One for the books: King's English has been a thriving community bookstore for 30 years

When Betsy Burton opened the King's English Bookshop in 1977 with her partner, Ann Berman, it was "a seat-of-the-pants" operation.

At the time, Burton was recently divorced and had rented a large room in a building on 1500 East in a mostly residential neighborhood so she could have some privacy to write a novel. Eventually, Burton bought the building "to avoid going on a date with the landlord."

As for the book she was writing, "It was really a revenge novel," Burton said, seated in the patio of the King's English Bookshop as she reminisced. "I probably wrote about half of it — but I'm so glad I didn't finish it. It was terrible. You should never write in that first rush of raw emotion. Nothing good ever comes from it. Except maybe therapy."

Burton, who has one of those bubbly personalities, did her writing in what is now called the fiction room at the store, and she persuaded a friend, Berman, to rent the next room to write in.

Then, to avoid writing, Burton and Berman would sip coffee and chat.

"We both read a lot," said Burton, "and we had a lot of passion. We decided to start a bookstore with a small inventory — fiction, mystery, children's, cooking and gardening, mostly. We wanted a different kind of store, one that served coffee and tea, where someone could come and sit and relax. We wanted a place where someone would browse and not necessarily buy.

"It seems ordinary now, because the book chains have done it — but they didn't do it for another 20 years!"

Burton no longer shoves coffee and tea in front of all customers, because Mormons don't drink coffee or tea. Burton is not LDS, but she grew up around Mormons in Holladay. "Over the years, I've become so smitten with my community — both Mormon and non-Mormon — I've come more to see the world through another person's eyes."

One of her best friends is Ann Edwards Cannon, a writer of children's books and Deseret Morning News columnist, who is LDS. "This is our home and community and we love it," said Burton, adding that she loves having "a friend from another universe."

The rooms in the King's English Bookshop are purposely light and sunny, influenced with skylights.

At the front there is "a confessional bench," so named because many people, as they sit there to write out a check, begin to unburden themselves. "People often search for books in times of crisis."