His store, Willis Monie Books, at 139 Main Street, is a book lover's dream — lined with shelves filled floor-to-ceiling with books on every imaginable topic.

Twenty-five years ago Monie struck out on his own after leaving a college teaching position in West Virginia and working for a brief time for historian and antiquarian bookseller Roger Butterfield at the White House in Hartwick.

For the first five years, he worked out of his home, but outgrew that space and established a retail location in a barn on Pioneer Street and moved again to another, larger barn and finally to his Main Street location where he's been for the last 15 years.

"I opened the barn in the summer and discovered there were tourists in town," he said

Monie got started with books at an early age - as a coin collector. His interested in numismatics lead him to tokens which were used in lieu of cash during the Period of Hard Times in the late 1830s and during the Civil War.

"Tokens really got me into collecting books," he explained. In the process of researching the tokens, he began to collect history books. "To find out more, I had to read. I was clearly a collector and reader," he said.

His first experience selling books came while he was doing graduate studies in English Literature at the University of New Hampshire and building his personal collection - including 850 volumes by or pertaining to the English poet John Milton.

"I discovered people made a living selling books. It had never occurred to me that people could do that," he said.

But having just finished his doctorate, Monie believed he should pursue that career path.

"I just spent five years in grad school, so I thought I should get a job teaching," he said.

But by 1979, he decided to leave academia and become a bookseller.

Early on, he stuck with subject matter that he knew - political history and theology, but now has titles dealing with everything from archeology to zoology.

Many of his books are reading copies, but he also deals in rare and antiquarian books which may cost hundreds of dollars for a copy.

Antiquarian books are basically old, but rarity and value have nothing to do with age, he said.

"I have some books that are probably unique, but nobody wants them. It's supply and demand," he said.

Bookselling has changed over the years, but particularly with the advent of the Internet. In years past, dealers often sent out lists or catalogs to customers. Today those books lists are online where Monie has more than 55,000 titles currently active on his website, wilmonie.com.

Between his store and two warehouses, he has somewhere in the neighborhood of 350,000 books and at least that number of ephemera, paper goods, and pamphlets.

"If you know what you want, the Internet is great," he said, adding that they are receiving and shipping Internet orders daily.

But he still goes to about 15 antiquarian book fairs a year, including the one he helped organize in Cooperstown. The annual fair, now in its tenth year, attracts over 60 dealers. It will be held at the Clark Sports Center, Saturday, June 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Book fairs, he said, are primarily for people who want to see the books and are largely attended by collectors so they can browse the dealers' booths.

Monie said that some people collect books as objects, but he has always been more interested in what's between the covers.

"How a book looks is significant, but I've always been a content person," he said.

As much as computers and the Internet have changed book selling, he doubts if they will ever take the place of books.

"I'm not sure I like looking at a TV screen to read a book. I find it unlikely books will be done away with," he said. "I think we will have them for many generations to come. I think alternate forms will come along, but they won't supplant books."

This week Monie received hardbound and paperback copies of the first book he has ever published - a reprint of the 1917 edition of "The Story of Cooperstown" by Ralph Birdsall.

This version contains the chapter on railroads that was omitted in later editions and also has an index created by village historian Hugh MacDougall.

The edition consists of 1,000 copies each of paperback and hardbound and sell for $19.95 and $29.95 respectively.

Monie says he almost never has copies of the original book because the demand is so great that as soon as he gets one, it's gone.

"This will, I hope, fill a demand," he said. "This is good scholarship, but a chatty book. It reads well. It's a good survey of Cooperstown history."

The 25th anniversary will be celebrated Tuesday, June 1, with an open house from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

And what is Willis Monie's favorite book?

After some thought and taking everything into consideration - rarity, condition, content - he decided on his first edition of John Milton's "Paradise Lost."