Back in the late ’90s, when Lois Harvey opened West Side Books & Curios at this address, Highlands Square was bustling with modest businesses. Common Grounds coffee shop was next to Heidi's Brooklyn Deli. Bang! and Julia Blackbird's were known citywide for their food. Right across the street, Pizza Alley was a local favorite, as was a mom-and-pop Chinese place that went through several names. Those spots are gone now (Heidi's is still around, just not at its original location), but other businesses that got their start during the same era as West Side Books — Mondo Vino, Trattoria Stella — have survived and thrived even as the area has evolved.
West Side Books has evolved, too: As its offerings expanded, so did its need for space, and Harvey moved the entrance from the street to a small courtyard. And now, 27 years in, West Side's original owner is welcoming new leadership.
Matt Aragon-Shafi might be new to upper management, but he's far from new to the store. "I grew up here in Denver on West Colfax, and went to North for high school," he says, "so I wasn't far from West Side Books. I'd go there a lot after school. I joke with the owner, Lois, asking her if she remembers me coming in and never spending any money. I'd just be there. But I'd be there a lot."
Aragon-Shafi's background is in retail — his job before coming to West Side Books seven years ago was managing a dispensary. "I had a good friend that worked at West Side for about ten years," he recalls, "and that was sort of my in. I'd quit the dispensary and was looking for a change. I was talking with this friend of mine, and it occurred to me that maybe I'd apply at West Side Books. I mean, it was a place I knew, and a place where I'd already spent a lot of time, right?" He met with Harvey, who called him back the very next day.
From the start, West Side Books was unlike any other place he'd worked. "I was used to clocking in and out," Aragon-Shafi says, and laughs. "At West Side, we just wrote the time we worked on a calendar." Back then, the store stocked just used books and didn't do much to track inventory. Aragon-Shafi helped to bring in not only new books, but a new sense of organization.
"And events," he adds, "especially after COVID. I was in the Music Business program at the University of Colorado Denver, so networking was a big deal to me. We did little events here and there, but I pushed for more community outreach and more author events. We're still very selective, but we definitely focus on those as much as we can."
To honor the past and future of West Side Books, in the heart of Transition City, the store is celebrating with a party that starts on Saturday, September 7, with a big sale, balloons, cake, giveaways and snacks. While the cake will probably get consumed pretty quickly, the sale — 50 percent off all used books, from art to science to kids' books to genre fiction and more — will run through September 30. The only category excluded is rare books, but even those are priced to sell.
"It's been really great working with the owners, Lois and her brother Jim," says Aragon-Shafi. "When Lois is ready to retire, I have a vision of stepping up. It's good to see how impactful West Side Books has been in the community. My story alone shows that. From a penniless fifteen-year-old who loved books just hanging out to twenty years later being the manager of the store — it's been important to me, just like it's important to a lot of people."
West Side Books starts a new era — and celebrates with style (and cake!) — from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 7; the book sale will run through the end of the month. For more information, see the West Side Books website.
