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Prologue Bookshop
New bookstore setting up shop in the Short North

by Margaret Marten
November/December 2018 Issue

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Bookstore browsing will become a reality for bibliophiles in the Short North when Prologue Bookshop opens at 841 N. High St. in November. Typically confined to the University District and populous local suburbs, bookstores have been limited in the Short North to a few specialized retails, most notably An Open Book, the gay bookstore that lasted nearly 15 years after Michael Lindsey and Doug Motz opened their storefront at 749 N. High in 1994.

Brewster’s bookstore

Prologue Bookshop owner Daniel Brewster in Goodale Park at the
Goods on Goodale pop-up event in August. | Photo © Joel Knepp

Six months ago, Prologue Bookshop owner Daniel Brewster moved into the Short North from San Francisco where he had spent half a dozen years working as a software engineer. One of his employers, Goodreads, introduced him to the book industry. Goodreads, headquartered in San Francisco, is a website for people to share and discover books. It includes a database where users can register books and form their own groups of suggestions, surveys, polls, blogs, and discussions. It’s referred to as a “social cataloging” website and claims to be the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations.

“I could have done [my job] without reading a single book,” said Brewster, “but I put myself in a position there to become more familiar with the publishing industry and the books that were coming out and how that whole process worked.”

The impetus for opening a bookstore came after Amazon acquired Goodreads. Brewster felt disquieted by that: “For a long time it was a very special place, you know a lot of people who really loved literature and loved reading and loved being a part of the community of readers.” However, he didn’t think that spirit was necessarily compatible with the Amazon culture.

After attending a talk at Goodreads on “Opening a Bookstore,” he began to consider the possibility of doing just that. Even though the presenter was not advocating the idea but simply sharing his worldly experience as a bookseller in Hollywood, Brewster realized it could work. “I started angling myself in ways to get the right experience and talk to the right people,” he said. He also wanted to move closer to his hometown in northeast Ohio. “I was very disillusioned from what I saw in Silicon Valley, and I decided that that was no longer some place that I wanted to be.”

Careful research brought Brewster to Columbus, and he utilized his skill as a software engineer to target potential markets. “I found that Columbus has one of the largest populations with such a few number of bookstores,” he said. “I came down to the Short North, and I was like how is there not a bookstore?” He noted that every neighborhood in San Francisco like this has a bookstore. “I thought what a shame that there isn’t one here and this would be the perfect place to have one.”

Books were an important part of his life while growing up in North Olmsted. He said his taste in reading has changed somewhat over the years, particularly after working at Goodreads. “There was a much larger library space, bookstore space than I’d really ever thought to explore before and that was awakening to me.” Marisha Pessl, who wrote the bestseller Night Film and visited the Goodreads’ office, became a favorite. The writer Emily St. John Mandel won him over with her book Station Eleven. “[It] might be my all-time favorite book because it has an amateur orchestra in it,” he said. Brewster studied piano and cello in his youth and performed in an amateur orchestra during college, later forming another one in San Francisco, so the novel resonated with him. “I swallowed up all the rest of her works very quickly,” he noted. Terry Pratchett is an author he has been a fan of for many years and never tires of.

The 30-year-old is not naive about what he’s facing as an independent bookseller. E-commerce and e-readers could be considered an obstacle to success, but the fact of the matter is more bookstores are cropping up across the nation now. The human need to browse actual merchandise, make discoveries, interact with real people and support local communities remains. “It’s definitely changing and evolving and not an all gloom and doom scenario at all,” he said.

Brewster is also mindful of the nuances of book ownership. In addition to the impact of e-commerce, he believes the market itself, the consumer, has changed. For a lot of the younger generation, books are showpieces rather than reading material, he says. “The choices that I’m making are going to be quite a bit more upscale.” The inventory of seven or eight thousand books is all new. He also intends to have a significant online presence and regularly attend conferences to keep up with the industry. “There’s a lot of different things you can do to capitalize on what consumers are interested in right now.”

Short North bookstore history

In 2002, An Open Book moved to 685 N. High St. at the corner of W. Lincoln Street., one of several locations before closing in 2008.

During the ‘80s, the Short North was a haven for drugs and prostitution, so it’s not surprising that a business featuring adult magazines, books and peep shows was operating here. Mark E. Wolfe, dubbed Columbus’ reigning pornography czar (and bookstore owner) by the Dispatch in 1982, made a court appearance that year after a raid on a live sex show at Jenny’s Pleasure Arcade on Cleveland Avenue. A plea bargain banned him from continuing the shows at that arcade as well as his Short North bookstore Zodiac Regency, 870 N. High St., and nine other establishments around town.

Italian Village resident Andy Klein recalls another early shop selling publications. “There was a magazine store across from the train station when I moved here,” he said, “probably gone by the mid ‘80s, it had mostly sporting, betting, and soft porn magazines. The name escapes me but it was in the blocks between the Victorian Village General Store and Mellmans.”

There were better things to come. Monkeys Retreat, a “space age variety store,” operated in Columbus for over 30 years before closing in 2010. Monkeys sold books on healing, the martial arts, beat poetry, alternative music and cinema in addition to comics and magazines. At their peak, they had one of the largest selections of underground comics in the world. Originally in the campus area, they relocated to the Short North in 1996, around the same time An Open Book launched, and another book dealer, the short-lived, overly optimistic “Never Ending Bookstore” at 641 N. High St., selling books on personal growth and professional development behind K2U restaurant. They were in business maybe a couple years at the most, said the former manager recently. “It was an uphill battle.”

In 2002, Ujamaa Bookstore set up shop a few doors down from Monkeys at 1206 N. High and remained for four years. The store is still doing business today on E. Livingston Avenue where it first launched in 1997. Owner Mustafaa Shabazz, who also directed the Alkebulan Health and Wellness Center around the corner on E. 5th in the ‘90s, said Ujamma Bookstore’s specialty and focus is in presenting the African American as a “subject rather than object of reality.” That’s why we’re still in operation,” he said. “Because of that transformation, that’s what makes us unique. And our uniqueness stands out among all the other bookstores.”

An Open Book went through four or five different locations, various ownership, and a number of different merchandising strategies, combining inventory from Kukala’s pride store and Metro Videos, before a last gasp effort at the southwest corner of Fifth and High under the direction of Jim Criswell, who seemed intent upon keeping the business going. It closed in 2008.

And, of course, like most Columbus communities, the Short North has its public libraries – the Northside Library, the State Library of Ohio, and the Ohioana Library. However, Prologue Bookshop may be the first general bookstore to set up shop in the Short North.

Prologue Bookshop is located at 841 N. High St. next to the Greystone – selling new books, games, gifts, cards, and more. They are active on Facebook and have a website at www.prologuebookshop.com. The phone number is currently 614-745-1395.

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