Boston bookstore boom: Building community through books

Photo of the indoors of the Brookline Booksmith store. Photo Courtesy of Brookline Booksmith.

By Valkyrie Gibson

Boston University News Service

Floor to ceiling paned windows let passersby catch a glimpse of cats running around or lounging on cushions. Squinting through the window, one sees a seating area overlooking the cats, and just through the door, the cafe portion of A Sanctuary Cafe. It’s not until venturing to the back that one stumbles upon the micro-bookstore.

Read Davidson, bookstore manager of A Sanctuary Cafe, was feeding cats and playing mediator between their spats on a Monday night. Davidson picks Simon up, an orange cat with the tendency to steal everyone else’s food, and proceeds to cradle him while walking around the enclosed cat space to protect the other cats’ meals.

As bookstore manager, Davidson is in charge of keeping the bookstore running; taking care of the cats is just one quirk of the job. There are many diverse books in stock, including popular new releases and books often raved about on TikTok; a large portion of A Sanctuary Cafe’s book collection has to do with cats or Boston. But that’s not the only thing that makes the bookstore’s selection unique.

“We hyper-curated our selection in a way that is pretty different from every other independent bookstore that I’ve been to,” Davidson said. “Everything that we carry is something that has been read by at least one member of staff and enjoyed by them.”

Personalized experiences like these are becoming more prevalent as new Boston bookstores pop up to fill areas that may have been lacking in literary spaces. Lovestruck Books in Harvard Square, Parkside Bookshop in the South End, Narrative Bookshop in Somerville and Side Quest Books & Games in Union Square are just a few that have opened in the past year. These stores are also community gathering places where customers can find like-minded people to have conversations with, attend events or just go to be surrounded by books.

Davidson said individuals or groups have come into the store and talked to strangers about the cats, even if they are on either side of the revolving bookcase. “That kind of experience is something that you’re not going to get on Amazon, ” Davidson said.

Despite the competition of online retailers like Amazon, the number of bookstores in Boston continues to grow. Davidson said that consumers appreciate the community that independent stores build, creating a demand and continuous support for local bookstores.

Although it’s not possible to compete with giant companies like Amazon when it comes to quick delivery and low prices, physical bookshops offer the opportunity to browse, have human interaction and make meaningful connections.

Part of the reason that customers are willing to pay full prices at bookshops is that they’re paying to support the community space, Davidson said.

A Sanctuary Cafe is geared toward cats and has brought cat-centric people to the bookstore, looking for cat-related books. Davidson sold “Cat vs. Cat” by Pam Johnson-Barrett to a customer as a personal recommendation, after they discussed cats fighting at home.

“At their best, bookstores can be places where people who are attuned to their community are able to provide stories that reflect their community,” Davidson said.

Lily and Hannah Barrett were both working full-time jobs in the tech industry before the summer of 2023. While on a family vacation, the twin sisters started discussing opening a pop-up romance bookshop, so much so that their family begged them not to constantly talk about it.

In February 2024, the sisters had their first pop-up event just before Valentine’s Day at Idle Hands Craft Ales, a Malden brewery. The line went from the bar table all the way to the door of the store, Hannah said.

While numbers have died down since their debut, Read My Lips Boston is still seeing good turnout at its pop-ups, which Lily said she thinks is because they were one of the first romance bookshops in Boston. Another store, Lovestruck Books, is the first brick-and-mortar romance bookshop in Greater Boston. It opened in Harvard Square in December.

But Lily and Hannah are filling another void in Boston’s bookstore scene – inclusive representation in romance. Lily and Hannah are both deaf and have cochlear implants. After spending their entire lives reading, it took them until the pandemic to find a romance novel that followed a character with cochlear implants.

“We had this feeling like, ‘oh, this is what it feels like to be seen,’ ” Hannah said.

Read My Lips Boston sells used books featuring main characters and authors who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups. Another requirement for the books sold by Read My Lips Boston is that they must have a happy ending.

After President Donald Trump’s win in the presidential election, Lily identified the current political climate as a concern for book content and said that she and Hannah use their platform to promote diversity and take this role incredibly seriously. They said they want to continue selling their books and making sure people have stories that represent them. More books are banned every day, and these types of romance novels with sexually explicit content are often cited as an issue.

Lily and Hannah are continuing to make sure these stories are available to everyone. While it’s important for people to see themselves in these stories, they may also help other readers gain exposure to more types of people.

Lily and Hannah see the impact of their work every day. Lily was helping a customer request for a romance book that features an estate sale or a thrift shop while Hannah discussed polyamory and going on first dates with another customer. They were also able to relate to a customer who was deaf in one ear and didn’t know whether to disclose their disability on a first date.

Interacting with people who have shared experiences can be incredibly validating. Porsha Olayiwola and Bing Broderick, longtime Dorchester residents, have opened a bookshop to facilitate community engagement.

Olayiwola and Broderick are co-founders of justBook-ish, a literary gathering space and bookstore in Fields Corner that hosted their grand opening on Nov. 23, 2024. According to Broderick, the store has had a steady stream of business since this successful event.

“Dorchester is presently experiencing a lot of development,” Broderick said. “We felt it was really important to create a space where people can feel rooted and can have agency and a place of possibility and positivity where it can be a platform for their ideas.”

The store includes a specially curated collection of books that reflects Dorchester by highlighting local writers next to nationally acclaimed authors. Their collection also contains social justice-themed books in a variety of languages. This is to accommodate the Dorchester population where, according to Census Reporter, almost 30% of people speak a language other than English at home.

Bookstores continue to be a place of community engagement where people can just go to exist. “No one’s sad or mad when you come into a bookstore,” said Anna Klose, a Brookline Booksmith customer. “Bookstores are always a good place to go.”

Although a multitude of new bookstores are popping up in Boston, plenty have been around for a long time. Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner opened in 1961 and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The atmosphere in Brookline Booksmith drew customers in, even while one of Barnes and Noble’s chain stores was open just down the street for ten years, said Lisa Gozashti, owner of Brookline Booksmith.

Although one would think that new independent bookstores would compete with Brookline Booksmith, Gozashti said they’re all pretty connected and friendly.

“People call all the time to ask me for guidance on opening up bookstores in the area,” Gozashti said. “I’m always so excited.”

These types of collaborations have helped first-time shop owners create an environment where their customers can feel comfortable. Brookline Booksmith’s quiet, bright atmosphere welcomes customers into the store. Klose said she likes to come to Brookline Booksmith because it has a fun and relaxing vibe.

But these are more than just bookstores, Brookline Booksmith also has a gift shop. JustBook-ish hosts community events. Read My Lips Boston has a monthly book club. A Sanctuary Cafe has coffee and cats. It’s not just about the books.

Each of these stores has something that makes them distinctive, Davidson said. While they might be close to each other in proximity – A Sanctuary Cafe is just down the street from another bookstore, Beacon Hill Books & Cafe – they each have a different target demographic. Some of them may overlap, but not too much, so they can coexist.“Not everyone who’s coming in is necessarily coming in for the bookstore,” Davidson said.

A trip to the bookstore can be an eye-opening experience where you meet new people, find a new book, learn something new, feel safe and have open conversations.

“It’s very easy in a rapidly gentrifying city to feel like you have no agency,” Broderick said. “I think that if you have an opportunity to write about your experience, to voice your experience, to talk with others about your experience…you are probably in a better place than you would be if you didn’t have that forum.”

New Booksellers in Boston Mentioned During Interviews