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| The future home of Book Bungalow | |
The Book Bungalow will open this fall at Green Gate Village in downtown St. George, Utah. Located at 94 Tabernacle Street, the store will occupy the front portion of the old Judd Bungalow, an historic home built in 1917. Owner and manager Tanya Parker Mills said a soft opening is planned for September 24, with the grand opening to follow in mid-October. Customers can shop at the store's website now.
"We're keeping it pretty much the way it's always been, other than removing a few doors to provide easier access for customers," Mills said. "It's a lovely building constructed in that early Frank Lloyd Wright prairie school style, with gorgeous wooden built-in cabinets and shelves.... It's the perfect place for an intimate bookstore, and only a short walk away from the library, the Children's Museum, and the Tabernacle. It will be right in the middle of Friday Fest, the Arts Festival, and close to anything major happening downtown."
The Book Bungalow will stock a variety of fiction, poetry, biography, history, nonfiction, cooking, and arts and crafts titles. There will also be a special section of books on influential women, as well as another featuring international fiction and nonfiction.
Mills added: "Along with gifts, toys, games, cards, and other sidelines, we'll be offering some locally made crafts--such as southwestern and literary-style artisan soaps--and paintings created by local artists." The children's room, featuring books, toys, puzzles, games and puppets, will be one of the primary draws. "The murals painted in there by Susan Grove are amazing," she said. "Everything from Peter Pan to Harry Potter. She's the same artist who painted the murals in the Children's Museum, and she definitely doesn't disappoint."
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| Tanya Mills | |
An author herself, Mills wants the bookshop to be a gathering place for book lovers from all over Southern Utah to mingle and learn. Her goal is to create a bookstore environment that will attract both writers and readers. Besides author appearances and signings, the store will have a "writer's cabinet" full of books about writing and famous authors, as well as writers' tools.
"We're also going to offer a bi-monthly, two-hour writer's workshop on Saturdays, led by visiting authors, for aspiring writers of all ages and levels," Mills said. "The calendar is already filling up with game nights, TED Talks, book clubs, music nights, poetry nights, open mic nights, author appearances and even school visits. This is what will really enrich the community. It gives us a reason to pull away from our phones, our computers and our TVs and enjoy some face-to-face time again. To be a community, we need to get to know each other, and books offer the perfect vehicle."
Although known for its artistic scene, St. George is "lacking when it comes to the literary arts, and I want to help change that," Mills noted. "There's something wrong when you have a metro area that is the fastest growing in the nation, a prime tourist destination, and yet you don't have a local independent bookstore that offers events. Yes, there are a handful of used bookstores in Southern Utah, but beyond that, there's nothing like The King's English up north. I want to put Southern Utah on the nation's literary map."
As the bookstore's sign proclaims, the Book Bungalow's ultimate goal is to become the literary soul of the community: "Our local library system is our literary heart, in my opinion. It's accessible to everyone and keeps us alive in the world of literature. But a library isn't designed as a place for conversation, and you need to be able to exchange ideas in order to grow and learn and understand each other. That's where The Book Bungalow comes in. If we do it right, it can become our community's literary soul."