Bookstore aims to capitalize on ‘real book’ trend

Ozaukee County will get its newest independent bookstore when Book and Cranny opens at 1522 Wisconsin Ave. in Grafton next week.

It’s part of a Renaissance of sorts for independent bookshops, mirroring a national trend in the industry.

And that gives Book and Cranny co-owner James Cornelius confidence that now is the time to open a Grafton bookstore.

The number of bookstores that opened last year was higher than it had been “for years and years. In the entire industry, the percentage of ebooks has fallen significantly. There are more people buying real books right now,” Cornelius said.

And those people often are seeking out independent bookstores rather than chain stores, he said.

According to the American Booksellers Association, in 2025 alone, 422 new bookstores opened in the United States.

For Cornelius, the second time was the charm in seeking to open a bookstore in Grafton.

Two years ago, he had an oral agreement to rent a space for a bookstore in Grafton, got village approval but the landlord ultimately leased the space to someone else.

Discouraged, he set his dream aside for a while but came back to.

And as he checked out spaces for a bookstore recently, he ran into Natalie Merkel at a storefront where she was thinking of opening a bookshop.

“We immediately said, ‘Let’s team up,’” Cornelius said.

“This is what I know. It’s what Natalie has always wanted to do.”

Cornelius, who with his wife moved to Grafton three years ago to be close to his mother-in-law, had been running a used bookstore in Springfield, Ill., for five years with partners who had been in the business for 35 years.

“I learned a lot from them,” he said.

He and Merkle leased the former barber shop at 1522 Wisconsin Ave. — the barbershop moved to a new location a few blocks south, Cornelius said — and last month they received a conditional use permit from the village needed for their 500-square-foot  store.

It’s a spot Cornelius said he found by working with the Grafton Area Chamber of Commerce, and this time everything is falling into place.

“This time the location is right and the price is right,” he said.

He and Merkle have their specialties in the shop, Cornelius said.

“She is going to handle new books and I am going to handle used books,” he said.

Their taste in books runs the gamut, and Cornelius said that their inventory will as well, adding they will stock whatever their patrons are looking for.

It was Merkel who came up with the name for the bookstore, Cornelius said, and she’s planned the decor to reflect it.

“Natalie has a great eye for design,” he said. “She chose the name because she wants it to be a cozy place with plenty of nooks for reading.”

One book that will find a place on their shelves is “Sidewalk Poetry of Grafton: A Photo Compilation,” a series of photographs that Cornelius took of the lines of poetry stamped into numerous Grafton sidewalks in a village project that started in about 2013.

“I think that will be of interest to people here,” he said. “I literally walked every sidewalk west of 17th Avenue.”

The grand opening of Book and Cranny will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, March 20 — a week after Verbosity Bookhouse opens in downtown Port Washington, giving further weight to the idea that independent bookshops are having a Renaissance.

The bookstore will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.