The Book Hive, a pop-up bookstore that carries new, discounted books along with book-related merchandise, has launched, serving the Albany, N.Y., Capital Region. The Daily Gazette of Schenectady reported that founder Amy Duskiewicz has recently held events at Wolf Hollow Brewing Company in Glenville and SingleCut North & Side Stage Tap Room in Clifton Park, as well as an upcoming one at Artisanal Brew Works in Saratoga Springs.
Duskiewicz's goal is not only to sell books but to create a space for conversation. A longtime avid reader, she first got the idea for the Book Hive a few years ago. "Being a single mom, my life is my children and my work. It starts to feel very isolated," she said. "So I started reaching out to a bunch of other moms, and we started sort of a book club."
The group would get together at local restaurants and bars and swap books. "It was just wonderful to connect to people, trade books and talk about how these other books inspired us in different ways. It introduced me to different books that I had never would have read on my own. So it was just such a cool opportunity," Duskiewicz said.
She also heard people, especially parents, talking about how difficult it was to find the time and place to develop new friendships and wanted to create a space for that. "It's so hard to make friends and connect to other people, especially as you get older and especially when you have children," she added.
Noting that she had to figure out how her business would fit into the local landscape, she said, "We have some really great traditional bookstores, like Open Door and we have the Book Nook. But there's this niche that I feel like I can hit." She focuses on price, ordering primarily publishers overstock in a range of genres.
Her set-up is designed to create space for people to browse and linger. At each pop-up, the Book Hive's selection of 50-some titles are spread out across several mahogany end tables and card tables. "It's all very flexible, and I try to make it so people can really wander and peruse," Duskiewicz said. "It feels a little bit more like a traditional bookstore versus a pop-up event. That seems to have worked well for folks.... The community has been awesome, which I think just further motivates me to get out there and do it."