Robin Miller, owner of Pajama Mamas Books, 4210 N. St. Louis, says she keeps notes on her customers' favorite authors so she can recommend other books they might want to read. Globe/ Noppadol Paothong

Pajama Mamas customer Lucinda Copeland browses the aisles in search of something to read. Owner Robin Miller says not everyone wants to worry about dressing up before going out to find a good book. Globe/ Noppadol Paothong

Robin Miller says her bookstore specializes in out-of-print romance novels. Globe Noppadol Paothong

WEBB CITY, Mo. - Deciding what to wear to work is a yawner for Robin Miller. The poodle pajamas or the ones with pink rose petals and matching house slippers?

When Miller, 52, opened Pajama Mamas Books at 4210 N. St. Louis, she wanted a homey, come-as-you-are atmosphere. Not everyone likes to take time to dress up and look presentable to shop in a public bookstore, she says.

Her "beyond Casual Day" idea has proved to be a bestseller.

"I've come out here with no makeup and in clothes from working in the yard," says customer Lucinda Copeland as she browses mysteries in flannel pajamas printed with stars and moons. "Sometimes I look pretty scroungy. You can run in here and say, 'Robin, I need something to read.'"

Copeland says that Miller's strong suit is visiting with her customers and learning their reading tastes. Miller keeps notes on customers' favorite authors so she can suggest similar titles and authors.

"I've had lots of people asking for inspirational romances. I'm one of the few stores that carry series' romances," says Miller. "People will want to know the rest of the books that an author wrote."

Romance titles have an eight-week shelf life at most outlets, but Pajama Mamas specializes in out-of-print and reprint romances. The books run the gamut from sweet to steamy.

"I had a customer from Kansas who came in with a list of 11 titles she needed from the "Born in the USA" series. I said, 'Wait here a minute,'" says Miller. She searched her inventory and unearthed all 11.

"A lot of my elderly ladies like a certain genre and their old authors are dying out. I can suggest someone similar to what they like to read," she says.

Most of the shelves in the cozy garage-turned-bookstore are lined with used books and include fiction and nonfiction. Miller offers some new and even autographed copies from popular romance writers. She met many of these authors at a trade show and book expo last fall where she mingled in her snazzy monogrammed bathrobe.

"When I shook hands with Larry Kirshbaum, CEO of Time Warner books, he leaned over and asked where he could get one of the robes," Miller says with a laugh. "This was a high-class hotel and when I first came in in my pajamas, the desk clerk said, 'Well, that's interesting.'"

Reading has interested Miller since she was a child. Her brother, Edmund Skellings, was appointed poet laureate of Florida in 1980 and Miller grew up attending parties with him and such literary figures as Norman Mailer. One of her favorite photos is of her brother and poet Robert Frost, taken in 1959.

Miller worked in advertising and public relations before opening her bookstore last April on a shoestring budget. She's open Thursday through Sunday. Money for decorating ran short, but not her ideas. Miller keeps a clutch of colored pens and hands one to a customer as he heads out the door.

"Here, you can't leave without signing my garage door," she tells him.