Some places, though increasingly rare, are able to draw a sense of wonder and excitement for something new while simultaneously feeling nostalgic and comforting. Like a national monument, world heritage site, or a national park, the combination of history and awe that can happen in these rare spaces is something intoxicating.
The most rare of these places seem to be businesses. As we have continued to shift away from brick-and-mortar shopping and deeper into a digitalized world, shopping has become about efficiency in large, fluorescent lit aisles of beige and grey, mostly in national chains or big box stores.
The Source Bookstore in downtown Davenport is an exception. Among the oldest used bookstores in the Midwest, The Source has been operating for 86 years. With over 100,000 books, magazines, vinyl records, CDs, video media and the like, the rich legacy of The Source as a shop can be felt in its shelves and carpeting.
Diving beyond the aesthetics, however, reveals a gargantuan collection of information and entertainment. I’ve been a customer for at least a quarter of a century and every visit I find myself in some section I have never explored before, gripped by curiosity and wonder. You cannot find that experience online or in the shiny pastiche of national retailers.
Started by George Pekios and passed down through several generations to longtime owner Dan Pekios, The Source has recently moved out of the family’s control. After the brief ownership of a loyal employee, it has been sold to a pair of former customers, Stephen Zbornik and Anne Brown.
“I’ve been shopping here since I was 15,” Zbornik said.
The couple bonded early on in their relationship over their shared love of John Steinbeck’s East Of Eden. When Pekios half-jokingly floated the idea to Zbornik that he should buy the store, he took the idea home to Brown to seriously consider it.
The pair of avid readers have a drive to do “meaningful work,” as they put it. Brown’s employment history runs the gamut from barista to baker to owning her own sewing and clothing business. As for Zbornik, “I’ve just done blue-collar work,” he said, “manual labor using my body to make money. And as I looked over my resume with 25 years of that work, I started thinking that I don’t want to do any of this crap.”
“There’s not a lot of higher purpose in dragging brush,” he continued. “Not that I’m too proud to do the labor required of society, but at the end of the day, you aren’t thinking, thank goodness I dragged that brush into a woodchipper for six hours, you just kind of think about your back pain.”
This new job includes less pain and more satisfaction.
“When I’m here, I’m never watching the clock, never in a hurry to leave. I’m happy to put books into people’s hands.”
The pair are currently responsible for all the store’s operations, including buying and selling books and maintaining the 5,000 sq. ft. space, spread over two levels.
“It’s a privilege to honor the multi-generational legacy of this store … we don’t take it lightly. What the Pekios family have built is nothing short of incredible,” Zbornik said. “We are the stewards of this cultural resource, and it isn’t even really ours. It belongs to all of the people who have been coming here for years. It belongs to the region, to the community.”
I found The Source invaluable in college. I was often able to find books for my literature and theater classes for a fraction of the cost of the campus bookstore. Between that and my own curiosities, I have no idea how many books I have purchased there over the years. There is modern fiction, classic lit, poetry, instruction manuals, vintage magazines, shelves upon shelves of history and art contained in every nook and cranny of the main level and basement.
“There’s something for everybody, whether it is a $2 paperback or a hundreds-of-dollars collectible book,” Zbornik mused. “That’s the beautiful thing about The Source. I think in the modern era, books and classic literature are as important as they ever have been. Especially since history rhymes, there are many words on these shelves that are pertinent.”
“Accessible, affordable tangible media that you can hold in your hands is important, he added. “It’s easy for digital media to disappear; what we have is immediate.”
In their brief time of ownership, Brown and Zbornik have said that business has been stellar. Though they have a few minor changes in mind, they aren’t trying to rock the boat of the well-established business.
“It’s like we’ve stepped into a river of books, coming and going into and out of the store,” Zbornik said. “We aren’t trying to veer this ship too far left or right.”
Brown hopes to establish a little VHS section, and has given special attention to the cookbooks. “The physical cookbook has gone by the wayside … there is something inspirational in cooking when you can see it on the page,” she said.
Zbornik, meanwhile, has added a section dedicated to liberation politics and hopes to add another on new agrarian thought.
“Everyone is welcome here,” Zbornik emphasized, and with so much to find, it is difficult to imagine anyone leaving without some sense of giddiness.
The Source Bookstore is located at 232 W 3rd St in downtown Davenport. Store hours are Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sunday, 12-4 p.m. You can follow them on Instagram: @sourcebookstore.
