Around Indies

Non-Profit Bookstore Opens in Spartanburg

Spartanburg, South Carolina, which has not had an independent bookstore in more than two years, has just welcomed the Hub City Bookshop.

The store is run by the non-profit Hub City Writers Project, and its revenue will fund the organization's programs and publications.

“There's probably no more visible sign that your downtown is alive and well than a thriving bookstore,” said Hub City Writers Project executive director Betsy Teter, according to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.

Mercer Island's “Oasis of Reading”

Roger and Nancy Page, owners of Island Books on Mercer Island, Washington, have been recognized for their community contributions, the Seattle Times reports. The Pages received the 2010 Mercer Island Rotary Citizen Achievement Award. Their nomination described the store as an “oasis of reading” on the island.

“The variety you experience is unlike any other place on Earth. You can be talking to a man about trains, and the next second you're talking to a teenager about vampires,” Roger Page told the Times.

“Books and Bars” Is Going Strong

The Minnesota Daily profiled Jeff Kamin, moderator of the free-form Minneapolis book group Books and Bars.

Books and Bars is sponsored by Magers & Quinn Booksellers and The Onion. The group was founded by St. Paul bookstore Bound to Be Read. Kamin and Magers & Quinn took over in 2005.

Some 90 members meet monthly at Bryant Lake Bowl to share $2 beers and discuss a book chosen by the group. According to the article, “Books and Bars’ author selection boasts a diverse palette that includes literary giants like Kurt Vonnegut and Vladimir Nabokov to more contemporary authors like Cormac McCarthy and Dave Eggers.”