VALLEJO (KRON) — A Vallejo couple is leaning on the help of family and friends to keep the town’s only full service bookstore in business.

Karen Finlay has been working some long hours with the help of some volunteers to get the new and used bookshop ready to re-open. The Bay Area native, relocated to Vallejo a few years ago along with her husband and they quickly became boosters of the community.

So when the owner of the downtown’s only bookshop approached them about buying the store, Finlay who works in publishing, and her husband decided it was a risk worth taking.

The pair are not shelving their day jobs, so they expect to work seven days a weeks to keep this store open. Fittingly Finlay quotes one of her favorite books when explaining why they are going thru all this trouble.

“A town isn’t a town without a bookstore. Every town needs one and Vallejo deserves one,” she said. “I take the ferry every day and we are all scrolling on our phones and I want to change that because reading is cool.”

They used an internet fundraising campaign to raise $28,000 to help buy and improve the shop, which they’ve renamed Alibi Bookshop after a local historic clock downtown.

They’ve also gotten lots their stock donated from people eager to see their dream succeed.

“People are coming in every day to help whether it’s to sweep or shelve and it feels like community already,” Finlay said. Because Finlay and her husband are still working full time jobs,

Alibi Bookshop will be keeping limited hours for now, open Thursday through Sunday starting June 1.

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