NEWPORT – Some people are offended when they enter Paul Radion's bookstore.

It's not because of the material found in his stacks of tens of thousands of used books; it's because Radion's store in the Newport Shopping Plaza is actually a private club, where the owner and some 3,000 members are allowed to smoke cigarettes.

Some people are offended by the smell of cigarette smoke in the store, Radion said. Others don't want to pay the one-time membership fee of 25 cents before they can peruse the shelves.

But Radion thinks these would-be customers should know what they're getting into before they walk through the door.

"It's all clearly posted on the door, if they would read," he says, as he lights up another unfiltered Pall Mall.

On the door, next to a caricature painting of a Mark Twain-like character with a cigar in his mouth, is a sign that reads, "Not since 1939 have so many people been controlled by so few . . . Those who may have a problem with smoking are requested to remain outside and use the mail or phone to order books."

Customers don't have to smoke to be part of the club, and everyone is invited to join. Just fill out a short application, pay 25 cents, and Radion hands out a green membership card.

"The club idea is not to make me rich or to make the other people poor," said Radion, a smoker for more than 40 years. "It's to assert my rights."

Sunapee Books owner Paul Radion smokes an unfiltered Pall Mall as he reads a book at his bookstore. (KRISTEN SENZ)

The club started about four years ago when Radion moved his shop from Sunapee to Newport. At the time, laws were pending in the State House about banning smoking from all public places. Radion, a long-time New Hampshire resident who has bought and sold used books for 25 years, wanted to be able to smoke in his own place of business.

"This is Live Free or Die in New Hampshire," Radion said. "If I choose to smoke, this is not illegal, immoral or fattening, and it's within the law as a club."

Although many states' laws permit setting up a private club where members can partake in smoking or drinking, Radion believes his is the only bookstore in the nation that has adopted such a model.

"This country was founded on codfish and tobacco," he said. "If it hadn't been for those exports, we may have remained a wilderness and a colony for many years."

Despite those who choose not to join or even enter his store because of the cigarette smoking, Radion's business has increased by more than 10 percent over the past eight months.

"With the economy as it is, people are staying home more and traveling less," Radion said, "and with the price of gasoline, people are looking for other things to do, so business has actually increased since the gas went up."

The increase in business is also in the face of what Radion sees as unfairly increasing taxes on items such as cigarettes and alcohol.

"The taxation of cigarettes, of alcohol, is exorbitant, not only on a state but on a federal level," he said. "The sin tax, as it's called, is levied only on those people that choose to use, but it pays for the good of everyone."

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Sunapee Books, located on Route 103 in Newport, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.