New used bookstore opens in Atascadero
As of Saturday, Atascadero now has two used bookstores. The newest is called The Book Odyssey and is located at 5975 Traffic Way — where Envisions Gallery was. The bookstore is a business venture between brothers Tom and Evan Miller-Donnelly and Evan’s girlfriend, Kristi Crawford.
“Our father owns Phoenix (another book store in San Luis Obispo), we want to bring books to the community — to the North County,” Tom said.
The trio lives in San Luis Obispo, but chose Atascadero as the home for their new business because there aren’t a lot of bookstores in the North County and because they heard about the space at 5975 Traffic Way from their friends Michael and Nicholas Campbell, who own Socrates Coffee House next door.
“That’s why we chose the name to keep with the Greek theme,” Evan said.
The Book Odyssey owners, from left, Tom Miller Donnelly, Kristi Crawford and Evan Miller-Donnelly. Photo by Heather Young
The idea of opening up a bookstore has been in the back of Evan’s mind for a while, he said. And when they heard of the available spot in Atascadero, they jumped at the opportunity.
Evan and Tom’s father, Bruce Miller, has owned Phoenix Books in San Luis Obispo for 35 years. “We grew up with all the fairy tales, all the good stories,” Evan said. Crawford said Miller has been extremely helpful, giving them some stock to get started.
While the store will buy and sell used books, Tom said it will have select new books for sale. “We try to have everything,” he said.
“We don’t want just the regular stuff, we want the esoteric,” Evan added.
The Book Odyssey will join a few newer businesses downtown that offer later hours. Socrates Coffee House is open until 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Grape Encounters Empourium at 5816 Traffic Way is open Tuesday through Thursday until 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m. Crawford said they are still playing around with hours, unsure if the day the bookstore is closed will be Sunday or Monday.
“We’re going to be open pretty late,” Evan said.
Crawford said the bookstore will open at 10 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. either Tuesday through Sunday or Monday through Saturday.
“We eventually want to do events — poetry nights,” Tom said.
Evan added that they’re looking to do a summer reading program with the high school. “We want to bring back a new book renaissance.”
They said their first day open was great. “It started out strong,” Crawford said.
“I was pleased,” Evan added.
For more information, call The Book Odyssey at (805) 538-5100. The bookstore will participate in Atascadero Art & Wine Tour on Friday, June 5 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in downtown Atascadero.
