Walking down Main Street, it's easy to miss the sandwich board outside of Left Bank Books on your way to the more conspicuous Dartmouth Bookstore. With no display window on the street, Left Bank often struggles to draw customers up to its second floor location.
Despite this difficulty, the store is in its seventh year, thriving in an ugly economic climate.
"The main thing for us is getting people up the stairs and crossing the threshold, and once people do that, people are usually eager to shop," Left Bank Books owner Nancy Cressman said.
The store is home to roughly 9,000 used books and also offers about 13,000 titles online through Amazon.com.
While Cressman said that business in the Hanover shop has actually benefited from the recent economic downturn, she noted a decrease in online sales. As a result, Cressman and her small staff have embarked on a campaign to reach out more extensively to the Dartmouth community.
"Every college student should have a used book store in their lives," she said. "Most college towns have two or three, and we're the one."
Cressman said that she hosts public readings at the store and intends to include student writers in the reading series in the future. This spring, Cressman said she will host a nine-week series of public events at the store that will include Dartmouth English professors Ernest Hebert and Cynthia Huntington.
As Cressman willingly admits, this programming is an effort to bring people into Left Bank.
The peak in gas prices this summer, Cressman said, led her to focus more on connecting with the local community.
"I thought of how there were 6,000 people right here who are readers by nature -- not only students, but faculty and staff who could just walk over here," she said.
Cressman said she has worked to shop for "green" titles for her store, collaborating with Dartmouth's sustainability office to collect used books from dorms when students leave campus. Left Bank also benefits from the donations of Hanover residents and students moving out of town or otherwise looking to pass their books on to new readers.
Aza Erdrich '11, who works part-time at Left Bank and is currently the only Dartmouth student on the staff, said she feels strongly committed to bringing more people into the shop not only to drive up sales, but to also invite them into a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere.
"It's not about money," Erdrich insists. "It's just about loving books. The best thing about used books is that they've been loved. All these books have been read and loved before they're being passed on."
Erdrich, whose family owns an independent bookstore in Minneanapolis, said she has a passion for working with books and encouraging people to read. She has helped Cressman and the rest of the staff at Left Bank reach out to Dartmouth students by distributing fliers on campus, choosing books used in Dartmouth courses for display on Main Street and adding a large arrow to the sandwich board out front.
While Erdrich said she'd like to see more students think of Left Bank as a place to buy their books for school, she said sharing the warmth of the shop's environment with more of her peers is just as important a goal.
"It's a great place to relax and decompress, and we're not going to force you to buy books," Edrich said. "Bring your own book -- that's fine. It's just a great feeling to be surrounded by books."
