Hello! My name is Lauren and I am launching a traveling bookstore.
Sounds very wild and probably a bad idea, given the state of the world at the moment.
I think the universe guides us in the direction we’re supposed to go. Actually, sometimes it’s a little mean and gives us a hardy shove toward a purpose.
My dad died. And so did two cousins I was very close to, all in the span of 15 months. The pain and devastation myself and my family experienced during this time is astronomical.
Something about grieving – you never know who you’re going to be when you start to emerge on the other side of it. I started to realize that I was not and could never be the same person ever again. It set me off on a path of thinking about what I still know to be true. I know that books and literature and building community around books and reading is my all-time passion. It’s a core part of me.
It started as a whisper in the back of my mind, so quiet and easy to dismiss. Then it got a little louder and a little louder. It got so loud, I felt compelled to give it space and respect. I was at a massive library event as a patron when I decided to say it out loud for the first time – I want to own a traveling bookstore. I kept mentioning it to anyone I felt safe around. Each time I said it, it felt a little more right. It doesn’t hurt that the people in my life are top-shelf, beautiful humans who are very encouraging. Eventually, I just had to admit that this thought wasn’t going to go away and I’m not sure I could live with the regret if I didn’t at least try.
Thinking about my focus as a bookstore was easy. Once upon a time, I was the co-founder of the Shades & Shadows reading series in Los Angeles, where I was the curator for the bi-monthly event. I enjoyed this part of my life and while I didn’t want to completely go back to it, I felt good about sticking with the genres I know and love the most.
The Undead Bookshop is conceived as a traveling bookstore which specializes in horror, scifi, and fantasy literature as well as adjacent nonfiction. I am committed to creating a community around readers. In a time where third spaces are being wrestled away from us all because of the cost of rent and the scarcity of resources, I think it’s important for us all to create our own spaces to be with each other and form connection. I am committed to fighting for the freedom to read. I am committed to carrying diverse titles. Because I’m still punk AF, I commit to move forward in this venture with an anti-capitalist mindset.
As Orpheus says in Hadestown, “If no one takes too much / there will always be enough.”
As it turns out, there has been very little resistance as I’ve moved forward on paperwork and making my first few bookings. It’s all of the things I like doing and already know how to do well. It’s a little scary knowing that it’s all on me to make this work. However, I feel such a lightness going into my first big market. Quite frankly, it’s like a fucking dream to purchase literally hundreds of weird, GAY books so hundreds of gay people can look through them and find a book that calls to them.
The plan is to do this until the end of the year. By then, I will know whether or not I like it and whether or not it’s working. If the answer is “No” to either one of those questions, it was a fun little project and I finished the time I committed to. But if it’s “Yes”, and my heart is telling me that it will be, I guess I just keep going. Right?
Right.
Thanks for getting in this little doom buggy with me!
Signing off,
Lauren