WESTWOOD — After 40 years, Shaw's Book Shop, which prided itself on finding the perfect book for its customers, is shutting its doors at the end of September.

"We would always recommend books that we knew were good, and not just to say, 'Yes, this book is good,' just to make a sale," said owner Tom Downs. "That was always the philosophy: We knew what were good reads for people, which kept them coming back."

Running a bookstore was something that was in Downs’ blood; his father ran a bookstore called Trilby's in Ridgewood from 1960 to 1980s. At age 19, Downs got into the business himself, opening his first shop on Center Avenue in Westwood in 1977, before moving to the larger store on Westwood Avenue.

"It’s like the movie 'You’ve Got Mail,' " Downs said. "We were 'The Shop Around the Corner.' "

Much like the independent bookstore in the 1998 film, Shaw’s Book Shop is folding after pressure from big chain stores and the internet. Sales are declining, his lease is up, and Shaw, 60, is ready to retire.

"Business has slowed down quite a bit," he said. "Everything was great. I was here 40 years and it was a lot of fun, a lot of good times."

Although Amazon started doing business in the mid-1990s, it wasn’t until 2010 that Downs started to truly see how the online marketplace was stealing customers.

"I didn’t think it was really going to be as much of a slowdown as it turned out to be," Downs said. "I didn’t anticipate that, so it was a surprise. I guess I shouldn’t have been. I was naïve."

E-books were another game-changer in the bookselling industry, he said.

"A young woman came in here the other day and said, 'My mother used to come in here all the time and then she got a Kindle,' " Downs said. "You have a lot of that."

The store's closing leaves just a small handful of independent bookstores in North Jersey. It joins the list of shuttered shops like Womrath's in Hackensack and Tenafly, and Hawthorne's Well-Read bookstore. Gone with the stores is a certain spirit of kinship among readers.

Downs said he thoroughly enjoyed his 40 years, seeing generations of book lovers walk through his doors. The best part of running the shop over the years was getting to know his customers and figuring out the perfect book for them, he said.

"You get to know a lot of people," Downs said. "You know their names, you know what they like, you know what to recommend. It’s nice to be able to have a conversation with people about books."

One of these longtime customers was Doris Neibart, a Westwood resident who dropped by Friday morning to pick up one of her last orders from the shop. Neibart, who has been coming to Shaw’s ever since it opened on Central Avenue, loved the personal service Tom and other staff members have provided to her over the years.

“It’s a sad world,” Neibart said of the closing.

Three generations of book lovers would frequent the store to pick up the latest bestseller. "You have some people saying 'I used to come here when I was a kid, and now I’m bringing my son and his daughter,' " Downs said.

Shaw's Book Shop's achievements as an independent bookstore weren't unnoticed by the larger community; Shaw's was was consistently a finalist for Best Bookstore in 201 Magazine's "Best of Bergen" poll over the years, and since 2011 it was rated the top bookstore in the county by Bergen Magazine.

It's hard to say whether customers or workers loved Shaw's more. When Debbie Jordan retired from teaching in Upper Saddle River over a decade ago, she immediately knew what she wanted to do with her time: work at Shaw’s.

"Not just any bookstore. [It had to be] Shaw’s," said Jordan, who worked part time for the bookstore for 12 years. "I liked talking to the customers and getting a bead on what they like. I got pretty good at it. When I was reading a book, I would say, 'Oh! I know who will like this book.' "

One of the most memorable days, Downs said, was when "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows," the last book in the wildly popular fantasy series, launched in 2007. Downs opened up Shaw's at midnight on release day, and more than a hundred people lined up outside the door to buy a copy.

The rush lasted about an hour, but it was perhaps Downs' busiest-ever hour on the job.

The impeding loss of Shaw’s is being mourned by longtime patrons on the medium that helped seal its doom: the internet. Scores of people commented on the Shaw's Book Shop Facebook page in response to the closing announcement. Many called it “the end of an era.”

"I often thought a little bit of heaven would be to be locked overnight into your old shop on Center Ave. with a comfy chair, a cup of tea and the tons of books on your shelves," Wendy Condon wrote on the Facebook page.

Even Mary Jane Clark, author of suspense novels, left a comment, wishing the bookstore well. It wasn’t a surprise that Clark held the bookstore close to her heart; in her 2009 novel “Dying for Mercy,” one of the characters mentions Shaw’s Book Shop by name.

"What a loss for Westwood!" said Clark, the former daughter-in-law of author Mary Higgins Clark. "Thank you, Tom, for hosting those wonderful book signings for me. I wish you all good luck and happiness as you move forward."

Downs will enjoy his free time after 40 years of 12-hour days managing the store. Perhaps he'll even pick up a book for himself to read.

"It’s kind of weird," Downs said. "You’ve been doing it day after day, and all of a sudden, I’m not going to be doing it anymore. It’s definitely going to be a big change for me."

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