Friends rally to keep Concord bookstore open

Just before Thanksgiving, Lynn Kuehl of Berkshire Books in Concord had a medical emergency that cost him a leg and landed him in the hospital for several weeks. Berkshire Books is a one-man operation and without Kuehl on the job, the little neighborhood book store on Clayton Road, had to close up shop. Things looked pretty dark for awhile.

But Kuehl has a strong network of friends and word quickly spread. Councilmember Edi Birsan, who meets at the store with several others on Saturday mornings as the “Curmudgeon Club” passed the word to Pioneer publisher Tamara Steiner, who contacted Joel Harris, former owner of Clayton Books who moved fast to pull together the old crew from Clayton Books to help.

This week, the former staff, friends of Clayton Books including store manager Bob Pimm and Harris reopened Berkshire Books and will keep the store open while Kuehl recovers. They hope to have the store open every day except Mondays through Dec. 22 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

To celebrate, there is a huge signing event on Sat., Dec 14, with both children’s and adult book authors including Daniel San Souci. And of course Joel Harris will be there signing copies of his book “Images of America: Concord” for holiday gifts. For additional details go to Harris’ Facebook page, www.facebook.com/joel.a.harris.7 .

“Berkshire Books has a great collection of new gift books, local history books, holiday books, journals, collectibles and other gifts for the holidays,” Harris says. “So, please come support your local book store!”

The crew could use a little more help. Contact joelharris@aol.com or lynn@berkshire-books.com if you can pitch in.

Berkshire Books is located at 3480 Clayton Rd., Concord, CA.