Around Indie Bookstores

Literary Bookpost Celebrates Grand Reopening in New, Expanded Space

More than 500 people attended the grand reopening of Literary Bookpost in Salisbury, North Carolina, on Friday, October 23. The store, founded by Deal Safrit in 1998, moved across Main Street to a completely remodeled storefront that more than doubled its size.

"We were able to spread out the books more, allowing for better traffic patterns and more visibility of the books," Safrit told the Salisbury Post. "It's a more customer friendly store. We are getting more people in that will browse for a long time."

The move was made possible by a partnership Safrit formed last fall with Bill and Cora Greene. The Salisbury Post noted that the Greenes purchased the building and renovated it, and Cora Greene was responsible for the interior design work.

A mezzanine level features poetry, drama, and literary criticism books, and the children's section, which will be managed by Safrit's daughter Daphne, has expanded to fill a full floor. In addition to its usual book signings and special events, "we will be able to hold luncheons, larger book club, and author events in the back of our store and upstairs," Safrit told the newspaper. He also has plans to develop an outdoor area for events.

Despite the economy, Safrit said that sales have been up since January, and there has been an uptick in sales and traffic since the move.

Greenlight Bookstore Hosts Grand Opening

In New York, co-owners Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting hosted a grand opening at Greenlight Bookstore in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn on Saturday, October 24. Despite a day of heavy rain, residents and industry friends turned out to welcome the new indie to the community. For photos and to read more, see the Greenlight Bookstore blog.

Black Oak Books to Reopen

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Black Oak Books, which closed in May, will reopen in December in a new location, on San Pablo Avenue in "an area seeking to promote itself as 'the left bank of Berkeley.'"

Gary Cornell, one of a group of investors who bought Black Oak in 2008, told the newspaper: "Our idea is to have something that's an interesting combination of a retail bookstore and a restaurant-entertainment area," including coffee, pizza and light foods, and folk music and jazz in the evenings.

The Bookstore in Dillon Celebrates Major Milestones

The Bookstore in Dillon, Montana, recently celebrated several major milestones, including 25 years in business, and the last 18 with Debbie Sporich at the helm. On Saturday, October 17, at the town's Oktoberfest, Sporich and her husband, Bill, and artist Cathy Weber, who co-own the building where the bookstore is located, burned their lease. Sporich and Weber each run separate businesses in the shared property.

Debbie Sporich also celebrated her 50th birthday (complete with birthday crown) and her sixth year as a breast cancer survivor. During her treatments, a group of volunteers, whom Sporich dubbed The Bookstore "Guardian Angels," ran and maintained the store, as well as provided help with meals, transportation, and other personal needs. "They offered kindness, love, and support and asked for nothing in return," Sporich recently wrote. "Without them we aren't sure how we would have managed. It is a true tribute to Dillon and the people that live here. We are so lucky to live in this community and we are honored to share our lives with them."

Sporich, a founding member of "Dillon, Where the Locals Go -- Buy Local Be Local," is confident about the future of the bookstore. "We have customers that shopped here as children and now bring their own kids in to get books," she wrote. "It doesn't get much better than that. I really do have the best job in the world. In fact, most days it doesn't feel like a job because it is so much fun."

Congratulations Also Go To...

Congratulations also go to Richard Goldman and Mary Alice Gorman, whose Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, will celebrate its 19th anniversary with an all-day Halloween party; to Earlene Scott, owner of Scott's Bookstore in Newnan, Georgia, which will proudly celebrate 33 years in business on November 1; and to Pam Woods and Kirk Pasich, who marked their first anniversary as the owners of Los Angeles' 20-year-old The Mystery Bookstore last Saturday.

BYU Bookstore Garners Great Press for Midnight Release of The Gathering Storm

On Monday, October 26, the BYU Bookstore in Provo, Utah, re-opened at 10:00 p.m. for the midnight release of The Gathering Storm, volume 12 in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Begun by Jordan before his untimely death in 2007, The Gathering Storm (Tor) was completed by Brandon Sanderson, a successful fantasy and children's author and a professor at BYU.

The crowd of customers began forming the day before the event, said BYU Bookstore's Linda Brummett, and reached about 500 people before the midnight countdown.

BYU Bookstore, along with a crew of "Storm Leaders" sponsored by Tor Books, kept the crowd entertained with quizzes, puzzles, candy, prize drawings, and a warm place to wait until midnight. Sanderson, whom Brummett described as "a personable and friendly young author," walked around the line between 10:00 p.m. and midnight visiting and signing copies of his other books.

The bookstore garnered great media coverage from the event, a sample of which can be seen on YouTube.