"Good morning," says Eric Johnson, the owner of the store. "You have something for us today?"

"Yeah," she says, grunting as she heaves the burden onto the table. "And I have a lot more in the car."

As the owner of Recycle Bookstore, a used-book store with more than 30 years of history in San Jose, Johnson is in the business of taking old books off the hands of people who no longer want them and selling them to those who do.

While the customer rushes outside to get more boxes, Johnson goes to work tallying the load. He pulls out a calculator, then quickly examines each of the items and assigns values to them. If he's interested in a book—usually about 25 percent of the time—he will offer to either buy it for anywhere between 10 and 15 percent of its original cover price or to trade it at a rate of three of her books to one of his.

The woman is lucky today, Johnson says. He decides to purchase almost everything she brings in. And when he's finished with the tally, the customer's four boxes of books fetch her a total of about $115.

And the day has just begun.

In the course of half an hour, a man comes in bearing a paper bag filled with other works of literature, a student brings in a book-filled duffel bag and a young girl carrying books in a backpack takes her place in line. They're all hoping to get something for the histories, pictorials and biographies that they no longer have the time or space for.

On a typical day, 15 to 20 people come in selling their books, he says, but most of them are book lovers who aren't doing it for the money.

"People just like having an outlet to give their books a second life," he says, explaining why they don't simply donate the books to charity. "Sometimes customers come in here saying they've stopped donating their books to places like Goodwill because the books can get abused."

The original Recycle Bookstore, established in 1971 by Patrick Hayes, had been a fixture of downtown San Jose for more than three decades.

After Patrick passed away in 1984, his widow, Joan, continued running the business until 1999, at which time she decided to retire.

Johnson used to frequent the store as a college student at San José State University, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in literature. He continued visiting the store even after he graduated because, as he says, "I love books."

"One day my wife and I just happened to drop in when Joan was having a going-out-of-business sale," he says.

When Hayes told them that no one was interested in buying the business, he says both he and his wife said to each other, "Recycle Bookstore can't just disappear!"

So Johnson, who at the time was working part time as a teacher at Chabot College in Hayward, decided he'd get into the business.

He inherited the Recycle Bookstore—complete with two cats who roam the aisles—but moved the store from its location in downtown San Jose to the Alameda, where it now stands.

Johnson's sales have doubled since he took the helm five years ago.

This turnover of buying and selling ensures a constant variety for the many shoppers who are tired of going into mass-market bookstores that push the same new titles.

"I'm so tired of Borders and Barnes & Nobles," says Mari Duncan, a shopper from Blossom Hill who says she comes to the Alameda store looking for hard-to-find books.

Despite the increase in sales, the store is literally overflowing with books. While the aisles are generally well-kept and free of clutter, all around the periphery are stacks of books of every genre and era.

"I try to get a little bit of everything," Johnson says. "The goal is to create a bookstore that is fun to browse."

And for those who take the time to do so, they can find anything from $1 comic books to a $1,800 copy of The History of King Edward published in 1688.

But the volume of books has gotten to the point where Johnson has had to find another place to put them. His predicament is Campbell's good fortune.

He's opening a branch in historic downtown.

Located at 313 E. Campbell Ave., across the street from the Cardiff Lounge, the Campbell store will be somewhat smaller than the one on the Alameda, Johnson says.

He says that because of the size, Campbell probably won't have a children's book section. The current events/political science section will probably be reduced, too, he says, as those books don't sell very well.

Nonetheless, the quality of the books he'll carry there will be just as high, he says, and will cater to the serious reader.

"We won't have many fluff books, inspiration books or picture books," he says. "People who come here are looking for real information in their books."

The new shelves are still being erected and stained, but when the store opens its doors in early January, it will be one of a handful of new businesses to move into the downtown area.

"We're part of the new wave," says Stacy Carlon, whom Johnson hired to run the Campbell store.

She says she's already eaten at Stacks and Allie's Cafe, had smoothies at Blendz and bought a pair of cowboy boots at the Silver Buckle.

"I'm just thrilled," she says.