What will you do when one of the few bookstores in your neighborhood shuts down? If you're Latanya DeVaughn, you will make a new and improved one! The Bronx mom and writer has always dreamed of opening her own bookstore, so after watching yet another close its doors for good during the pandemic, she saw her chance.
While Latanya said every neighborhood deserved a bookstore, opening physical stores on every block simply wasn't an option. So she decided to bring the books to her neighbors, instead, by turning a bus into a bookmobile! With the help of her community, she raised money for her dream and, at the end of 2021, it came true! Bronx Bound Books rolled out in style as a bus with orange cube bookshelves. "People love the way it smells," Latanya added. "One woman said the wood smell makes her feel like she's at home."
Although the bookstore on wheels carries around 3,0000 new and used books, it has more room than you might expect! Latanya also makes sure to stock books with a range of diverse characters so all readers can see themselves in the pages. Of course, her collection also features works of renowned Black authors like James Baldwin and Alice Walker. "It's meant to be that way," she explained, "because I remember going to bookstores and having to look through books just to find someone that I felt I could resonate with (引起共鸣)."
Setting up her bookstore in a new spot each day, Latanya is doing her part to make sure that everyone in the Bronx has books to read. That's what Bronx Bound Books is open for. "I can't open up a bookstore on every corner, but I can probably pop up on a lot of different corners," she said.
Thanks to Latanya and Bronx Bound Books, the Bronx is becoming a heaven for book lovers day by day. I'm sure that the little bookstore will continue to develop quickly!
