Located in the college town of Middlebury, The Vermont Books Shop has been operating since 1949. The Vermont Book Shop is the indie bookstore partner for the October 2024 Literary Road Trip Box.
Books Inside Boxes was born out of a mission to promote indie bookstores. I founded the company just prior to the indie bookstore where I work, Tattered Cover, filing for chapter eleven. My whole book box concept came from the drive to encourage people to shop at indie bookstores and small buisnesses.
As I was learning more about The Vermont Book Shop, I came across an article from 2020 by journalist Carolyn Shapiro. You can read the article here. In the article, Shapiro interviews owner, Becky Dayton about how she kept The Vermont Book Shop going during both a pandemic and a major construction project near her business. The part of the article that stood out to me, was Dayton's mention of online sales, especially those from former students of the nearby college who saw value in supporting a small business during a rough time. The students didn't necessarily still live in the area, yet they had a fondness for both Middlebury and The Vermont Book Shop. They opted to use their buying power to help a small business. This is exactly the message that I hope people will take to heart: Whenever possible, shop where you can truly make an impact and help a community flourish.
Speaking of community, The Vermont Book Shop really supports Vermont authors. Their website has a fantastic list of authors from the state, including those who live in the Middlebury general area. One of my favorite, go-to authors, Chris Bohjalian was on the list and the write up on him as a customer is very lovely. We have several well-known authors that are frequent customers at my Tattered Cover location and it is just really wonderful to get to know them as fellow book lovers. I love that The Vermont Book Shop shares this aspect of their author/customer relationships on their website.
An upcoming event that The Vermont Book Shop is hosting is in coordination with a local theatre group. The Middlebury Acting Company is putting on a production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and the book shop is holding a book club event to discuss Chekhov's writing. I'm a huge fan of Chekhov and would certainly attend if I was local. I think the concept of working with a local theatre group is a fantastic way to foster a sense of community between local organizations and the public.
The October Literary Road Trip Box included a "Book Nerd" license plate style sticker from The Vermont Book Shop. Please Support The Vermont Book Shop by visiting their website and Instagram page. Make sure to take a look at their staff recommendations on their website!
One final note, the October Literary Road Trip Box sold-out during the subscription phase. This is the first time that I have sold all of the boxes prior to revealing the contents and the same has happened with the upcoming November box. Don't miss out, subscribe now, to reserve future boxes!
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