41 ABA Member Stores Open in 2011

*Forty-one ABA member bookstores opened in 2011, including seven branches of existing businesses and eight that sell primarily used books.

Two of the new indie booksellers — Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia, and Hello Hello Books in Rockland, Maine — opened after waging successful campaigns to garner financial support from their local communities. Avid Bookshop’s October opening in a bricks-and-mortar location was made possible by enthusiastic community support. Myriad contributions came from the store’s fan base and grew steadily from the time owner Janet Geddis announced her plans to open a bookstore in Athens. “Apart from monetary donations, we got enormous support from our customers by way of online sales, volunteer hours, and more,” she said shortly after hosting the store’s grand opening celebration. During the store’s build-out phase, “so many neighbors signed up to clean, paint, sand, and paint some more,” she added. “Every day I came into the shop, I’d see a bunch of folks pitching in to help bring this store into existence.  It was incredible.”

Geddis also received support from beyond the Athens community. “The book world was immensely supportive,” she said, “from publishers who sent free books, to booksellers who allowed me to do internships at their stores, to ABA folks who sent encouraging e-mails all along the way. I feel so lucky to be a part of the bookselling community.”

When Lacy Simons was given the opportunity to purchase the book inventory of Rock City Books & Coffee, she launched a pledge drive that raised enough cash to enable her to secure a loan to start her own business. Along the way, Simons drew plenty of media attention and donations from 26 states and from places as far away as Canada and Australia.

This past spring, Donna Allen, owner of New Orleans’ Maple Street Book Shop, announced plans to grow from two locations on Maple Street (one selling new books and the other primarily used and rare) to four locations. At the time she explained that there were a variety of reasons for her decision, “none the least of which is that the rate of illiteracy in New Orleans is unacceptable…. Maple Street Book Shop has always been a neighborhood book shop and as New Orleans continues to rebuild its neighborhoods, we want to be there to offer the residents a source for quality literature, a source for affordable reading materials, a source for reading materials in all formats, and a place for literary events.”

On August 28, Maple Street celebrated the grand opening of its third store, which is situated along with 20 other businesses in the New Orleans Healing Center (NOHC), and its fourth location, Maple Street at Bayou St. John, opened in the fall.

The fall also saw the return of indie bookselling to Nashville, Tennessee. That’s when author Ann Patchett and former Random House rep Karen Hayes filled the void created by the closing of the city’s iconic Davis-Kidd Booksellers with the opening of Parnassus Books.

In a spontaneous speech at the store’s November opening celebration Patchett said, “The difference between ordering a book on Amazon and buying a book at Parnassus are these smart, kind, overqualified readers that we have in the store who can tell you what to read…. Really and truly, I’m not a very emotionally forthcoming person, but I love you all.” Patchett will be sharing highlights of Parnassus Books’ development and launch as well as her thoughts on the survival of indie bookselling at the opening plenary session on Wednesday, January 18, at Winter Institute 7.

Here’s the list of ABA member openings in 2011:

Akea Books
2206 South Pierce Road
Spokane Valley, WA 99206-5646
206-834-539
(Primarily used books)

All on the Same Page Bookstore
11052 Olive Boulevard
Creve Coeur, MO 63141-7615
(314) 825-6860
www.allonthesamepagebookstore.com

Arcadia Books
102 East Jefferson Street
Spring Green, WI 53588-9256
(608) 588-7638

Avid Bookshop
493 Prince Avenue
Athens, GA 30601-2448
(706) 352-9047
www.avidbookshop.com

Beantree Books
795 McKinley Street
Hazleton, PA 18201-2738
(570) 497-7404
(Primarily used books)

Berkley Book Corner
2680 Coolidge Highway
Berkley, MI 48072-1555
(248) 439-0503

Biblion
(Joy Works, LLC)
205 2nd Street
Lewes, DE 19958-1354
(302) 664-2210
www.biblionbooks.com

Blind Dog Books
24618 SE Mirrormont Boulevard
Issaquah, WA 98027
(206) 920-0559

The Bookend Café
300 Coastal Highway
Fenwick Island, DE 19944-4404
(302) 537-2665

Books, Beads and More
8324 Bell Creek Road, Suite 100
Mechanicsville, VA 23116-3848
(804) 730-2665
www.booksbeadsmore.com
(Primarily used books)

Bookstore #1
1359 Main Street
Sarasota, FL 34236-5616
(513) 368-9441

Brilliant Books
118 East Front Street
Traverse City, MI, 49684-2509
(231) 271-7323
www.brilliant-books.net
(Branch store)

Broken in Books
317 Haverhill Street
Rowley, MA 01969-1907
(978) 948-8400
(Primarily used books)

Byrd’s Books
213A Greenwood Avenue, 2^nd Floor
Bethel, CT 06801-2113
(203) 730-2973

Chapter 2 Books
422 2nd Street
Hudson, WI 54016-1510
(651) 239-4678
www.chapter2books.com

Church Street Coffee & Books
81 Church Street
Mountain Brook, AL 35213-3735
(205) 259-6747

Dragonfly Books
112 W Water Street
Decorah, IA 52101-1806
(563) 382-4275
www.dragonflybooks.com

The Fine Print
202 Walnut Avenue
Lakeside, OH 43440-1463
(419) 798-4614

Half Price Books
7898 Dublin Boulevard
Dublin, CA 94568-2924
www.hpb.com/
(Branch store)

Hello Hello
316 Main Street
Rockland, ME 04841-3349
(207) 594-4123
www.hellohellobooks.com

Liberty Book Store
330 Clematis Street, #117
Palm Beach, FL 33480
(561) 389-5321
www.libertybookstore.com

Library House Books and Art
24164 Front Street
Grand Rapids, OH 43522-9403
(419) 830-3080

Maple Street Bookshop
2372 Saint Claude Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70117-8353
(504) 304-7115
www.maplestreetbookshop.com
(Branch store)

Maple Street Bookshop
3141 Ponce De Leon Street
New Orleans, LA 70119-3052
(504) 309-9815
www.maplestreetbookshop.com
(Branch store)

Mitzi’s Main Street Books
510 Main Street
Rapid City, SD 57701-2734
(605) 341-4525

Mysterious Galaxy RB
2810 Artesia Boulevard
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
(310) 542-6000
www.mystgalaxy.com
(Branch store)

The Novel Hovel
24 Scotland Road
Windham, CT 06280-1328
(860) 428-1424
www.thenovelhovel.com

Op. Cit. Books
930C Baca Street
Santa Fe, NM 87505-0900
(505) 428-0321
www.opcit.com/

Our Town Books
64 East Central Park Plaza
Jacksonville, IL 62650-2071
(312) 339-2007

Parnassus Books
3900 Hillsboro Pike
Nashville, TN 37215-2724
(615) 298-7738
www.parnassusbooks.net

Personally Yours of Fairhope
136 Pemberton Loop
Fairhope, AL 36532-7097
(251) 928-7272
www.PersonallyYoursFairhope.com

The Quiet Man Bookshop
340 Route 390
Cresco, PA, 18326-7372
(570) 223-3565

Ravens Books
NW Gilman Boulevard, Suite E21
Issaquah, WA 98027-5335
(425) 281-4843
(Primarily used books)

Round Table Books
1826 South Indiana Avenue, Unit B
Chicago, IL 60616-2469
(312) 502-7335
www.ajfrank.net
(Primarily used books)

Shawnee Books & Toys
7311 Quivira Road
Shawnee, KS 66216-3570
(913) 962-1428
www.bookandtoy.net

Trolley Books
3100 Alice Street
Dearborn, MI 48124-3704
(313) 690-2225

Ukazoo Books – Plymouth Meeting
500 West Germantown Pike, Suite 1090
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462
(610) 940-2665
www.ukazoo.com
(Branch store)

Ukazoo Books  –  Southgate
13667 Eureka Road
Southgate, MI 48195
(734) 281-2665
www.ukazoo.com
(Branch store)

Union Avenue Books
517 Union Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37902-2115
(865) 951-2180
unionavebooks.com

Up Center Books
The Up Center
1011 West 25th Street
Norfolk, VA 23517-1014
(757) 623-1119
www.upcenterbooks.org
(Primarily used books)

Usedon New Books & More
36 New Street
Mount Clemens, MI 48043-5606
(586) 468-2665
(Primarily used books)
 

*Four stores were added to the list after the BTW e-mail was sent on January 12.