Semicolon Books will open in Bethlehem, Pa., this spring, 69 News reported. The general-interest, all-ages bookstore will be located at 559 Main St., Suite 007, in downtown Bethlehem. Coffee and tea will be available, and there will be a lounge nook where customers can relax and read.
Co-owners and married couple Charles Debski and Udval Yun are aiming for a late March or early April opening. Prior to opening Semicolon Books, they lived in New York City and both worked corporate jobs. Books proved to be an escape from their high-pressure jobs and they sought out bookstores as places of refuge. After moving to Bethlehem, the pair decided to open a bookstore of their own.
Debski told 69 News that they "always liked the atmosphere that a bookstore brings to a community, especially a neighborhood bookstore. It’s cozy, brings people together and is a place where people can relax. That’s also where we drew our name from with the semicolon because in a sentence, a semicolon is a pause in a sentence and not necessarily the end of a sentence. So, we thought all of that came together in what reading really meant for us."