Cottage Used Books

My map shows that Genesee County is not a simple rectangle, but shaped a bit like Alabama.  A little bit.  The next stop on my bookstore tour, Cottage Used Books in Goodrich, is tucked into the southeast corner of the county - quite near Lapeer County to the east and Oakland County a wee bit south.

From the parking lot I notice the Neighborhood Sandwich Shack at the right end of the building and wonder if they are “connected.”  

Sure enough, they are.  Kathy owns the book store and Gregg builds the sandwiches.  You can shop for books while waiting for your order. 

And yes, there are tables and chairs for relaxing with a book and a sandwich.  And maybe one of those amazing cookies!

I head off into a wondrous labyrinth of nooks and cubbies separated by shelves filled with books.  My, oh, my.  Where should I start?  Fortunately, there are helpful signs everywhere telling me what genre is featured in each little area.  And even if I don’t easily find what I’m looking for, I can step to the front desk and ask Kathy for a map.  Not even kidding.  She has created a map of the store!  What fun!

There are little sections for historical books and crazy mysteries and adventures and Westerns. There are cookbooks, craft books, biographies and memoirs.  There is a non-fiction room as well as rooms for kids and teens.  There are classics and children’s classics... and short stories and poetry and travel books.

As the name implies, Kathy sells only used books and yes, she accepts book donations for in-store credit.  Indeed I saw several people bringing in bags and boxes of books to donate.

Kathy’s daughter creates beautiful pieces of art from big old books and even teaches the skill to others in a book folding class.  For more information, you can visit them on Facebook or at their website.

These brown bags are very popular at $5 each.  

I enjoyed visiting with Kathy’s dad, Bruce, who engineered and built the shelves to form the nooks and pathways she designed and envisioned seven years ago.  Quite the multi-talented family right there.

The layout of the place is so delightful and informative that I have to wonder if Kathy has a history in bookstores before this.  If you count reading books and loving book places, then maybe so.  She remembers the times at the family cottage up north where she brought along books to read and then passed them around for others to read as well.  Maybe she began to imagine an even bigger cottage with room for even more books for more families to read and share.

I’d say she succeeded.

I’m impressed and delighted.  

And I’m planning my next visit to the Cottage.