Wager Mage
Wager Mage
Photo: Samson Katt
Sue Lubeck shared a passion for life, books, learning, and community through The Bookies. Rob, 52, has hardly known life without The Bookies. Sue first opened the bookstore in the basement of the family home.
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Read More »Rob, 52, has hardly known life without The Bookies. Sue first opened the bookstore in the basement of the family home. The operation eventually expanded throughout the house. “Which was interesting, to say the least,” Rob recalls. “I would come home from school and kids would be running around my house, they’d be playing in my room. People would be shopping in our living room and basement. Which was fun at some points, then there was the other side of it where my mom would never say no to anybody.” Rob recounts instances where the Lubecks were eating dinner as a family and the doorbell would ring: A procrastinating shopper would be at the door, waiting to pick out a last-minute birthday gift for a friend, and Sue could never turn them away. But that never-say-no attitude surely contributed to The Bookies’ longevity and community spirit. After a decade of running the business out of the Lubeck home, Sue opened a brick-and-mortar location at 6th and Ogden but quickly outgrew the space and moved to the store’s current location on E. Mississippi Ave. “I’m proud of her for what she was able to create here,” Rob says, sitting in a corner of The Bookies, surrounded by children’s books. “In the early ‘70s, for a woman to start their own business was pretty rare and unique, and she had the goal and drive to make that happen. And I’m just so incredibly proud of what she was able to create.” In the early days of The Bookies, Sue would drive a “bookmobile” full of books to schools and book fairs. For those not familiar with the space, The Bookies is tucked in a corner of an L-shaped strip mall between a nail salon and a catering company. Not particularly glamorous from the outside (save for a flourishing garden), the building’s exterior is a mustard yellow with an unpretentious green sign. The windows are covered in posters aiming to inspire the next generation of readers: Snack, Nap, Read, one sign reads. But to step inside The Bookies is to enter a kaleidoscope of literature—a sea of bookshelves jam-packed with colorful spines extends in every direction, creating a maze that leads you through fiction, nonfiction, poetry and toys. It is a nice maze to get lost in. A new addition to the store is a memorial for Sue. On a small table near the check-out sits a guest book in which shoppers and staff have penned condolences and their favorite memories. Pictures of Sue and The Bookies over the decades are scattered on the table, as are sympathy cards and a clipping from a 2014 profile of Sue in The Denver Post that described her as a “literary Johnny Appleseed in the Mile High City.” “Whenever I ask a parent if they read to their children growing up and they say yes, I then ask them if they were good students,” Sue is quoted as saying in the profile. “The answer is always yes, so there’s a direct correlation.”
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Read More »What is apparent is that Sue’s mission for The Bookies to cultivate new readers, as well as provide resources for parents and teachers, has been a lasting one. As much as 95 percent of the store is catered toward children, families and teachers, Rob estimates. And while you won’t struggle to find the latest works from Zadie Smith, Colson Whitehead, or other contemporary adult novelists that are available at most bookstores, you’d be hard pressed to find a Denver store that has a better selection of children’s books. “That was her focus from day one,” Rob said of his mom. “She loved supporting kids and the people that taught kids or raised kids.” For loyal customers and longtime employees (there are many of each, and the former often turn into the latter), Sue felt like a family member. Patricia Macy started working at The Bookies after retiring from Denver Public Schools, where she worked as a requisition secretary, often ordering books from Sue. (The Bookies employs numerous former educators and librarians.) Macy recalls that anytime an employee became a grandparent, Sue would send the parents of the grandchild a $100 gift card to The Bookies. It was another one of Sue’s tactics of nurturing future bibliophiles.
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Read More »But now, the big question mark: what will the future of The Bookies look like? Rob is the only one of the three brothers who stayed in Denver, and he explained that his family does not have the time or, frankly, the energy needed to take over the ownership. So they’re looking for buyers. Rob said it is important that the next owners share Sue’s dedication to young readers. “Our ideal goal is to find somebody, or an organization or a group of people, to really kind of continue the legacy of The Bookies, but also inject some modernism into the store,” he said. Rob recalled situations where new shoppers will visit the bookstore and say things like, “How long have you guys been here? I’ve never seen you before.” To Rob, that is a sign that the future owners could put more work into digital marketing and promotion on social media. Still, those situations are scarce, and Rob says it is rare that he meets someone in Denver who doesn’t have some connection to The Bookies. After all, three or four generations of readers have passed through the store. “This has been a big part of my life and I’ve got two kids—9 and 12—and it has been a big part of their life growing up as well,” Rob said.
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