The new chapter for Time Enough Books in Ilwaco could be titled “keeping it in the family.”

As the store’s founder Karla Nelson retires, her niece Kelli Hughes-Ham is the new owner. Managing operations will be her husband, Bill Ham, who has worked part-time at the store on Ilwaco’s waterfront for about seven years.

The changeover delights them, Nelson is free to travel with husband Peter, who recently retired after a career as an oceangoing tug-boat captain, and Hughes-Ham, who switched to teaching part-time at Ilwaco High School when the current school year began.

The project involves her sons, Ruary and Milo Schimelpfenig, who are in eighth and sixth grades.

More Information

Time Enough Books

157 Howerton Ave. S.E., Ilwaco.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday;

11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

360-642-7667

tebooks@willapabay.org

“It is still going to be family run. The boys are going to work here. They are very excited,” said Hughes-Ham. “This has been in the works for a few years.

“I am glad we are keeping it in the family. So many milestones were here. The children grew up here — this is like an extension of our home and it will continue.”

Passion for books

When Nelson opened the store on the Howerton Avenue waterfront in Ilwaco in 2000, online sales were already taking a large slice of the marketplace amid dire predictions that independent brick-and-mortar bookstores would become dinosaurs.

“There’s nothing we regret,” she said. “This has always been something I wanted to do. It’s a passion. We love that it has blossomed and we can keep it in the family.”

She will continue to stay a little involved, covering for her niece’s family when needed. Peter Nelson’s role has been behind the scenes.

Pull Quote

‘I am glad we are keeping it in the family. So many milestones were here. The children grew up here — this is like an extension of our home and it will continue.’

Kelli Hughes-Ham, new owner of Time Enough Books

“I do maintenance and will continue doing that as we own the building,”he said. “Karla does the ordering and I facilitate.” he added with a wry smile. “We’re almost 44 years married. She decides what she wants and I make it happen!”

A book-bag packed with advance copies always sailed with him. “The crew would get stuff to read for free and I wold get book reviews,” he said.

Good listener

Nelson balanced involvement with local merchants and serving on the board of the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum for 17 years with regional leadership. She has been active in the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, and was its president for two years.

She followed an approach made successful by Powell’s in Portland by selling new and used books. “I watch trends, but also listen to customers,”” she said. “I always ask, ‘What was the last book you read?’”

Hughes-Ham began her career in public education working a couple of years at the Evergreen School District in east Vancouver then moved to Ilwaco 17 years ago. Her switch to part-time coincided with a foray into state politics with an unsuccessful run for state representative this fall.

To stay current on young reader trends, she quizzes her students at Ilwaco High School, where she teaches art and career and technical education. “I rely on them for what’s trending. We do have readers in the high school and I want to hear what they want.”

Hughes-Ham grew up reading the “Little House on the Prairie” books then shifted to historical fiction. She is pleased that J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series spurred other young readers’ authors to address modern teens differently.

“They don’t patronize them,” she said, “because teenagers are dark.”

Sons Ruary, 14, and Milo, 11, are keen to recommend their favorites. Ruary, who is editor of The Big Catch, the monthly newspaper at Hilltop Middle School, likes fantasy adventure books and heartily recommends Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.”

Milo likes fantasy themes, too, as well as books with action. He recommends “Wings of Fire,” one of Tui T. Sutherland’s works featuring dragons.

‘It was just magical’

Nelson’s creation of the store coincided with the boom in fantasy sparked by Rowling’s best-sellers which became popular movies. The fourth Harry Potter title, “Goblet of Fire” was published in the millennial year and four more followed plus spinoff Hogwarts titles.

Marketers strictly controlled publication release dates and Time Enough hosted costumed parties to celebrate.

A recent returning regular customer, Erin Stilwell, recalled the joy of her young children attending bookstore events which featured professors McGonagall, Sprout and Trelawney, plus Dumbledore and multiple Harry and Hagrid impersonators.

Now 20-somethings, her son and daughter even have Harry Potter tattoos. “It was just magical, and there were treats, too, butter beer and stuff like that,” recalled Stilwell, a Vancouver accountant eager to make a family cabin in Ocean Park her permanent residence.

Interesting bookshelves

The store’s varied offerings include murder mysteries by Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, Stephen King horror classics and Lee Child’s modern thrillers, plus a shelf of humor books and an extensive children and young readers section. It also sells small jewelry, puzzles games and cards.

Hughes-Ham, a nature lover, has gravitated to field guides and broadened her own reading. “Demon Copperhead,” an American reimagined Dickens novel by Barbara Kingsolver, is on her radar and she is eager to delve into “Deep River” by Karl Marlantes, a locally set novel of Finnish immigrants, which has garnered widespread praise.

Bill Ham, a stalwart in the cutting-edge theater community in Astoria, conceded his consumption of literature broadened since he began bookstore work. “I need to pay attention to the mainstream that I don’t gravitate to necessarily,” he said.

“My parents had interesting bookshelves,” he added, recalling Norman Mailer and alternative “Beat Generation” writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg nestled next to the autobiography of controversial activist Lenny Bruce. Though densely worded, he has enjoyed humor works by SJ Perelman, a New Yorker magazine writer. Lately he has embraced nonfiction biographies, plus works by edgy British writer Martin Amis (son of prolific author Kingsley Amis) as well as George Saunders, an American short story writer.

Under similar management

Ham is committed. “We are an independent book store and I believe people are still very much interested in reading and literature,” he said. “There is a lot being said about how the Internet, and before that TV, have squashed general literacy, but I don’t think that’s true. We get people from all walks of life.”

And he envisions few changes.

“We have used and new titles together and half-price paperbacks,” he said. “And people come here often. This place has survived and thrived for 23 years. We are open every day. We want to put our mark on this, but without going to change anything.”

He suggested the front door should sport a sign: “Under similar management.”