Bookstores

Athens, GA independent store Avid Bookshop will close its doors on April 26, “six months shy of our fifteenth anniversary,” founder and owner Janet Geddis announced in a Facebook post. The store opened in 2011. “My health is at the heart of this decision: I am burned out and have been for years,” Geddis writes. “Even on my best days, I live with undercurrents of stress and anxiety that drag me down. Until fairly recently, I could muster through, pulling out all the stops to complete even the most dreaded work tasks. That talent has left me. “I. am. exhausted.” […]

Los Angeles store Skylight Books will open a second location at 1958 Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock, the store announced on social media. The 6,000 sq-ft store will have space for a cafe.

Former Tattered Cover ceo Kwame Spearman has left his post at new independent store Denver Book Society after backlash over his past comments about immigration. The store, which opened last month, is owned by Rich Garvin, who brought in Spearman as part of the store’s leadership for “his expertise in the independent bookstore space to help assemble Denver Book Society’s operations, inventory and programming,” according to a statement shared on social media. “However, it’s become clear that a change is needed to better align with the mission and future of the store.” In 2023 as Spearman was running for mayor, […]

Richard Garvin and Kwame Spearman, the former ceo of Tattered Cover, are opening a new independent bookstore in Uptown Denver called Denver Book Society. In 2024, Tattered Cover filed for bankruptcy, and was sold to Barnes & Noble. Spearman tells the Denver Gazette that when he was at Tattered Cover, they attempted to expand too quickly. “The business was basically on fumes as far as the amount of cash. And I had really big, really grandiose ambitions,” he said. “If I could do it all over again, I would have focused on just getting the basics right of really regaining […]