Bookstores fill gap left by disappearing third places
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Trio Livingston, owner of Haven Coffee and Books, inside her shop's gaming room. Photo: Robert Sanchez/Axios
Bookstores are finding new life as Americans lose many of their casual gathering places.
The big picture: The comeback isn't just about selling books. It's about turning browsing into belonging.
Why it matters: Americans are spending less time together —reducing in-person socializing and physical contact and increasing their risks for anxiety, depression and emotional depletion.
- Americans' average daily socializing time fell from 45 to 35 minutes over the past 20 years, according to American Time Use Survey data.
- Among 15- to 24-year-olds, it dropped from about an hour a day to 35 minutes.
University of Colorado Boulder researchers have also documented a sharp COVID-era decline in third places — gathering spaces outside home and work.
- But that's become a business strategy for some local booksellers.
Zoom in: Littleton's Spell Books has grown sales 20% to 30% annually since opening two and a half years ago, owner Corey Dahl tells Axios.
- She calls her shop "anti-Amazon" — smaller, slower and built around personal connections.
Spell hosts up to five book clubs each month, including a cocktail book club at the nearby Lazy Greyhound.
- Events have helped turn first-time shoppers into regulars.
"We've created a community," she says.
By the numbers: The number of U.S. bookstores increased 70% — from 2,010 in 2021 to 3,416 in 2025, per the American Booksellers Association.
- This, even as Americans admit they're reading less.
Zoom out: Haven Coffee and Books opened seven months ago in what owner Trio Livingston calls an Aurora "book desert."
- The strip mall store developed a customer base within two weeks and quickly hit internal goals.
"People were so hungry for this ... being cared for."
Between the lines: Livingston says successful third places aren't just a digital detox.
- "It should offer a place to be at peace."
In the room: Haven's monthly "Shut Up" Sunday book club invites people to read silently over shared coffee and tea.
- Teens regularly stop by for chess or tabletop games in the store's faux-ivy game room — though she's had to rein in the trash talk.
The bottom line: Independent booksellers' successes aren't a retreat from modern life, but they prove that a space filled with books and friendly strangers might offer badly needed communion.