and said since the mid-1990s, sales have dropped around 25 percent. She used to open Thursday through Monday; now she frequently takes Thursday off. In the past, dealers bought large quantities of books; now, she said, they wait until a customer requests a specific book, then buy it online.

But she does not blame them. "My husband says he probably wouldn't have started a store at this stage of our lives, the way business is going now," she said. "He'd sell online. Being tied to the shop cramps your style."

Cullinan, who keeps a candle burning in the store with Enya playing in the background, says for them the business is a retirement job, not a serious money maker. "As business slows down, so do we,"she said. "Or vice versa."

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By SHIRA SCHOENBERG

Monitor Staff

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