Overbooked bookstore will open later this spring at 619 2nd Ave. North in Fargo, N.Dak. InForum reported that as owner Michelle Forness has been working to set up Overbooked, "she got a little help from her friends. The high school English teacher of 25 years says students, former students and teachers have pitched in to assist with everything from shelving and organizing books to mopping floors."
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| Michelle Forness | |
"It's been really fun," she said, adding that when her current teaching contract concludes at the end of the school year she will switch careers to become a bookseller. She plans to have a limited soft opening on Saturdays in May, followed by a grand opening and full-time hours in June.
Overbooked will primarily carry new releases, popular titles, independent, and local publications, as well as bookish gifts. There will also be dedicated sections for children, middle readers, and young adults. The shop also features what she described as "the checkout counter of my dreams."
Forness said she had been thinking about opening a bookstore for years, but those aspirations didn't come together in a meaningful way until last fall, "when Dane Ferguson, who knew Forness was interested in opening her own bookstore, offered to sell her bookshelves and unsold book inventory from his business, Fergie's Bookshops, which closed in January," InForum noted.
"The stars kind of aligned and so many things were put in my path that I knew if I didn't do it now, I would never do it," Forness said. "I'm passionate about downtown Fargo and joined the Downtown Community Partnership right away.... It is a special place to me and my family and I want to see it thrive."