Two weeks ago, CBS Sunday Morning broadcast a story about the village of Hobart, New York, which has become known as the “Book Village of the Catskills.” It has a population of 441 residents but has several book stores and has become a tourist destination thanks to a local entrepreneur named Don Dales.

Originally there was one used bookstore in the village and several abandoned buildings, which Don thought should be saved. So he bought them in 2005 and made them usable. Since then, a total of six used book stores, a hardware store, an art gallery, a general store, and a children’s book library have opened. 

Don Dales owns one of the stores, Quarry Books, which is located inside the historic Hobart Inn.

At the end of the story Don was interviewed and his closing statement was, “A home without books, that’s a boring home…unless it has cats.” I thought that said a lot about both books and cats so I decided to make Don a sign to put in his shop, which I am sending to him.

I will be interested to know what he might think of this unexpected gift. Hopefully he doesn’t already have one.

Ken Kaiyala
9-11-2024