Fledgling entrepreneur Joel Taffet unfurls his prize possession.

The giant paper banner - a present from children at Deer Park Elementary School - stretches up the cookbook aisle, revealing hand-drawn thank-you's for hosting a story time in their classroom.

"I wanted to create something in this community that is more than just a business. So this (banner) made my February," Taffet said.

And Taffet needed something to make his February. Since he opened Newtown Books in the Brookside Commons shopping strip in late September, Taffet has struggled with the duel challenges of surviving in the shrinking bookselling business and surviving as a tiny independent.

"The winter was dangerously quiet," he said. He still wonders every day if his venture will prosper. He's competing against giants like Borders, Amazon and Sam's Club. He's bucking the American trend to spend more time with television shows and video games than books.

Yet Taffet insists a small, independent bookseller could be a gem in the midst of the retail chains filling Owings Mills.

He cruises the aisles pointing to collections he is tailoring to the community's interests. There are displays of African-American fiction and nonfiction, science and mystery books for children, discounted bestsellers and titles about religion, travel, cooking and gay and lesbian issues. The gardening books, he sighs, just aren't moving in a region crammed with condos and townhouses set on postage stamp lots.

Taffet discounts his books 25 to 90 percent, and offers an additional 20 percent discount to teachers who are buying books for their students or themselves.

"You can literally walk in here with $20 and walk out with a stack of books."

He prides himself on giving customers solid advice about books, preferring to warn someone off a bad book rather than make a sale.

Eager to do more events with schools, Taffet is also preparing to host book club meetings, author readings and other events in the store.

But that still leaves him grappling with a crucial question: "At the end of the day, are there still enough people who read?" he asks.

Overall book sales in the United States dropped by 1.8 percent in 2005, according to the Census Bureau.

However, Meg Smith, a spokeswoman for the American Booksellers Association, points to some positive trends. The number of independent bookstores in the association has remained stable at about 2,500 for five years, Smith says.

A study commissioned by the organization in early 2005 showed that independent booksellers saw their share of total book sales rise 2.1 percent (to a total of 9 percent) in 2004.

"It's a little premature to sound the death knell for independent book stores," Smith said.

"We get calls from developers every once in a while. They are putting up a new downtown and they want a bookstore. I think that speaks volumes," she said.

"People," Taffet said, "have to make a decision if they want our country to be a McDonald's, a Wal-Mart and a Target. Do we want all colors of the rainbow or just three?"