''It could have been a lot worse. Each afternoon a helper and I have been sitting at a card table in the corner by that window sorting books. We could have been right there,'' Lena Scott said.
The female driver of a Nissan Pulsar drove through the front window about 9.45am. She was shaken but unhurt, Constable Paul Moylan said.
It appeared her foot had slipped off the brake while parking, he said.
The shop was closed when the vehicle knocked over several large shelves of books, smashed the large front window pane and bent the window frame.
Mrs Scott (76) has owned the book shop for about 10 years and also owns the building, the former Westpac Bank.
She said the shop had been closed for a couple of years while she was nursing her late husband, but she had been sorting stock in preparation for reopening in spring.
She had been told the window frame was ruined and it would take six weeks to get another one made and fitted. The shop would reopen, Mrs Scott said.
''I don't allow things like this to stress me ... it's only going to take time and money to fix. At least no-one was hurt.''
Pastor Chris Lee, from the Eastside Baptist church across the road, said it was the third similar incident in the same block of shops in the past few years and bollards were needed at the edge of the car park.
