Turning the page: How Columbia has seen a renaissance of national and local bookstores

With the holiday season upon us, there will undoubtedly be many in the Midlands who head out to the Columbiana Centre mall in the Harbison shopping district, hoping to grab a few gifts for those on their Christmas lists.

And while you’re at the mall, you’ll spot many of the hallmarks of the holiday shopping experience. Santa Claus will be there greeting youngsters. People will be sipping styrofoam cups of iced tea from Chick-fil-A, bags of new clothes or shoes slung over their arms. There will be perfumes and gadgets and other baubles on offer.

But there will also be a store in the mall that could come as a welcome surprise to brick-and-mortar shoppers, particularly in this modern, increasingly digital age.

No, your eyes do not deceive you, and, no, it’s not 1994: There’s a brand new Barnes & Noble bookstore in the mall. The bookseller opened the location at Columbiana Centre in October, and it is one of two gleaming, new spaces the national chain has debuted in Columbia in 2024, following the March opening of a Barnes & Noble at the Shoppes at Woodhill on Garners Ferry Road.

The Columbiana Centre Barnes & Noble opening marked a return to the Harbison area for the book giant, which previously had a store at 278 Harbison Blvd. that closed in 2013.

But the resurgence of a national player such as Barnes & Noble isn’t the only activity the Columbia area has experienced on the bookstore scene in the last couple years. Independent stores and retailers have continued to carve out a niche in the area.

For instance, the locally owned All Good Books opened its doors earlier this year at 734 Harden St. in Five Points, offering a host of books and author events in the longstanding urban village just east of the University of South Carolina. Meanwhile, after some time as a pop-up operation, Queer Haven Books opened a shop in April in the Arcade Mall on Main Street, offering books and gatherings that are welcoming to the LGBTQ community. And Liberation Is Lit has emerged as a key pop-up and online bookseller in the Columbia area, with regular appearances at Soda City Market and other events.

As those new stores have turned a page in Columbia — and as longtime national stores such as 2nd & Charles and Books-A-Million, as well as local offerings such as West Columbia’s Ed’s Editions have remained on the Midlands scene — it feels like bookstores are having a moment in the Midlands.

Craving an in-person experience

In an age where social media reigns supreme and folks have more digital devices at their fingertips than ever, it seems there are those who still want to feel the paper pages flip in their fingers, and desire the social element of browsing a bookstore on a weekend afternoon.

“We feel happy that all of these different sorts of bookstores are becoming successful, and I do think the common thread is that there is a social aspect to reading, and sort of a tangible aspect that was getting lost as Amazon rose,” All Good Books co-founder Clint Wallace told The State in a recent conversation. “People know that is important and they are sort of craving it.”

Baker Rogers is the co-owner of Queer Haven Books, which operates in a roughly 600-square-foot space in the historic Arcade Mall on Main Street, just north of the S.C. State House. She notes that Queer Haven, which is billed as the only independent queer bookstore in South Carolina, has worked to build a community of customers, and often has author events and other book-related happenings. For example, on Nov. 22 the shop hosted nearly a dozen authors for book readings, signings and more.

Rogers said many customers who have sought out physical bookstores in recent years simply yearn to have a paper book in their hands, and there has been renewed interest in supporting locally owned and minority-owned businesses.

But Rogers also recognizes the communal nature of bookstores, and the way people gravitate toward others with related interests.

“I think it’s a lot about missing community,” Rogers told The State. “Everybody in the last 10 years jumped on everything social [media], including e-books, which can keep you separated. In times like this, we need community. And bookstores are a place you can find community, even if you don’t talk to people. You are just in the store with other people, with similar interests, being around people.”

For Barnes & Noble, recent years have seen growth after a decade-and-a-half of decline. The company has opened more than 50 new bookstores in 2024, according to a release. And Barnes & Noble opened more bookstores in 2023 than it did for the entire decade of 2009 to 2019.

Barnes & Noble debuted nine new stores across the U.S. in October, including the one at Columbiana Centre.

“Queues of people at bookstore doors for midnight releases and new store openings is a testament to the renaissance in books and reading,” Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt said in a release earlier this fall touting the Columbiana Centre opening. “It is a great time for bookstores and nowhere more so than in Columbia.”

But it’s not just the mass booksellers such as Barnes & Noble that are seeing a rekindling of interest across the U.S. According to a May piece from the Associated Press, membership in the independent American Booksellers Association has risen sharply, with more than 2,400 members, up by 200 over the previous year and more than double what it was in 2016. Nearly 200 independent bookstores were expected to open in the next two years, per the AP story.

‘I just want to be in this space’

Wallace, the All Good Books co-founder, said he thinks there is room for a tapestry of booksellers in the Columbia market, from those such as Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million that might have 50 copies of, say, the latest Michael Connelly mystery story to independent and niche stores that might have more targeted, curated collections for a local audience.

“When you come into All Good Books and, similarly, to Queer Haven, the people there know books really well and are ready to help you find something you’ll really like and enjoy,” Wallace noted. “We’ve worked really hard to curate our selections so that we’ll have really good books on the shelves.”

Queer Haven Books has emerged as a sort of multi-purpose hub downtown. It offers a spot amid the Main Street bustle for books and reading material, certainly, but also has been a safe space for members of the queer community to gather and commiserate.

Rogers said it is a key part of the shop’s ethos.

“Our mission is to provide education and space for the queer community and education for people who are allies and want to learn more,” Rogers said. “Our main missions are education and community. We want to carve out more space or queer people.

“There are a few places in Columbia, like the Harriet Hancock Center, but otherwise there’s just not much space.”

Certainly, much like the big box shops and national chains here and across the U.S., local bookshops are hoping for a robust holiday shopping season. Queer Haven, for instance was set for a Black Friday sale starting at 8 a.m. on Nov. 29, and Wallace said All Good Books will look to have additional copies of certain top-selling titles available during the season.

And bookstores, both national and local, continue to be buoyed by the viral nature of online literary discourse such as BookTok, where readers share and discuss their favorite books on the social media platform TikTok.

“We love enthusiasm for reading,” Wallace said. “If I’m being honest, I don’t love social media. But, the sort of BookTok and Bookstagram scene is so cool. ... We think that reading breeds readers. The more you read, the more you like to read. It’s just a great, lifelong pursuit.”

While social media sensations and national economic headwinds shine light on ways that bookstores big and small have proliferated locally and across the U.S., it still feels like it comes back to the community the shops have to offer, and how books are a love people simply want to share with each other.

It’s a fact that Rogers has seen at Queer Haven.

“Someone came in the store the other day and said, ‘I don’t have any money with me, but I needed a dopamine hit because I broke up with my girlfriend,’” Rogers said. “’And I just want to be in this space with you.’”