The Reading Room, a bookstore-bar hybrid, is set to open soon at 3210 Brainerd Road, in the Old Town section of Brainerd.
Owner Linden Marno-Ferree, who has experience in both bookselling and bartending, said she aimed to create a unique space that combined the two industries.
“When you read about authors, especially American authors, of the last 100, 150 years, they’re drinkers,” she said. “Also, the vibe of a cool used bookstore and of a funky, divey bar are very similar. So I decided to marry the two of them.”
The hybrid model also makes the business more economically sustainable, Marno-Ferree said.
While working at the Harvard bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she saw how the rise of Amazon really started to threaten the survival of the industry.