WESTFIELD – Despite some financial struggles, Blue Umbrella Books is working hard to keep its doors open by holding various events and trying to cut costs, according to its owner, Russell Atwood.

Atwood said the store offers mostly used books and that they accept donations from the public as well. However, not all of the books are used.

“Especially for the younger kids, that’s like the 15 percent that I keep new, but we also get a small amount of donations of brand new books as well,” he said.

Since the bookstore opened four years ago, Atwood said it has gone through three changes in ownership. It started when the owner of the Book Club bookstore in Enfield along with her friend Jessica Martin opened Blue Umbrella. Eventually Martin bought the previous owner out and took over before her real estate business began to grow. After that Atwood said he eventually bought out the store after his parents passed away.

Despite the changes in ownership Atwood said he wanted to keep some things the same for the bookstore.

“We kept the name Blue Umbrella because it comes from a Stephen King novel called Mr. Mercedes. We started a Stephen King book club under Jessica and that continues today so we wanted to keep some things the same,” he said.

Along with the book club, Atwood said the bookstore offers various events for the public and local authors. “Our biggest event is our Ghost Stories Live show which we do about every month, and the theme is classic, new or true stories,” he said, adding that after cast members do their readings, the audience can then tell their own stories.

Atwood said the store also invites local authors in when they have new books publicationst.

“If local authors have books coming out, we’ll have an opening event for them,” he said.

According to Atwood, the financial struggles began just as soon as he took over the store but said he’s doing his best to cut costs. “It’s one of the reasons we became a used bookstore instead of trying to keep up with Barnes and Noble or even Walmart,” he said.

In the three years Atwood has been with the store, he noted he’s been hoping for more businesses to open in the area. “I’ve seen more business close or move rather than open. If there were like two or three more shops I think we could cross-pollinate and help each other out,” he said.

Atwood said the bookstore is always open to ideas and he is looking for suggestions on ways to improve the store.

“I really need stuff like that because I get a little buried from the day to day of processing the books and cleaning them up,” he said.

Blue Umbrella Books, 2 Main St., Westfield, is open Tuesday through Saturday.