“The store has grown and changed in ways we never expected, but in good ways,” said co-owner Rachel Weaver. “It’s been a great 20 years.” Weaver co-owns the store with her husband, Jason Smith, whom she married two years before they opened the Book Table. The two met while working at an independent bookstore, both having previously worked at other independent bookstores, so it felt natural that they would open one of their own. They first attempted to set up shop in Chicago but were unlucky in that endeavor. “No one would give us the time of day,” Weaver recalled. “We were these snot-nosed kids who wanted to open a store, selling a sort of dinosaur legacy product.”So, they set their sights on Oak Park, a place that appealed to them for its proximity to Dominican University and for being a short train ride away from the University of Illinois Chicago. The village had a lot of scholars and professors as residents, Weaver said; the type of people who would appreciate an independent bookstore.