Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Nomad Books: Edmonton's Bookstore on Two Wheels

I can't imagine there's a whole lot of profit in it, but one Edmonton couple has found a cheap way to turn their love of books and people into the city's only two-wheeled bookstore.  According to CBC News Edmonton, Yvonne and Jared Epp came up with the idea when they returned to the city after a four-year absence:
"I had been collecting and trading books for a while and then had wanted to start selling some of my own, and was thinking about how to do that without too much expense going into it," Jared said during an interview with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.
"And we thought, 'Why don't we just sell books on the trailer and kind of cruise around downtown and sell books that way?' We thought, 'Let's do it, let's see what happens.'"
Yvonne & Jared Epp
[...]
           They say the project is less about pushing a profit, and more about making personal connections.
"That's kind of our main goal, I mean it would be nice to make money from it, that would be awesome, but we're prepared not to," Yvonne said with a laugh. 
"By the time we pay for the insurance and the business license, we have a long way to go before we break even, but it's worth it." 

Kind of a cool idea, isn't it?  And who knows?  Maybe someday the Epps will have a whole fleet of little two-wheeled bookstores roaming the streets of Edmonton that will return a nice little profit to them.  Avid readers tend to be big dreamers, and I wish these guys well in pursuing theirs.

2 comments:

  1. Related to this real life couple's story: have you ever read Christopher Morley's novellas "Parnassus on Wheels" (1918) and its sequel of sorts, "The Haunted Bookshop" (1922)? Gorgeous bibliophilic fiction that's free on Project Gutenberg. Just FYI. Thanks for a good blog!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the book tips...I'll be sure to check both those out.

      And thanks, too, for the kind words. Happy to hear from you.

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