Firefly Books & Comics, "dedicated to the joys of readings and uniting nerds everywhere," has opened at 29 College Ave. in Rexburg, Idaho. Owned by Jon Cooney and his two children, Ashli Cooney and Tristan Cooney, the bookstore carries books, comics and manga, BYU-Idaho Scroll reported.
"A lot of the excitement comes from talking to people who like the same weird stuff that we like," said Ashli Cooney. "We want to be a community place where people can come and enjoy time with other people who like the same things. We've designed the store purposefully to be flexible, so if people want more of something we can accommodate."
Jon Cooney agreed, noting that he hopes customers will feel comfortable coming in and making requests if they don't find what they're looking for.
Earlier this fall, EastIdahoNews.com reported that Ashli Cooney had moved to Rexburg from California in 2011 to attend Brigham Young University-Idaho. She had always been a voracious reader and was a frequent shopper at Porter's Craft and Frame. "I'd come in here and I'd say, 'Man, I want to turn this into a bookstore,' " she recalled. "That was my dream. I loved the location, I loved the history of the building.... It all felt very serendipitous when we started saying, 'Let's make this happen,' and then this became available."
Jon Cooney, who has collected comic books all his life and managed a bookstore in college, moved to Rexburg to fulfill his own bookstore dream and because it was the right place and time: "I couldn't believe there was a college town without (something like this). I'd seen on the Life in Rexburg Facebook group people asking, 'Where's the comic shop?' I was living in St. Louis and I moved here to open it."