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| Charlie Pugsley | |
While working toward opening a bricks-and-mortar bookstore in Columbus, Ohio, Charlie Pugsley has launched Bookspace as a pop-up shop, selling new books and zines on the lawn outside his apartment building, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
Bookspace is open for business twice per month, and the shop carries fiction and nonfiction for adults, a variety of zines and a selection of children's books. At the same time, Pugsley runs an online bookstore that he's "beefed up" since the pandemic began.
"I love books," Pugsley told the Dispatch. "It's the way I like to connect to the world--with people. I've always felt comfortable in a bookstore and that was a space I wanted to cultivate."
Pugsley launched the earliest iteration of Bookspace in 2015. At that time he sold used books and set up shop at places like flea markets. Over the years Bookspace has done business in many locations, including several temporary bricks-and-mortar spaces. He held his first front lawn sale in 2020, after his neighbors invited him to sell books during their yard sale.
"I set up a couple of tables and it went extremely well, way better than any flea market," he recalled. "So I realized, 'Ok, this is what we're doing.' "
For the last 18 months Pugsley has been focusing on Bookspace full-time. Prior to that he was also working in the food-service industry.
He noted that he sold more than 4,000 books in 2020, and that some professors at area colleges are sending their students to Bookspace to buy course titles.