Birdwhistell Books 2026: Another year over and a new one just begun

12/29/2025

We opened a bookstore!

Sometimes I still can't believe it. My wife and I will be closing up the shop, and I'll just say out of nowhere, "Kelsey, we actually opened a bookstore." When you've thought about something for so long, it's hard not to think of it as something that just belongs in the realm of dreams. But it really is here, and we're so thankful for all the people who encouraged, helped, and shopped with us. We can't even begin to list all of you, but know that without your support none of this is possible. So from the bottom of our hearts...thank you.

We began this journey a couple of years ago selling used books in the Peddler's Mall as a hobby, inspired in part by Mr. Morris Lessmore's video to the left. Our business grew, and after a couple of years we were lucky enough for Todd and Cameron Davis to give us a shot opening up a storefront downtown. Marian Carlson and Bryan Conover partnered with us to grow the business by offering new books, and Karen Birdwhistell jumped at the chance to fulfill her dream of working in a bookstore.

Every year I write a post trying to take stock of what we've accomplished and share some of our ideas for the coming year. Some of them will pan out and some of them will not. Just know that with your all's support, we plan to be apart of this community for a long time, driven by the same principles we laid out in our inaugural post Why Birdwhistell Books?:

[W]e believe finding discarded books and ideas and bringing them back to our community is a good in and of itself...spending our days searching for, reading, and passing on discarded books seems like a good way to spend a life.

That's still our ethos, and will remain so as long as we're around. So once again, thank you for supporting our store, and now let's see what happened in 2025 and where we're headed in 2026!

The best laid plans of 2025...

Well, that was certainly different than we planned. If you look back at our year end post from last year, you'll see that none of those plans actually came to fruition. But that's okay because so much happened that wasn't even on our horizon at the start of last year. Here are just a few of the many accomplishments we had in 2025...

Opened a brick and mortar store;
Began offering new books and merchandise;
Expanded our used and rare selections;
Partnered with New Style Records;
Started a weekly story and craft hour for kids; and
Created monthly sidewalk and bargain table sales;

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life...Look at the birds of the air...can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

...become the goals of 2026!

Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

Because we got sidetracked opening up the store, we don't have to look too hard to find goals for next year...let's just reuse last year's, and maybe add some new ones as well! Here is what we want to do in 2026...

Set up our online store through bookshop.org for customers to order new books online;
Begin selling rare and unique titles on Abebooks;
Partner with local book clubs to host meetings and offer discounts for books ordered through us;
Offer appreciation sales for different members of our community; and
Host more events at the store!

Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram (Kelsey does an excellent job posting regular store updates), and come back here for reviews and highlights (I'm going to do my best to update the website more regularly...last year I made it all the way through January!). Thank you for being a part of the Birdwhistell Books community, and we're looking forward to another great year of reading!