On Friday, Oct. 25, About Time Bookstore, a woman-owned bookstore, opened in downtown Libertyville at 528 Milwaukee Ave.

Ms. Delanie Dochelli, the owner of About Time Bookstore, decided to open a bookstore because of her obsession with reading which began in her senior year of high school with her AP Lit teacher.

“He was very good at kind of going outside of the normal curriculum and giving other book suggestions for his students that he thought they personally would enjoy, which was cool,” she said. “So he recommended some books for me and I ended up loving them and it just kind of became a passion of mine. And he always said ‘I think you’re going to do something with books one day,’ which was a cool feeling.”

Now, she is in college studying marketing. Her senior year, she ended up interning and freelancing at a small agency with one of the clients being a publishing company. There, she did author promotion.

“I really got to know the industry of book selling and kind of how it works for authors,” Ms. Dochelli said. “I always knew I wanted to open up a bookstore one day. I thought it was going to be a lot later in my life. But a few years back, I started to save up and I said when I felt ready, I was gonna go for it.”

Living in Chicago, she appreciates the access to a variety of independent bookstores. However, she notices that the suburbs don’t have that access.

“It was a good opportunity for me to say this is something I want to bring to Lake County,” Ms. Dochelli said.

Having grown up in Fox Lake and attended Grant High School, Ms. Dochelli visited Libertyville often and loves the downtown. This helped her to choose Libertyville as the location for the bookstore.

“It felt very community based which was important to me,” she said. “I was just honestly waiting for a spot here to open up. I felt like it was going to be a good spot, not just for bringing more books and resources to adults, but I also felt like it would make an impact in kids and young adults lives as well, which is something I’m also very passionate about.”

Ms. Dochelli wanted the name of the bookstore to convey that the space is for the community.

“I wanted it to be a unique name that if someone comes in here, they also know that this space could be used for community events and kind of a place to gather and meet other people,” she said. “So I came up with the name ‘About Time.’ I said to my husband that books are about unique times in characters’ lives, whether it’s past, present or future.”

Several events are going to take place in the bookstore including book clubs, author events and working with local businesses. For example, she hopes to make the bookstore a space for yoga with the help of Black Cat Yoga.

Ms. Dochelli is looking forward to seeing the reading journey and growth of children that come into the bookstore.

“They start off in the four to eight section and then three years from now, still having them come in and getting to recommend books to them in the nine through 12 section and being able to just see how they grow as humans, I think is going to be pretty cool,” she said. “I’m really excited about that.”

Besides giving book recommendations, Ms. Dochelli can answer any questions that customers have and place special book orders.

Ms. Dochelli hopes that people will learn more about themselves through the books that they read.

“I’m excited for people to experience all facets of what books can do for them,” she said. “Books are just a catalyst for everything in our world and I want people to experience that when they come in here.”