The nicaraguan reading culture

Most nicaraguans that come in to my shop seem to have an opinion about the nicaraguan reading culture; they often comment "nicaraguans don´t read" or "we don´t have a culture of reading". And I always disagree with them. 

Footprint Guide Nicaragua 2014

I was so happy to open up the new Footprint Guide for Nicaragua and see that we were on page 202! I had ordered several copies of the guidebook on Amazon before even knowing this, so it was a pleasant surprise. 

I don´t know when the researcher visited our store or if I even talked to him without knowing who he was, but I am very happy they generously included us and wrote nice things about us. I can imagine that the store wasn´t at it´s best when he was here, since we only started up a year ago, and I think I can positively say that we have improved since then. 

1 year anniversary - Yey!

 1 year ago...

In july 2013 I sold my first books. In total we sold 6 books that month, which is terrible, but for me at that time, having just opened the doors and done no publicity, it was big! Luckily the next month was much better, and since then we have steadily grown every month. We started out with around 200 books one year ago and now we have around 2000 in our collection. There is still A LOT of growth potential in the store, but it´s nice to look back once in a while at where we started and see how far we have come. It gives me even more pleasure thinking about that one year and 1 month ago the bookstore was just an idea, something we thought that we might never do, but it would be so cool if we did it.

Books and puppies

Chino welcomes you at the door

Although the owl is the official animal and logo of the bookstore, we do have some other animals present in the store; dogs, lots of dogs. And cats. Oh, and a turtle! (We are planning to set the turtle free once we find him again in the patio..)

We have put up fences to separate the dogs from the bookstore for their own safety, my calmness and so that they don´t bother costumers and eat my books (which they somehow find a way to do anyway..). However, I have discovered that the puppies are actually a great attraction in the bookstore. More than one costumer has suggested that we change our name from Búho Books to Books and Puppies. Some got carried away with the idea and suggested we put sofas in the bookstore so people could sit down, look at a book and cuddle with a puppy. 

How to start? - DIY!

I started my bookstore with very few books, a low budget and no inventory in the room where I was going to set up the store. But still I was determined that there was going to be a bookstore! Luckily, in our backyard we have a lot of crap lying around, and as it turned out, a few treasures also. And so I started building my first bookshelf with old cement blocks and wood I found in the backyard. After a few coats of varnish I think it turned out to look kind of antique style, which I love!