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 modest town.

Of grade, they believed in her. She had been one of the top taxation accountants in the country. She was whip- smart, driven, and tireless — "on 82 different boards," as she likes to say, which is only a slight exaggeration. She even grew up in concern: As a girl, she kept the books for her father'due south bakeries. "If yous were to option a dream person to start her own bookstore, it would be Roxanne," says friend and Connecticut Public Radio host Organized religion Middleton. "She's then smart about business organisation."

Coady nearly proved everybody wrong.

For the first several years, R.J. Julia Independent Booksellers, located on the principal drag in Madison, Connecticut, grew by leaps and bounds. The im-pressive growth, however, obscured a dotcomlike inability to turn a profit. Coady says that she ignored budgets and "blew probably $250,000" of the money that she and her husband, a sometime real-estate developer, had saved up. It was twice what she should have invested, only she couldn't resist going all out on gratis wine and food at book signings, stylish actress-force bags, and excessive bonuses. "Instead of solving issues, I threw more coin at them," she says. "I didn't run the store like a business concern."

As an accountant, Coady had always used her head. But equally a bookseller and volume lover, she let her heart take over. She built the most appealing bookstore she could imagine, while neglecting to build a sustainable concern. "Now," she says, "I'm combining head and heart."

13 years subsequently dramatically changing careers, Coady, 54, has proven that she could pull information technology off after all. In the same time that nearly half of the contained bookstores in the state have closed, R.J. Julia has accomplished more than $3 million in annual sales and a small turn a profit. And Coady, its always-fashionable, opinionated, and blithe owner, has made the transition from successful auditor to successful bookseller.

A Bookseller Waiting to Happen

Coady's passion for reading and her talent for accounting were inspired by her parents, who survived the Holocaust and immigrated to the U.s. in 1948, settling in New York's Lower Eastward Side. Although her mother had withal to understand English, she read to her children anyway, pronouncing the words phonetically. Once Coady learned to read, she wanted to tackle every children'southward book in the library in alphabetical society. When she was in center school, her father, a baker, purchased the first of ten bakeries, called Em'due south, and brought her to a meeting with his accountant.

"Who'south going to do the bookkeeping?" the accountant asked.

"She is," her father replied.

He wasn't joking. The accountant agreed to teach her, and Coady, the oldest of six, juggled school, family baby-sitting duties and payroll books until she left for college. "Now my father feels I work also hard," she says, laughing. "He says, 'Y'all tin can't ride two horses with one ass.' I tell him, 'Daddy, this is what you raised me to do.' "

By the 1980s, Coady had become a partner and national tax director at BDO Seidman, the New Yorkffibased international accounting firm. She was the first woman selected for the job. "People tell me now, 'Information technology must accept been boring working with taxes,' " Coady says. "But I loved it." She had a 12th-floor corner part overlooking Key Park and was making about $250,000 a year. In 1988, she was featured on the cover of Money magazine, which dubbed her "the accountant's accountant."

Heady stuff, to be sure. But it wasn't enough to keep her there. "As much as I enjoyed the work, it wasn't enriching," Coady says. "Information technology was in terms of dollars, merely it wasn't enriching to my heart." At least not in the way that books had always been.

Fifty-fifty every bit she climbed the corporate ladder, Coady remained an insatiable reader. She would always carry 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 picayune library out of my house," she says. "People would say, 'Oh geez, that was the best book yous gave me.' "

They were telling her something. It was fourth dimension to brand a alter.

Creating a Modern-Day Town Green

R.J. Julia, named for Coady's grandmother, Julia, who perished in a concentration camp in World War 2, is much more than than a shop where yous buy the latest Harry Potter or John Grisham. It'due south a local institution that has become interwoven with people's lives as few businesses are. "It's the heart of the community," says Norman Weissman, a retired author, director, and producer who lives in neighboring Guilford and attends a monthly volume-club meetings at R.J. Julia. "The bookstore and the boondocks are inseparable." Surface area residents feel a responsibility to support the contained bookstore — their bookstore — even if it means paying a little more at times.

From the commencement, Coady wanted R.J. Julia to exist a modern-twenty-four hours boondocks green. "I felt people were condign disconnected from each other," she says. "We had lost a public place for conversation about things that mattered." The store hosts more than 200 events a year, from book signings to volume-club meetings to children's-story hour on Wednesday mornings. Past lobbying publishers and catering to visiting authors, Coady has made Madison, an flush coastal town with ii,200 residents, a regular book-tour terminate between New York and Boston. The walls are lined with dozens of autographed photos of past visitors: Jimmy Carter, Garrison Keillor, and Anne Rice.

At Coady's suggestion, Lee Jacobus started a classical literature volume lodge at R.J. Julia. A professor emeritus of English at the Academy of Connecticut, he prepares as though he were still teaching in a classroom, reading, analyzing, and making notes forty minutes a day, three days a calendar week. "It's an enormous time investment and, yes, I do information technology for free," says Jacobus. "But this is an institution that should be supported. It's important 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 boss, the staff is well read, which prepares them for "mitt-selling" — that is, recommending books that they or their colleagues take read. "That'southward the value that nosotros add to the volume-buying experience," Coady says. "Nosotros put the right book in the right hands." The store's height-selling section is staff recommendations, where each book is accompanied by a "shelf talker," a capsule review from a bookseller, or in the case of the new Harry Potter, by a bookseller'southward child ("I'm 11, and I finished in exactly five days, down to the hour! Once yous start reading it, you lot won't stop!" raves Hana, the manager's stepdaughter).

Suzanne Coopersmith is i of about 35 booksellers on staff. Like Coady, she'southward sociable, totally unreserved, and capable of talking about books all 24-hour interval. She can't imagine working at a chain, even the i that'southward coming to Waterford, about fifteen miles from where she lives. "At that place are likewise many rules," says Coopersmith. "Here, I can give a discount to a customer whenever I want to." It's truthful. Coady lets the staff do whatever it takes to make a customer happy. There may not be many official rules, simply the staff definitely knows the kind of store that she wants R.J. Julia to be. When it comes to sharing likes and dislikes, Coady'southward an open book. As she reminds the staff, she prefers the offer, "Let me know if I can exist of aid," or "Are you finding what you lot need?" "Can I help you?" strikes her as intrusive.

For Natalie Ferringer, it was dearest with R.J. Julia at first browse. The nighttime wooden bookshelves, brass fixtures, and renditions of various writers' signatures painted on the hardwood floor requite the place the ambience of a neighborhood bookstore in Europe or New York. Ferringer, the head of the political-science department at the Academy of New Haven, tin can spend entire afternoons shopping, which translates to betwixt $350 and $400 worth of books a month. And yet, it'due south difficult to say who benefits more: Ferringer or the bookstore. "I know them by proper noun," she says of the staff. "There'due south Nancy, Karen, Lisa, Suzanne, Meredith, Beth, Babette, Roxanne."

"It's the heart of the customs," says an R.J. Julia customer. "The bookstore and the town are inseparable."

Perhaps the best measure of R.J. Julia'southward human relationship with its customers comes from Denise Harrington, an avid murder-mystery reader and a customer from the outset. During a recent visit, she picked up a special order, The Thin Woman, a lighthearted British who-done-information technology, written past Dorothy Cannell and originally published in 1984. What'south remarkable about her purchase is that Harrington never requested the book. In fact, she had never fifty-fifty heard of it. "Suzanne ordered information technology for me without my knowing," she says.

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

She was right.

The Roxanne Effect

When Coady launched R.J. Julia, Madison, like many small towns, was in decline. Suburban large-box retailers were condign the rage. "Subsequently I opened, the theater, the hardware shop, the v-and-dime, and the eatery all closed," she says. "I thought, 'What did I just do?' " Now, Madison is a unlike story. Although the business commune consists of just ane long block on Boston Post Road, there's an art house and an elegant Italian restaurant across from R.J. Julia. At that place are a diverseness of shops and boutiques. There's even a Starbucks.

Equally an entrepreneur, Coady has come up a long way herself. She'southward running R.J. Julia like a business organisation, with budgets, a training manual, and more-structured evaluations. Past coincidence, her son Edward and the store were born in the same year. Since turning 13 this year, says Coady, both take had their bar mitzvahs: Edward became a man, R.J. Julia a mature business.

In reality, though, calculation corporate field of study to the bookstore remains a challenge, particularly without the financial incentives she had at her disposal at a major accounting firm. Instead, Coady offers a coincidental, fun environment in which booksellers tin can exist their passionate selves. They constantly remind her that the operative word in contained bookseller is independent. When Coady tried to go the staff to wear matching R.J. Julia shirts, they declined. So she bought R.J. Julia buttons, which no i wore for long. A newly arrived box of green R.J. Julia lanyards in the office could exist adjacent. "This is where the commonwealth thing shoots me in the pes," she says.

Coady's natural effusiveness and beloved of writing — she reads about six books at a fourth dimension — brand her an irresistible bookseller. "When Roxanne is on the floor, our sales go up 20%," says shop manager Meredith Warner. Organized religion Middleton, the radio host, experiences the Roxanne Consequence twice a month, when Coady appears on her testify to talk nigh books. Recently, as she described Family unit History, Dani Shapiro'south novel about a female parent's attempts to save her fractured family unit, "the hair stood up on the back of my neck," says Middleton. "Y'all could hear a pin driblet in the studio."

That passion infuses every square foot of R.J. Julia, and every ounce of its owner. When Coady start contemplated changing careers, she imagined that running a bookstore would exist a change of stride, less demanding for her than beingness an executive at a large firm. "I often joke that I gave up money for time, and at present I take neither," she says. She's still a type A, and so information technology comes every bit no surprise that running a successful bookstore isn't plenty. Currently, she's expanding the children'due south section, revamping the gift-shop surface area, and drawing up a business plan to take the brand in new directions.

A second R.J. Julia? A concatenation of stores? Coady can't say. That chapter has yet to be written.

Sidebar: 5 Keen Reads

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

Below are 5 of her all-time favorite books. If these aren't enough, cheque 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'due south about World State of war II and the Holocaust from the perspective of a small German town that may or may non understand what's going on, simply in a quiet way is mimicking what's happening. You feel the impact of betrayal and of existence co-conspirators through silence."

Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams past Lynne Withey

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

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting past Milan Kundera

"Information technology's virtually sorrow as a way of defining you, how you need it to live and function in a meaningful manner. It's a philosophical book, but in that Eastern European, wacky Kafka way."

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

"The narrator is a black girl who has been abused, and the novel is about how she moves through that experience. This is 1 of those books that changes the way y'all look at the world."

A Child'southward Anthology of Poesy by Elizabeth Sword

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

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