Book Angels: Community Books in the NYT

The Book Angels By NATHANIEL POPPER wrote: CATHERINE BOHNE’S association with the Community Bookstore on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope dates to 1994, when she was 26 and began working there as a clerk on weekends.

In 2001, a month before the Sept. 11 attacks, Ms. Bohne bought the store, using money given to her by her mother and putting up both her mother’s house in Pennsylvania and her own one-bedroom apartment a few blocks away as collateral on a $325,000 loan.

“At the time it all seemed faintly insane to me,” said Ms. Bohne, who has frizzy brown hair and a tendency to giggle while talking. “But it seemed like, ‘The bank is going over the numbers, and they think it’s O.K.’”

Ms. Bohne, who had worked as a bicycle messenger and bank administrator, quickly gained a reputation for community involvement. After Sept. 11, she removed the books from the front window and turned it into a community bulletin board. She also used the store as a way station for strays, including a hairless shih tzu, a plump gray cat and a four-foot-long iguana.