{"id":30757,"date":"2025-11-17T20:19:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T01:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=30757"},"modified":"2025-11-17T20:19:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T01:19:57","slug":"bookstore-turns-page-on-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/17\/bookstore-turns-page-on-20-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Bookstore turns page on 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a guy who \u201calways loved browsing bookstores\u201d and turned the page 20 years ago, there is joy in the fact that business has been booming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Page Bookstore & More observed its 20th anniversary a few weeks back and owner-operator Rick Sovine said it was a huge success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a large turnout of customers shopping as well as some just stopping in to say congratulations and thanks for being part of Decatur,\u201d Sovine said. \u201cIt was a day filled with joy and pride for what we have accomplished over the last 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As its name proclaims, the downtown store \u2013 well-known by a previous generation as Niblick’s department store \u2013 offers for sale new books, used books, rare books \u2026 and so much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cmore\u201d includes lots of novelty\/gift items, cards, decor, gourmet coffee\/tea, children’s toys, games, puzzles, stuffed animals, and bookmarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sovine says the store often hosts events, such as monthly book club meetings, author readings\/signings, crafting events for kids as well as having pop-up vendors come in to sell their products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Currently, the store includes a fully equipped restaurant space which the Sovines, Rick and wife Emily, are looking to lease. \u201cWe are hoping to attract an Italian restaurant to come in or another deli\/bakery,\u201d Rick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Page currently has a staff of five employees other than Rick and Emily: two store managers and an event coordinator along with two other book sellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emily also operates a separate business, Beyond Words Pediatric Speech Therapy, in a small space within the bookstore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sovines began the business by leasing a small space in the 13th St. plaza near the entrance to Hanna-Nuttman Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was in August of 2005. \u201cBut we quickly ran out of space and purchased the Niblick building in the fall of 2008,\u201d Rick recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe building was empty and in poor condition. After completely remodeling and restoring the building, we were open for business again in our new location in January of 2009.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a dream come true for Rick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have always loved browsing bookstores,\u201d he explained. \u201cWhile I was in school for business administration, I wrote a business plan for operating a bookstore. After much thought, we went ahead and followed through with opening ours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a wise decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBusiness has been fantastic,\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cOur foot traffic is great, even with limited downtown parking. We also have a lot of online sales. We continually ship our products across the country each and every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A page well-turned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com For a guy who \u201calways loved browsing bookstores\u201d and turned the page 20 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,14,15],"class_list":["post-30757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-community","tag-decatur","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sovine-store-front.jpg?fit=1204%2C589&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30760,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30757\/revisions\/30760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}