Tucson bookstore attracted Paul & Linda McCartney, Barbara Kingsolver

The family business was food, not fiction. Their father managed Tucson’s Dunkin’ Donuts stores. Still, the book thing was definitely in their blood someplace.

It explains why the two sisters decided to open an independent bookstore in 1988. It explains why they kept at it despite the arrival of Amazon, e-books, audiobooks, a major recession and a pandemic. Finally, most importantly, it explains why they are still behind that same counter, 38 years later.

Welcome to Mostly Books, right where it’s always been, in the Monterey Village Center at 6208 E. Speedway near North Wilmot Road. 

“It hasn’t always been easy,” Arnett said, “but when somebody comes in and tells us how much they love our store, I still get the same great feeling I had the day we opened.”

Paul and Linda McCartney bought books for their children there. Barbara Kingsolver launched her second novel, “Animal Dreams,” there.

Mostly Books celebrated its 38th anniversary Sept. 13, and a steady stream of longtime regulars stopped by to reminisce about old books and old times.

“I’m not sure starting a bookstore was the smartest thing we could have done,” Clapp said. “You’ll never get rich owning a bookstore, but when you love books the way we do … and you’re surrounded by books every day … you know you’re where you belong.”

Let’s credit Ethel Stewart, the girls’ grandmother.

“Bobbe and I were always big readers,” Clapp said. “Even when we were little, we went to the library every week. Then, when we got older, Nana wanted us to read the same books she was reading so we could talk about them. It’s like we had our own little book club.”

The idea of having their own little bookshop began percolating in the mid-1980s.

“We were both at a point in our lives when we were wondering what we should do next, and we began thinking of ways we might do it together,” Arnett said. “Running a bookstore? It was on the list.”

In January of 1988, the two young women scheduled their own private retreat in Flagstaff to discuss the pros, the cons, and eventually the plan for opening a new bookshop.

“Once we agreed to go for it, we gave ourselves our own to-do lists and got to work,” Clapp recalls. “At one point, I worked for a couple of weeks at Bob and Faye’s, a family-run bookstore in Tempe. Bobbe started developing a business plan and looking for a location.”

The store’s name, they decided, would be more descriptive than distinctive.

“Mostly Books pretty much describes what we do,” Clapp said. “We sell other things like greeting cards and calendars, but mostly we sell books. Bobbe liked the name ‘Beaucoup Books,' but we were afraid nobody would know how to spell it.”

The original inventory included hundreds of used books from the owners’ own bookshelves at home. They found books in storage at the old Downtown YMCA on Fifth Ave. They bought more from Bob and Faye.

The grand opening became a family affair, with aunts, uncles, cousins — and Nana Stewart — all taking shifts.

“I was in the back of the store that day,” Clapp recalled, “and somebody came to me and said, ‘Do you know your Nana’s charging the Canadian price on every book?’ She’d bought hundreds of books in her life, but she’d never sold one.”

Business grew slowly but steadily through the store’s first decade. The store sold books, greeting cards, calendars and candles. For a time, it rented out audiobooks.

Then, to paraphrase Mike Campbell in “The Sun Also Rises,” things began to change. Gradually at first, then quickly.

Barnes and Noble launched a new location on Broadway in 1997. In 2001, a Borders store opened in the newly reopened Park Place Mall, and a new Bookmans store replaced the shuttered Bashas’ market in Monterey Village, six doors down.

Suddenly, there were three major bookstores within three miles of the front door, one of them 50 yards down the walk.

“The other stores didn’t affect us too much at first,” Arnett recalled. “We had our customers and they had theirs, but then it started to get hard. There were days when we locked up and thought, ‘What are we doing?’ But we were stubborn. We kept going. And we’re still here.”

Indeed they are, and with 80,000 books in its collection, Mostly Books may now be the largest independent bookstore in Tucson.

In some ways, it has changed little over the years. Used books are still stacked vertically so shoppers can read the spines. A dizzying number of them still jam the shelves, from front door to back.

But there is now an ample assortment of new titles, too, brightly lit and prominently displayed.

Mostly Books has become a hub for the 12-step community, offering medallions and jewelry to help members celebrate milestones.

The store hosts signings for local authors, offers several book clubs, and often takes book stock to local meetings and conferences.

“We stay busy,” Clapp said, happily. “You know, it hasn’t been easy, but we still love what we do. We still love the people we see here. How many people can say that?”

Maybe it’s in her blood.

Footnotes

• Stacks Book Club will host an appearance by romance writer Lyla Sage this coming Tuesday, Sept. 29, at Hotel Congress. After a conversation with fellow romance author Joss Richard, Sage will be signing her latest book, “Free Falling.” For tickets and more information, visit stacksbookclub.com. 

• Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier will appear at the University of Arizona Poetry Center on Thursday evening, Oct. 8. She is best-known for her collection “Whereas,” a finalist for the National Book Award in 2017. To learn more about her program here, visit poetry.arizona.edu.

• Line and Space, an architectural firm headquartered in Tucson, has received an Elev8 Grand Citation Award from Buildings Magazine for the design that became the Sahuarita Regional Library. Line and Space also designed the recently reopened Richard Elías-Mission Library. Both branches are part of the Pima County Public Library system.