By Kayla Pickrell

Books line the walls, the floors and the shelves of the antiquarian bookstore labeled, “Glover’s Bookery,” located off of South Broadway.

Opened in 1978, Glover’s Bookery houses more than 60,000 books, the oldest being a copy of the Holy Bible from 1562.

John Glover, the owner, said he decided to pursue his business out of chance when he was a graduate student at UK.

“Seeing people and talking about books is what I enjoy,” Glover said.

He opened a weekend bookshop in the ‘70s using only the books Glover and his wife had collected over the years.

His 300-book start has grown to about 60,000 in store and 15,000 online.

He started online book selling in the late ‘80s through “Z-Books” on Amazon that has now changed into “Amazon Marketplace.”

“We were there at the very beginning when Amazon started letting businesses sell used books,” Glover said.

When he opened shop on South Broadway, he was surrounded by tobacco warehouses that are now student housing apartments, such as Newtown Crossing and Red Mile.

Glover’s Bookery was the headquarters for the American Saddlebred Horse Association before he bought it.

“This is only fitting because we specialize in collecting horse books,” Glover said.

There was only one other antiquarian bookshop selling used and rare books in Lexington at the time.

“What is really sad is the declining of antiquarian bookshops,” Glover said.

Glover makes trips to St. Petersburg, Fla., once in a while to go to large books shows. What once was a long, inviting trip with stops at about 25 bookshops like his own along the way, has now dwindled to two, Glover said.

But he is not worried about getting people to come into the store.

“People who are into old books will come and find you,” Glover said. “That’s my philosophy.”

What he said he is worried about is having people bring in their books.

“The struggle is getting people to come in to sell me their books,” Glover said. “That’s why our yellow pages advertisement says ‘We Buy Books.’ Otherwise we wouldn’t have any books to sell.”

With what most people would consider a light day, Glover considers 20 to 30 people in the store as normal.

Most of the customers who walk in are regulars who sell their books, or individuals with a passion for antiquarian books.

“Books sell themselves,” Glover said. “The biggie in this business is buying and knowing what to buy.”

Glover noted that he is consistently on the search for antiquarian books for his shop.

“If you’re not out beating the bushes every day, you’ll die on the vine,” he said.

Glover brought out a group of six books to show that had fairly normal book covers.

“Do you know how much these are worth?” he asked. “$3,000.”

Glover said that they were all first editions, and if you exchanged them for second editions, they would be $300.

“It’s a treasure hunt,” Glover said.