If anyone could pull it off, she could. That's what friends and colleagues said when Roxanne Coady left New York in 1989 to open a bookstore in a small boondocks.

Of course, they believed in her. She had been ane of the top taxation accountants in the state. She was whip- smart, driven, and tireless — "on 82 unlike boards," as she likes to say, which is merely a slight exaggeration. She even grew up in business concern: As a girl, she kept the books for her begetter's bakeries. "If you were to pick a dream person to start her own bookstore, it would be Roxanne," says friend and Connecticut Public Radio host Religion Middleton. "She'southward and then smart about business."

Coady virtually proved everybody wrong.

For the first several years, R.J. Julia Independent Booksellers, located on the main drag in Madison, Connecticut, grew past leaps and bounds. The im-pressive growth, however, obscured a dotcomlike inability to plough a profit. Coady says that she ignored budgets and "blew probably $250,000" of the money that she and her husband, a former real-estate developer, had saved upwards. It was twice what she should have invested, but she couldn't resist going all out on free wine and food at book signings, fashionable extra-forcefulness numberless, and excessive bonuses. "Instead of solving problems, I threw more money at them," she says. "I didn't run the store like a business."

As an accountant, Coady had always used her head. Just as a bookseller and book lover, she let her middle have over. She built the well-nigh highly-seasoned bookstore she could imagine, while neglecting to build a sustainable business. "At present," she says, "I'g combining head and center."

13 years subsequently dramatically irresolute careers, Coady, 54, has proven that she could pull it off later all. In the aforementioned time that nearly half of the independent bookstores in the state have closed, R.J. Julia has achieved more than $iii million in annual sales and a small-scale profit. And Coady, its always-fashionable, opinionated, and animated owner, has made the transition from successful auditor to successful bookseller.

A Bookseller Waiting to Happen

Coady'due south passion for reading and her talent for accounting were inspired past her parents, who survived the Holocaust and immigrated to the United States in 1948, settling in New York's Lower East Side. Although her female parent had notwithstanding to empathise English, she read to her children anyway, pronouncing the words phonetically. In one case Coady learned to read, she wanted to tackle every children's book in the library in alphabetical lodge. When she was in middle school, her father, a baker, purchased the kickoff of 10 bakeries, called Em's, and brought her to a meeting with his accountant.

"Who's going to exercise the bookkeeping?" the accountant asked.

"She is," her male parent replied.

He wasn't joking. The auditor agreed to teach her, and Coady, the oldest of half-dozen, juggled school, family unit baby-sitting duties and payroll books until she left for college. "Now my male parent feels I work too difficult," she says, laughing. "He says, 'You tin't ride two horses with one ass.' I tell him, 'Daddy, this is what you raised me to do.' "

By the 1980s, Coady had go a partner and national revenue enhancement manager at BDO Seidman, the New Yorkffibased international accounting house. She was the first woman selected for the job. "People tell me now, 'It must have been slow working with taxes,' " Coady says. "But I loved it." She had a 12th-floor corner function overlooking Central Park and was making almost $250,000 a yr. In 1988, she was featured on the comprehend of Money mag, which dubbed her "the accountant's accountant."

Heady stuff, to exist sure. Only information technology wasn't enough to continue her there. "Equally much every bit I enjoyed the work, information technology wasn't enriching," Coady says. "Information technology was in terms of dollars, just it wasn't enriching to my middle." At least not in the style that books had always been.

Fifty-fifty equally she climbed the corporate ladder, Coady remained an insatiable reader. She would always behave a novel with her, stealing a few moments in a taxi, on the train, anywhere. She was forever recommending favorite titles to friends. "I ran a niggling library out of my firm," she says. "People would say, 'Oh geez, that was the best book y'all gave me.' "

They were telling her something. It was time to make a change.

Creating a Modern-Day Town Light-green

R.J. Julia, named for Coady'southward grandmother, Julia, who perished in a concentration military camp in World War II, is much more than than a store where you buy the latest Harry Potter or John Grisham. It's a local establishment that has get interwoven with people's lives every bit few businesses are. "It'southward the centre of the community," says Norman Weissman, a retired writer, managing director, and producer who lives in neighboring Guilford and attends a monthly book-club meetings at R.J. Julia. "The bookstore and the town are inseparable." Area residents experience a responsibility to back up the independent bookstore — their bookstore — even if it means paying a piddling more at times.

From the beginning, Coady wanted R.J. Julia to be a modern-day town green. "I felt people were condign disconnected from each other," she says. "Nosotros had lost a public place for conversation about things that mattered." The shop hosts more than 200 events a year, from book signings to book-club meetings to children's-story hr on Wednesday mornings. Past lobbying publishers and catering to visiting authors, Coady has made Madison, an affluent littoral town with 2,200 residents, a regular book-tour terminate between New York and Boston. The walls are lined with dozens of autographed photos of by visitors: Jimmy Carter, Garrison Keillor, and Anne Rice.

At Coady's suggestion, Lee Jacobus started a classical literature book social club at R.J. Julia. A professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut, he prepares as though he were still pedagogy in a classroom, reading, analyzing, and making notes 40 minutes a twenty-four hour period, three days a week. "Information technology'south an enormous time investment and, yep, I exercise it for free," says Jacobus. "Only this is an establishment that should be supported. It'due south of import to the intellectual life of the town."

For R.J. Julia to distinguish itself in an increasingly crowded marketplace, Coady believes it has to offer unparalleled service and expertise. Like their dominate, the staff is well read, which prepares them for "hand-selling" — that is, recommending books that they or their colleagues have read. "That's the value that nosotros add together to the book-ownership experience," Coady says. "We put the right book in the right easily." The shop's top-selling section is staff recommendations, where each book is accompanied by a "shelf talker," a capsule review from a bookseller, or in the example of the new Harry Potter, by a bookseller's child ("I'm 11, and I finished in exactly five days, downwardly to the hr! One time you offset reading information technology, you won't cease!" raves Hana, the director'southward stepdaughter).

Suzanne Coopersmith is 1 of well-nigh 35 booksellers on staff. Like Coady, she's sociable, totally unreserved, and capable of talking about books all mean solar day. She tin't imagine working at a concatenation, even the 1 that'due south coming to Waterford, nearly xv miles from where she lives. "In that location are as well many rules," says Coopersmith. "Here, I can give a discount to a customer whenever I want to." Information technology's true. Coady lets the staff exercise whatever it takes to brand a customer happy. There may not be many official rules, merely the staff definitely knows the kind of shop that she wants R.J. Julia to be. When information technology comes to sharing likes and dislikes, Coady's an open up book. As she reminds the staff, she prefers the offer, "Let me know if I can be of assist," or "Are you lot finding what you demand?" "Can I help you?" strikes her as intrusive.

For Natalie Ferringer, it was dear with R.J. Julia at showtime browse. The dark wooden bookshelves, brass fixtures, and renditions of various writers' signatures painted on the hardwood floor requite the place the ambient of a neighborhood bookstore in Europe or New York. Ferringer, the head of the political-scientific discipline department at the University of New Oasis, can spend unabridged afternoons shopping, which translates to between $350 and $400 worth of books a month. And yet, it's hard to say who benefits more: Ferringer or the bookstore. "I know them by name," she says of the staff. "There's Nancy, Karen, Lisa, Suzanne, Meredith, Beth, Babette, Roxanne."

"Information technology's the heart of the community," says an R.J. Julia customer. "The bookstore and the boondocks are inseparable."

Perhaps the best measure of R.J. Julia's relationship with its customers comes from Denise Harrington, an avid murder-mystery reader and a client from the offset. During a recent visit, she picked up a special society, The Thin Woman, a lighthearted British who-done-it, written by Dorothy Cannell and originally published in 1984. What'south remarkable virtually her purchase is that Harrington never requested the volume. In fact, she had never even heard of it. "Suzanne ordered it for me without my knowing," she says.

"I knew she'd love it," says Coopersmith.

She was correct.

The Roxanne Consequence

When Coady launched R.J. Julia, Madison, like many small towns, was in pass up. Suburban large-box retailers were becoming the rage. "After I opened, the theater, the hardware store, the five-and-dime, and the restaurant all airtight," she says. "I thought, 'What did I just do?' " Now, Madison is a different story. Although the business commune consists of just one long cake on Boston Mail service Route, there's an art house and an elegant Italian eating house across from R.J. Julia. There are a diversity of shops and boutiques. There'southward fifty-fifty a Starbucks.

As an entrepreneur, Coady has come a long way herself. She'southward running R.J. Julia similar a business organisation, with budgets, a preparation manual, and more-structured evaluations. By coincidence, her son Edward and the shop were born in the same yr. Since turning 13 this yr, says Coady, both take had their bar mitzvahs: Edward became a man, R.J. Julia a mature business organization.

In reality, though, adding corporate field of study to the bookstore remains a challenge, particularly without the fiscal incentives she had at her disposal at a major bookkeeping firm. Instead, Coady offers a coincidental, fun environment in which booksellers can be their passionate selves. They constantly remind her that the operative give-and-take in independent bookseller is independent. When Coady tried to get the staff to article of clothing matching R.J. Julia shirts, they declined. Then she bought R.J. Julia buttons, which no one wore for long. A newly arrived box of green R.J. Julia lanyards in the part could be next. "This is where the republic matter shoots me in the foot," she says.

Coady's natural effusiveness and love of writing — she reads about six books at a time — brand her an irresistible bookseller. "When Roxanne is on the floor, our sales get upwardly 20%," says store manager Meredith Warner. Faith Middleton, the radio host, experiences the Roxanne Effect twice a month, when Coady appears on her show to talk about books. Recently, every bit she described Family History, Dani Shapiro's novel near a mother's attempts to salvage her fractured family unit, "the hair stood up on the back of my cervix," says Middleton. "You could hear a pin drib in the studio."

That passion infuses every foursquare foot of R.J. Julia, and every ounce of its owner. When Coady first contemplated changing careers, she imagined that running a bookstore would be a alter of stride, less demanding for her than beingness an executive at a big firm. "I frequently joke that I gave upward coin for fourth dimension, and now I have neither," she says. She'due south withal a type A, then it comes as no surprise that running a successful bookstore isn't enough. Currently, she's expanding the children's section, revamping the gift-shop surface area, and drawing up a business plan to take the brand in new directions.

A 2nd R.J. Julia? A chain of stores? Coady tin can't say. That chapter has yet to be written.

Sidebar: five Great Reads

"Everybody has fourth dimension for one discretionary thing," says Roxanne Coady, the owner of R.J. Julia. "Mine's reading."

Below are v of her all-time favorite books. If these aren't enough, check out R.J. Julia's lists of recommended books for adults (www.rjjulia.com/fivefeet.htm) and kids (www.rjjulia.com/threefeet.htm).

Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi

"Information technology's about Earth War Ii and the Holocaust from the perspective of a small German town that may or may not understand what'southward going on, simply in a quiet mode is mimicking what's happening. Y'all feel the impact of expose and of being co-conspirators through silence."

Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams by Lynne Withey

"A view of the Revolution from Abigail's vantage bespeak, what it was similar at home, raising her kids during a dangerous time."

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera

"It'due south nearly sorrow equally a manner of defining you, how you need it to alive and role in a meaningful fashion. It'southward a philosophical book, but in that Eastern European, wacky Kafka way."

The Bluest Eye past Toni Morrison

"The narrator is a black girl who has been driveling, and the novel is about how she moves through that experience. This is one of those books that changes the style yous look at the world."

A Child'southward Anthology of Verse past Elizabeth Sword

"I've been reading from this to my son since he was 2, and we always find something that amuses us, whatever mood we're in."

Chuck Salter (csalter@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer based in Baltimore. Learn more about R.J. Julia on the Web (world wide web.rjjulia.com).