Brianna Reeves is launching Run Rabbit Books. Photo: Supplied.
When a bricks-and-mortar bookshop was off the table, Wollongong author and English teacher Brianna Reeves decided to turn the page on tradition instead.
Launching this month, Brianna will give Illawarra’s literary scene a whimsical new addition with the launch of her traveling pop-up bookstore Run Rabbit Books that promises to bring the magic of bookshops with carefully curated reads to unexpected corners of the region.
On maternity leave and working on releasing her second book later this year, Brianna said the inspiration for Run Rabbit Books struck during a late-night feeding with her newborn.
“I’ve always been a reader and I love bookshops and I particularly love independent bookshops,” she said.
However, she said there were few independent bookstores in the Illawarra.
“I’ve seen the value and the magic of those places for adults and children,” she said.
“I have always had a bit of a dream of starting a bookstore, but the kind of effort and investment to start a brick-and-mortar traditional bookstore was not going to happen in this particular season of life.
“So I was thinking about a model that would allow some of the magic of a bookstore – carefully chosen books, high quality options, someone to talk to who is a reader and can recommend things, a bit of a sense of community – but without actually needing a brick-and-mortar store.
“That’s when the idea came to me of wondering whether local cafes would let me do a pop-up via a traveling bookstore.”
Brianna said the first four cafe stops were locked in, with Run Rabbit Books launching at Trails Cafe at Mt Kembla Village Hotel on 22 January, offering a carefully curated selection of five titles spanning adult fiction, young adult and children’s books.
She said all selections were personal favourites, chosen for their broad appeal and the ability for her to recommend them to any reader, from non-reading teens to your mothers-in-law.
The bookstore will operate every fortnight to start, but she hopes to increase to weekly pop-ups if demand proves strong.
She said community response was positive, with cafes welcoming the chance to draw in readers and create new points of connection.
“I’m hoping that it has a two-way benefit – that I get some walk-through customers who just happen to be there for a cup of coffee and see the bookstore and want to have a little browse and a chat about books,” she said.
“But I hope the cafes benefit from it as well, in that people see the bookstore coming up and then decide to go to a cafe that maybe they wouldn’t usually go to for their morning coffee.”
She said the other source of inspiration for the business was her own book club.
“I’m part of a little book club with five of us that meet and read a bunch of different types of books and chat about them,” she said.
“I know that book clubs are having a bit of a renaissance.
“People are getting back into them and a whole new generation is discovering them.
“Part of Run Rabbit Books model is that it should feel a little bit like a book club.”
She intends to launch a digital book club via Instagram, where readers who purchased one of Run Rabbit’s monthly picks and share a review could win their next book for free, encouraging engagement and building a book-loving community online.
In addition to the launch, Brianna has plans to adapt and expand based on customer feedback, possibly adding more frequent pop-ups, traveling wider throughout the region and even partnering with schools.
Of the playful name, she said Run Rabbit Books was a nod both to John Updike’s novel Rabbit, Run and the store’s traveling nature.
“Our tagline is ‘Catch me if you can’, so part of the fun of it is you never quite know where we’re going to pop up next,” she said.
Run Rabbit Books first pop-up will be on 22 January at Trails Cafe at Mt Kembla Village Hotel, followed by Hotel Totto on 5 February, Mangerton Corner Store on 19 February and Pickled Poet Wine Bar on 5 March. You can find future dates on Instagram.
