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As part of my 39th birthday weekend, my friend Ashley and I met in D.C. to officially kick off 40 Bookshops Under 40. Not only do Ashley and I share a love for Indie bookshops and spreadsheets (she had created our D.C. Indie bookshop bucket list) but also our birthday. We were excited to spend our day browsing Indie bookshops in the capital. Our first stop was The Potter’s House, a bookstore and cafe in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Little did I know that Potter’s House plays a central role in community organizing, social justice and cultural studies when I ordered a breakfast burrito and cortado. Most tables were taken up by people talking and enjoying breakfast while a larger community table in the center was set up for coworking. The place was busy but not stressful. In fact, I would describe it as a hospitable oasis in the midst of DC. While enjoying my breakfast, I let my eyes wander over the brick interior walls, fully stocked shelves featuring a great mix of popular titles and books I’d never heard of, and I couldn’t help but notice how jovially the staff treated each other and each customer.  Justin Bray, the executive director, was working that morning and I shyly told him about 40 Bookshops Under 40. Enthusiastically, he agreed to answer my questions and I was excited to learn more about what Potter’s House means to him. “The Potter’s House is a Pay-What-You-Can nonprofit bookstore, café, and event space in Washington, DC. Since opening our doors in 1960, we have been a hub for meaningful conversation, action and activism, creative expression, and community transformation. Our bookstore specializes in social movements, cultural studies, and spiritual traditions — and we’re known for our skillfully curated selection of gifts, fiction, poetry, and children's books centered on multicultural voices. We host author talks, poetry readings, open mics, local writers' showcases, and much more.” Justin Bray Potter’s House has indeed a rich history (learn more on their website). The long hallway is lined with photographs and news clippings from the last sixty years attesting to its prominent role in the community. Potter’s House collaborated with a local historian named Shae Corey who dug into its history and found a variety of stories that were then turned into a digital exhibit and limited podcast series: Radical HospitalityJustin joined Potter’s House in June 2024. “Our mission is to serve as a third place for all people, regardless of their means, and we accomplish that mission by providing good food and community for all that cross over our threshold.” He continued, “Our primary program, Pay It Forward, provides free meals to folks every day of the week from 8:00 - 10:00 A.M. Guests can come in and enjoy a meal in a welcoming space. This program is primarily utilized by our unhoused and elderly neighbors but it's available to anyone that might need it. We serve around 1200 meals every month through this program today. We also use this time during the day to get to know the folks that come through and leverage those relationships and trust to connect them with other resources they may benefit from in the community. We help to connect these folks with social services like WIC, food stamps, and housing services to help them exit poverty and other adverse situations they may find themselves in. For the rest of the hours that we're open during the day, we offer our entire menu on a Pay-What-You-Can basis. Guests can choose to pay the suggested amount, pay less than the suggested amount, and even choose to pay for a meal for someone else in the future. Beyond the above programming, we're looking to expand our services in 2025 to encompass our book offerings as well. We've begun accepting book donations from the community in an effort to provide affordable books through our Pay-What-You-Can model but also redistribute books to the various book deserts in the DMV area with a focus on childcare facilities serving children from ages 0-5. We're still working on what this will look like in practice but we're very much looking forward to providing these services in the new year.” Another thing that struck me at Potter’s House as I browsed the shelves was the selection of kids books. With only two weeks to go until Santa’s visit to our house, my eyes were drawn to children’s titles that I hadn’t seen anywhere else before. Which is how I ended up with Lemony Snicket’s The Latke that Couldn’t Stop Screaming and in conversation with Aliza, the knowledgeable book buyer at Potter’s House. She introduced me to children’s poetry and the type of books that I wish I had had as a kid. We had a lengthy conversation about sourcing children’s books that represent diverse voices and titles that engage young minds in a meaningful way.  “Though we may be a small bookstore, we have an *incredibly* well curated selection of books centered on social justice, progressive change, and true inclusivity. We absolutely believe that the fight for progress is worth every bit we commit to it, but we also believe that finding time to experience joy and rest is an incredibly important form of resistance as well. After all, time spent enjoyed is never time wasted.“ I wondered what brought Justin to Potter’s. Selling books is one thing, serving food and coffee while holding space for critical conversations in the community quite a different one. Let alone doing it all as a nonprofit. “I found The Potter's House at the exact right time in my life and career.”, Justin told me. “I was hired as the latest executive director for the organization to help transition into our next chapter of existence as an independent nonprofit. I fell in love with this place because of the people that work here and those that frequent it. I remember reading the job description and realizing that it was a perfect combination of all the chapters of my career to this point: nonprofit, books, and service industry. I honestly wasn't looking for another position as an ED so soon after my previous position in Athens, Georgia at Books for Keeps, but this position felt almost as if it was created with someone like me in mind and I knew I would spend a long time wondering "What If?" I ended up not taking it once it was offered.” More things that I instantly loved about The Potter’s House:
Justin’s book recommendations
“Washington, DC is a great reading city--very literate. People buy great stuff here for themselves and others, so one of my favorite things is chatting up customers who're purchasing an interesting combination of books: Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Thomas Piketty. Or Beach Read and Joan Didion. The Communist Manifesto and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I love this town for its love of reading and for sharing that love.” Justin Bray What I bought at Potter's HouseOn the wooden counter, flooded in afternoon sunlight, I spotted a hand-drawn sign that said “Pre-order now” next to a book cover that read “The Bookshop. The history of the American Bookstore.” On a sunny afternoon of early summer 2024, my husband and I were strolling Parentheses Books in Harrisonburg, VA. When I asked the bookseller behind the counter - a petite woman in her early thirties - about the book, she looked up and - with a hint of pride - informed us, “Actually, that’s my husband’s book. It comes out in a few weeks. We’ll host a book launch party in August if you’d like to come.” Not only was I thrilled by the book premise itself, but by the fact that the author was local: Evan Friss, husband to said bookseller Amanda Friss, is a history professor at James Madison University. Before I knew what I was saying, I asked “Do you think he would like to come to Staunton and host a reading at Staunton Books and Tea?” My husband and I had just started helping to organize events (including an international book club) at our local bookshop (one of seven in a small town with 25,000 people). We both feel strongly about the importance of independently owned bookshops not only as a place to sell books but as an opportunity for knowledge curation, exploration, discovery and community. Amanda offered to put us in touch and the rest is history. "Bookshops are dreams built of wood and paper. They are time travel and escape and knowledge and power. They are, simply put, the best of places." Evan Friss, The Bookshop On October 1, 2025, we combined a book reading with a panel discussion about the importance of independent bookshops, especially in rural America. Our panelists were bookshop owners from Crozet (Bluebird & Co.), Staunton (Staunton Books & Tea), Waynesboro (Stone Soup Books) and Harrisonburg (Parentheses). The room was packed. While the booksellers swapped anecdotes about book selling, community building and running a small business, the room slowly began to fill with a sense of belonging. Perhaps not surprisingly, but certainly surprising to him, Evan’s book took off. The night of our panel discussion, he found out he had made the New York Times bestseller list. The book was featured in the Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly and People Magazine (“Fascinating. . . . A heartfelt, essential love letter to the literary sanctuary of bookstores and the people who run them.”). Only two months later, The Bookshop made it onto the 100 Best Books of the Year by the Times.  The Importance of Indie Bookshops“If bookstores were animals, they’d be on the list of endangered species.” Evan Friss, The Bookshop Apart from the ethical and cultural reason for supporting independently owned businesses, there’s a strong economic argument to be made. According to the American Booksellers Association (American Booksellers Association and Civic Economics, Unfulfilled: Amazon and the American Retail Landscape, 2022, p. 4), “Independent businesses distribute profits to local ownership, employ a variety of personnel that might otherwise reside at a distant corporate office, routinely purchase goods and services from other local businesses, and generously support local charitable causes (...) Approximately 29% of all revenue at independent bookstores immediately recirculates in the local economy.” The report continues, “The presence of bookshops [on Main street], [helps] prevent urban decay, increase[s] or maintain[s] property values and provide[s] footfall for neighboring communities.” Independent businesses, and bookstores in particular, contribute to our sense of what makes a downtown. They add character and a place for community on Main street like few other places. Over the course of history, bookshops have served as more than a marketplace. They have made space for civil discussion, activists and artistic performances. I doubt I’m the only one who begins to swoon when we hear about the salons of writers, book parties, lectures and exhibitions that Francis Steloff hosted at the Gotham Book Mart. We can’t argue the importance of independent bookshops without talking about the role of booksellers. Jeff Deutsch, author of In Praise of Good Bookstores (2022), emphasizes that “the most important job of the bookseller [is] to find and promote and love the books that are good, that do good in this world. The groundbreaking books, the books that tell important stories, the books that see and elevate historically marginalized people. Amazon doesn’t care about this work; they see books as mere objects in their massive data-collecting flywheel.” Bookshops matter. For our neighborhoods and towns, for our economy, and for understanding who we are and who we want to be as a community and a society.  40 Bookshops Under 40“Good bookstores are a repository for great books and a testing ground for recently published aspirants to greatness.“ Jeff Deutsch Following the panel discussion with our local bookshop owners, I was hooked. I wanted more. Of what, I wasn’t sure. But there I was, surrounded by booksellers who were deeply passionate about stories and curating knowledge and finding the right book for the right person. It was contagious. I didn't want to open a bookshop - they had successfully talked me out of that idea once they lifted the curtain of what it’s ACTUALLY like to own one - but I wanted to meet more of these bookish idealists, treasure hunters and matchmakers between books and readers. At our panel discussion, Flannery Buchanan of Bluebird and Co. explained, “I just love the feeling of finding the right book for the right person. I handpick books for our regulars. I know what they enjoy reading and when a new book comes in, I sometimes give them a call and let them know that I have something new for them. It’s such a rewarding feeling.” The other bookshop owners nodded knowingly. I have come to believe that bookshops are a place of public service, of community and deep connection and true creativity. It’s a place where worlds - real and imaginary and everything in between - collide. And I love being in the middle of it, watching the magic unfold. Shortly before my 39th birthday, I told my friend and fellow bookworm Jen about my experience. Nonchalantly she suggested, “You should visit 40 Indie bookshops by the time you turn 40! 40 bookshops under 40!” Instantly, the same fire I had felt during the bookshop discussion lit up again. The idea was brilliant! I was recently self-employed, leaving me with more flexibility than I’ve had in years to pursue a passion project. I am already working with my local bookshop and want to know more about how other bookshop owners build thriving businesses and engage their local community in the magic of reading. So I’m setting out to visit and feature 40 Indie bookshops by the time I turn 40 (on December 9, 2025). As I start out, these book places are on my list:
If you live in or near any of them and have bookshop recommendations, please reach out and tell me more about them: For each featured bookshop, I plan to
If you know of fellow bookshop lovers or have other ideas to contribute to this project, I’m all ears! |
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