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Pottstown’s Scott Minor is coming up on his one-year anniversary of opening his bookstore, Bookish, in the King of Prussia Mall.
What began as pop-up over the 2019 holidays now has a permanent home. This past June, Pottstown’s Scott Minor opened Bookish, the first bookstore at King of Prussia Mall since Borders.
MLT: These days, it must be unusual to see an independent bookstore at a mall.
SB: Well, we aren’t trying to compete with Amazon. We lean heavy into science fiction and fantasy. It’s what my wife (Rebecca P. Minor) writes, and those books are the most beautiful. From there, we focus on gifts—greeting cards, enamel pens, journals.
MLT: How do you curate your inventory?
SB: We focus on hardbacks, not paperbacks. Our authors are award winners, faculty somewhere, people we know. Most of our books are signed copies, deluxe editions or simply bestsellers.
MLT: Is there an advantage to shopping at an independent bookstore?
SB: The biggest benefit is the relationship we have with the authors we carry. We carry indie authors, local authors and bestselling authors in a full range of genres.
MLT: Are real books back?
SB: People bought more ebooks at one point, but they plateaued—while print has maintained. Bookstores are suffering because people aren’t buying from stores when Amazon sells at lower than cost. The books we have at Bookish often aren’t available online.
