If you are a book lover who lives on the Connecticut shoreline, you might have felt a shiver of fear run down your spine earlier this year when the owners of Breakwater Books in Guilford announced the bookstore was up for sale. Sure, 2022 was a decent year for indie bookstores, with sales up, for the most part. At many bookstores across the country, people were returning in droves to in-store events after having tired of Zoom.

But 2023 is anything but a sure bet, what with inflation, along with concerns about a possible recession and, oh, by the way, the looming threat of unprecedented worldwide economic upheaval. It’s also true that running a small business is always something of a gamble, even in good economic times. Would the bookstore find a buyer willing to take a chance?

The bookstore itself has been passed from one owner to another several times since it opened in the early 1970s. Paul, Richard, Liza, Maureen, the two Marions. It’s been lucky when it comes to owners, all of them thoughtful and dedicated, all of whom moved the bookstore forward in one way or another. And, a few months ago, we learned Breakwater and its book-loving community got lucky again. Dani and Rob Howard, who live in Guilford, saw the for-sale notice and, after a relatively short period of time, struck a deal with the old owners.

For those who knew Dani and Rob, and for those who quickly got to know them when they took over the store in April, there was a collective sigh of relief. The Howards are well known in their hometown. Dani is a voice teacher. And they are both avid and dedicated volunteers at the high school, at the middle school, with the PTO, as a host and on the board of A Better Chance, for the Guilford Fund for Education, Little League, co-chair of the Spelling Bee. The list of their volunteer activities and the ways they have found to help others is long and impressive.

The Howards say buying the bookstore is a natural extension of their love for their little town and the shoreline and yet another way they can give back to the community. And their decision to buy the store is very much a love story of sorts, of their love for each other, of their love for family and friends, and of books and bookstores, where they would often go for dates when they were courting and after they were married as well.

Dates At The Book Barn

Rob can track his love for books as far back as the fourth grade. His parents were moving, and during the move, his father would sometimes take Rob to his office. Down the street from the office was a giant bookstore, part of a chain, that served as a haven of sorts for the little boy.

Many years later, his path crossed with Dani’s when they both attended the same wedding in 1999. There was some juggling of room assignments among the guests, and Dani was looking for a place to stay. She remembers going up to Rob and saying, “You’re the guy with the extra bed in your house. Can I stay at your house?”

Several years later, they got married and moved to Guilford in 2006. Their dates would often include trips to the bookstore. One of their favorites was the Book Barn in Niantic. They loved the Book Barn’s cat, the goats, and all of the outbuildings stuffed with books.

While going about their work, raising their kids, and doing all that volunteering, Rob was nurturing a dream.

“Every time Rob had a bad day at work...,” Dani says. Rob finishes. “...yeah, if I had a bad day at work, sometimes I’d be thinking sort of like, oh, life would be so much simpler if I was just in a bookstore and just selling books and being behind a cash register. It would be so much calmer and easier.”

About six years ago, when Breakwater Books was for sale, the thought did cross their minds, but only briefly. Their kids were still young and required time and attention, along with a fair bit of driving here, there, and yonder. So they tucked their dreams aside, wondering if maybe they missed their chance.

Then, in February of this year, Dani was poking around on the Shelf Awareness website, which is full of book news, including bookstores for sale, and she saw it. Breakwater Books was again for sale.

“Hey, look, the bookstore is for sale again,” Dani told Rob.

“How much?” Rob asked Dani.

“I don’t know,” Dani told him. “We have to make a meeting; let’s make a meeting.”

As she tells that story, she adds that she knew they were going to buy that bookstore even before that first meeting.

“Because that very first meeting is in my calendar as ‘Buy Breakwater Books.’”

She laughs.

Ready To Make A Deal

After meeting twice with Paul Listro and his husband, Richard Parent, who owned the bookstore, they were ready to make a deal.

“The thing that made it possible, I guess, is just talking with Paul and Richard about what they were doing,” says Rob, who formerly worked at a hedge fund and now manages an investment partnership with his brother and father. “Because they [Paul and Richard] both had jobs, you know, in addition to running the bookstore. So that made it feel like it was a do-able thing. Because Dani wants to keep teaching, and I want to keep doing investing stuff.”

Dani says they also were encouraged by the fact that Paul and Richard did a fair amount of updating in the store, leaving it better off than when they purchased it.

“Both cosmetic things and things you can’t even see,” she says. “Richard and Paul did a really nice job of not only what they did with the new shelving, but also they got roll-away shelves. So you can actually set up for events in there now. And that’s part of what we want to do because I want to do author events. I also want to have music there on Sundays. There are tons of teenage musicians and grown-up musicians. I want them to come in. I have friends who are playwrights and directors who I want to have come in and do readings for us. And we’re already talking–you know, pie in the sky–to one of my friends who just did a reading, and I’m like, ‘let’s do your play! In our new bookstore!’”

They also have plans to give back a portion of sale proceeds to organizations in town that support the community.

They have other plans as well, not as much fun, but every bit as important. They went on vacation to Key West recently and, of course, ended up in the local bookstore there. Between that visit and examining their own operations more closely, they realized they need to update their point of sale system and that they want to create a more robust system that would allow them to more easily and efficiently fulfill online orders.

“It has minimal functionality at this point,” says Rob. “And, if we can figure out ways to improve that, then if someone’s grandma lives in Michigan and their kids live in Guilford, OK, maybe grandma should order their book through our local bookstore. So, she knows that part of the money will go to the school or another type of community organization. I think that’s an area where there might be opportunities for us.”

Dani says they are also experimenting right now and looking for ideas from their customers as to what they would like to see for sale in the bookstore. “So suggestions are welcome,” she says. “Graduation is coming up. Father’s Day is coming up. We’re adding a few more games, and we added a few more things, little things, for people who love books.” She is particularly interested in adding items that are handmade, local, and, ideally, from companies that are women- or minority-owned.

I ask them what their definition for success is when it comes to being bookstore owners.

“I’m sure she has a good answer,” says Rob, laughing.

“Oh, no, you can give your answer,” says Dani. She’s laughing too. “Rob wants us to not lose all our money. And that’s not a bad goal.”

Even More Involved

“I mean, we’d like to have some sense of growth,” says Rob. “And we want to be even more involved with the community. We’d like to get tied into the schools more, and maybe with summer reading or something like that. More events. More ties with schools. An improved web presence. With those three things, I think all of that will feed into our success.

Even with those challenges ahead, along with whatever else 2023 will bring, they have already found the experience of owning a bookstore, while time-consuming, also very rewarding. They are surrounded by their friends who want to help. There has been an outpouring of help from people who want them to succeed in this new endeavor, their longtime dream. When I visit the bookstore not long after they purchased it, I find Dani and Rob, in fact, surrounded by those friends, and family members, who are full of great ideas about how to get others to join them in the store.

“Everyone has been like, ‘How can I help you?’” says Dani. “‘What can I do?’ They have ideas, or they want assigned tasks. It’s been such a great feeling.”

Dani says this with a sense of wonder. But it’s also clear that for these two–who have already given so much to the town they love and who want to use this bookstore to give back even more–that this is payback of the very best kind.