Boarding House Books, Claremore, Okla., was founded in a 100-year-old former boarding house as "a kind of side project" when Janice Whittaker and her husband bought the building in 2006 and opened a bicycle shop on the first floor, according to a Tulsa World profile.
The bookstore is in more than a dozen rooms on the second floor. "The children's section 'lives' in one room and Westerns in another, with romances next door and mysteries across the hall," the newspaper wrote. "A central living room--which feels much bigger than it really is, thanks to a bright skylight and high ceiling--offers a place for customers to sit and read."
Boarding House Books, which sells mainly used books but also a range of new books, is now "a Route 66 tourist stop, with recent visitors from as far away as Houston and Seattle," the paper added.