Interview With Bookseller Larry Bowen of Reader's Corner in Rolla, Missouri: If You Haven't Been There, Get There

Larry, you keep winning awards with Reader’s Corner. What are you offering that keep everyone so amped up?

I know it sounds like a cliché but we offer a truly unique shopping experience. I designed my store to be a comfortable, relaxing place to shop, where the books are extremely well-organized and presented in a slightly quirky setting. You can come in and spend an hour listening to the west coast cool jazz from my personal collection, check out all the funky décor, and look through over 75,000 books. You won’t find what the Reader’s Corner offers anywhere else around here from Kansas City to Little Rock, St. Louis to Springfield.

Your book exchange program seems to be favorable to all. Could you discuss how it works?

We buy, sell, and trade for used books as long as they are in like-new condition. Our books are in such good condition that a lot of people don’t even realize that they’re used, and that, again, makes us unique in the used book business.

We give customers half of what we sell a book for in store trade credit, so an $8 paperback we sell for $4 and will give $2 for in trade credit. An $80 cookbook won’t sell for half price, so if we determine it should sell for $20 we will give $10 in trade credit. We also buy new books but we’re really picky about the books we pay cash for.

From everything to your position in downtown Rolla to the bookshelves that line your corridors, Reader’s Corner has a very unique and original style. How did the store become what it is today?

I spent three years visiting new and used bookstores around the country and took the things I personally liked as well as the things I didn’t and combined them with my vision for what a reader’s bookstore would look, feel, smell, and sound like. With the generous support of the community and a lot of hard work, we’ve grown each of the six years we’ve been in business. That’s a really amazing thing for a business in the current economy.

Regarding the future of Reader’s Corner, how is it going to keep blowing minds and returning customers in the next few years?

I’m currently expanding the business into the building next to the existing bookstore. We will have great space for seating areas, music groups on the weekends, and the most important thing, the space to have about 200,000 books. Explore more at www.readerscorneronline.com.