For Clio and Carla, owning a bookstore is the fulfillment of a long-standing dream and a reflection of their shared passions. As best friends with a love for reading, creativity, and community, they’re dedicated to keeping Spare Time Books a vibrant hub for their town.
Clio and Carla, Tell us a little about yourselves and your store.
c&c: We’ve been best friends for 14 years and when we first met, we instantly bonded over our love for creative projects and reading! When we had the opportunity to buy the bookshop, we knew it would be our biggest, most exciting project yet! While our love of books may be obvious, we’re also both passionate about holistic wellness, nature, traveling and learning about other cultures and languages, and spoiling our dogs.
Why did you decide to open a bookstore?
c&c: We were lucky enough to have bought a pre-existing business, the bookshop has actually been around since 1989! It’s the only bookshop in town and has been woman-owned since the beginning, and we’re so proud to carry on its legacy. The original owner had the same vision as us, to keep alive the love of reading and books in our community!
What kind of reading trends do you see with your customers?
c&c: We have a lot of mystery/suspense lovers in our town! That’s probably our best-selling genre. We make it a point to carry a wide variety of topics so that there’s something for everyone here, but we certainly notice our clientele leaning most toward mysteries, romance, and contemporary fiction!
What other services and/or products do you provide for your customers?
c&c: We host events at the shop, such as bookclubs, author events, arts and crafts workshops, book launch parties, tea parties, and comedy shows. We also sell book-related goods like bookmarks, stickers, annotation supplies, as well as games and puzzles! Plus, we have an online shop, so for the sweet people who want to support us but don’t live nearby, they can order Blind Dates with a Book (either a single book or a book box) as well as the other specific titles currently listed on our website! We’re excited to add more book bundles on there soon, too.
How do you see Spare Time progressing and expanding in the next few years?
c&c: When we bought the shop, it was only secondhand books. We’ve slowly introduced new books into the inventory and want to eventually get to the point that we’re about 50/50. We also want to expand our games selection and host DnD game nights here! Eventually, we’d also love to incorporate a cafe and florist, while still focusing primarily on books.
What do you think the future of indie bookstores will look like?
c&c: We think that creative spaces like ours are going to have to continue to innovate as reading habits and practices change. Personally, we hope that our society takes a step back from technology a little bit and becomes more centered on in-person forms of engagement. Our vision is for indie bookstores to become the vibrant heartbeats of their communities—not just thriving through book sales, but by inspiring people to look up from their screens and engage in real, meaningful interactions with those around them.
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Article originally Published in the Fall 2024 Issue: Global Reads