It seems hard to believe that on March 30 it will be 15 years ago that I purchased Nicola’s Books. Has much changed since then? Well, in the store I think we still look like our old warm selves - the alcoves are somewhat less cluttered, we’ve added more gifts and cards as well as more comfortable chairs. We’ve repainted some of the forest green areas white to lighten up the place, but we still have our fireplace and friendly atmosphere.

More importantly, we still pride ourselves on being able to get books to you faster than anyone else without charging shipping. In addition, we are the best book detectives in town, and we enjoy that part of the job. We love the challenge of tracking a book down when our customer is not sure of the author, title, content or if the book is even in print anymore.

Many independent bookstores have not survived these past fifteen years. 2008 was a very tough year and we entered 2009 with some trepidation, but we planned for a difficult business climate with reduction of operating costs. The outcome was a much improved result for 2009. However, for 2010 we cannot sit back on our laurels and relax our efforts. The publishing world is in upheaval. On-line purchasing and e-books are here to stay and developing their own market share of the business.

Our focus is on how to keep our bookstore a place that customers want to shop at and to continue to shop at. We know that loyalty is what keeps us in business. We at Nicola’s are most grateful to our wonderful core group of regular customers and those that discover our bookstore everyday. It is because of all of you that we have been able to continue in business. Because of this we would like to extend an invitation to you to help us celebrate our 15 year anniversary by coming by the store on Saturday, March 27 during business hours and have some cake with us and toast to another 15 years together. Hope to see you there.

Nicola Rooney is the owner of Nicola's Books and a contributor to AnnArbor.com's Books channel.