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A LONG SHELF LIFE.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

Peter Ogura lives the dream of book lovers everywhere, surrounded every day by thousands of volumes in his very own bookstore. Of course, unlike the dream, he doesn't get to spend every day with his nose in a book, looking up just long enough to wave a customer toward the right shelf or ring up a purchase before turning back to his pages.

No, like the owner of any small business - and at 900 square feet, Black Sun Books doesn't take up much space - Ogura attends to nearly all the details of running the shop himself, as he has for the past 16 years and as he will indefinitely because it's what he always wanted to do.

"I have to say, I've never met anyone who works harder than Peter," says Michele Miller, his wife of a year, who recently retired from teaching in the Eugene School District and now spends a couple of afternoons a week minding the store. "He doesn't just wait on customers - he cleans the bathroom, vacuums the floor, orders books, unpacks them and shelves them, packs up and mails orders and knows every book in the store and where to find it."

Ogura didn't start out as a bookstore owner, although books have undeniably guided him at key points...