A local book store celebrates its second year in business
Friendly City Books
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – A local store celebrates its second year in business, and the owner believes she can write a whole book about its journey.
Just a couple of years ago, Emily Liner saw that the story of Columbus was missing a few pages, so she opened Friendly City Books.
“Columbus didn’t have a bookstore after the Books-A-million closed in the mall, and we really wanted to have an independent bookstore that had a local feel. We often take suggestions from our local customers about what books to have in store, and everything in the store has been picked out by someone,” Liner said.
Just a year after it opened a vehicle crash shut down Liner’s business for two months; however, with the community’s help, this store, was able to reopen its doors and continue its story.
“I know we’ve been through a pandemic, we’ve been through a car accident, but we are really committed to being here in this community because we believe that every town deserves to have a bookstore, ” Liner said.
And why should you try to shop at your local bookstore.
“We always encourage people to shop local and shop small, not only with us but with other businesses in Columbus and the area around us. We not only sell books to our customer we provide books to our local schools. We do a lot of outreach programs. We host author events, so we do a lot of things chain stores and online stores can’t do,” Liner said.
And for those individuals looking for a memorable Christmas gift, Friendly City books have over 7000 options, and some books are even local to Columbus.
“We love to highlight Mississippi in fact, there is a new John Grisham book that came out about a month ago, and we still have a few signed copies. We also have signed copies of Owen Pruitt Possum Town, which is related to the photography exhibit that was at the Columbus Art Council earlier this year.”
And when you stop by Friend City Books, don’t forget to say hi to Scarlet.
The Friendly City Books store will participate in the Wassail fest and encourages visitors to visit the store.
