The Books Bus, a mobile bookstore selling new and used titles for children and adults, debuted last month in Savannah, Ga., Savannah Now reported.
Since hitting the road in the Books Bus in late July, owner Kaitlynn Perry, who is also a full-time student, has started making regular appearances at several locations throughout Savannah. Those spots include breweries, street markets and a food truck park, and while the inventory changes a bit from appearance to appearance, Perry stocks around 500 books in the bus. She noted that Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and anything by author Colleen Hoover have sold especially well so far.
The Books Bus, which Perry calls Betty, is built inside of a short school bus. Perry bought the bus in January and began converting it with the help of a Kickstarter campaign that raised a little over $3,000. It took a lot of trial and error to build custom shelves that fit the bus and kept books secure, and acquiring a business license for the bus also proved to be a time-consuming challenge.
"Literacy impacts every area of life, it affects one's ability to do math and to be successful in high school," Perry said. "Literacy, and being literate, is the most important thing you can do to raise your odds of success in life. My goal is to get people excited about reading again, and the book bus provides a unique experience for people to climb in, buy a book and get back into reading."
Perry told Savannah Now that owning a bookstore has been a lifelong dream, but she knew that opening a bricks-and-mortar store in Savannah would be out of reach given the sky-high rents. She noticed that pop-up bookstores seemed to be having success, and last December she began researching buses and vans.
At times the journey was a very difficult one, Perry said, but "I've pulled it off, and here we are. I am thankful for every supporter, everyone who has pitched in along the way to bring this book bus to life."