Loyal shoppers aren't caring much for the final chapter to a 30-year-long local bookstore story.

"This is not good news," Sara Kenney said after hearing Lee Booksellers was soon to be history.

Kenney has been haunting Lee's shelves since her family moved to Lincoln in the mid-'90s.

"You know what happens when you shop at a bookstore where you walk in and everybody knows your name?" the avid reader asked.

Well, you don't get a beer -- but sometimes you get coffee.

And sometimes you get homemade shortbread cookies.

And always you get someone who knows books, said customers and supporters.

"Oh, I am devastated," said loyal customer Cora Johnson.

A neighbor called the Lincoln reader and her husband, Joel, Sunday to break the news.

They feel sad for themselves, and for the staff who always seemed to know just the right reading material for any family member.

"Mention the name of a book and they've probably read it," Joel said.

Once, Cora was searching for a book and couldn't remember the author. And she couldn't remember the title, except for one word.

And just like that -- no Google search, no database checking -- they found it for her.

"They actually read the books," she said. "They're not just sales clerks."

Dan Semrad also praised the bookstore, owned by Jim McKee and Linda Hillegass.

The self-described "social nerd with no life except books" got to be friendly with -- and then friends with -- the owners and staff who special-ordered books for him.

"It's sad for me," Semrad said. "Very sad."

Independent and locally-owned mattered to the investment adviser as it did to other customers.

"We decided years ago the dollar or two saved at other bookstores was not significant enough," Kenney said.

The small tidy store was home to book discussion groups and frequent author readings and book signings.

"It's terrible to lose an independent bookstore that is such an institution," said one of those authors, Ted Kooser.

It's a loss to local literary life, the former U.S. poet laureate said.

"I feel it is irreplaceable, and wish Jim and Linda the very best in the future."

So does Kim Coleman.

Coleman had this crazy dream to open an independent bookstore. A place to share a love of books and foster community.

When she talked about the dream of Indigo Bridge Books, Jim McKee gave her a gift.

A book.

"How to Open a Bookstore."

"They've been an inspiration to us," said Coleman, who opened her Haymarket bookstore in the fall of 2008.

"And they've been a huge asset to the community."

Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com.