The Yellow Bike Bookstore

 I spent spring break visiting my sister in Grenada,  Mississippi. Grenada is about halfway from Jackson to Memphis, Tennessee. It’s a small town surrounded by beautiful countryside and a great place for hunting and fishing. If you need the stimulus of a big city, Grenada is not the place for you but if you like peace and quiet, long walks through woods, stumbling across old redoubts from the Civil War or just sitting in a swing outside as the sun sets, then you would enjoy Grenada.

This visit my sister took me to a gem she had discovered. For Shawna and me, “gems” are invariably bookstores. Before, we had always traveled to Oxford to get to a bookstore but since my last visit, Grenada has acquired a bookstore of its very own.

And a charming, cozy bookstore it is! It’s called The Yellow Bike and the owner, Debbie, graciously took time to give me an interview.

First question: How did you arrive at the name Yellow Bike?

Debbie: The previous owner had simply named the place, “Books.” A number of things needed changing when I bought the store and the first thing was going to be that name. I randomly played with other names like “The Red Door.” I asked my kids for ideas. What could we do to make this store personal, to make it ours? They started reminiscing about a yellow bike they played with whenever they visited their granny. My kids are grown, so that was years ago. Well, I went to granny’s house and after some searching I found the bike out back covered in Kudzu. I brought it back, refurbished it and stuck it out in front of the store on the sidewalk. And that’s how I came up with the name.

Are you a native of Grenada?

Debbie: I was born in Columbus but moved here when I was five years old. I got married when I was eighteen and my husband and I moved to the Delta where we lived and raised our kids for the next twenty-five years. While I was there I taught pre-school and eventually ran two learning schools for infants and preschoolers. I oversaw around eighty-five kids. We finally moved back here and, after my husband passed away, I worked at an assisted living center.

Why did you decide to run a bookstore?

Debbie: Job burn out. I was on call 24/7 at the assisted living center. One day a friend of mine called me and told me of a bookstore that was fixin’ to close. I’ve always loved books so I thought a book and coffee shop would be a good mix.

Here in Grenada, other than the lake, there’s nowhere to go. No bookstore, no place to just sit and hang out with friends. The closest bookstores and coffee shops are in Oxford or Jackson. I offer a local place for people to come, read, and drink coffee. I even have Wifi.

Let me interject here and say for the record that Debbie makes the best latte I’ve ever had in my life. I asked her how she made it.

Debbie: I bought a Jura Espresso machine but the coffee is my own recipe. I did a lot of research and spent weeks experimenting and finding the combination and grind of beans to get exactly the right consistency. I didn’t sleep for weeks as I drank cup after cup of coffee until I got what I wanted.

                                          This is Debbie's "baby".  Maybe she should have named her store
                                           The Little White Dog.

What is the ultimate goal with your bookstore?

Debbie: Of course all businesses are to make money but I’m not here to get rich. I won’t sell books that conflict with my own conscience. When I acquired the bookstore there were books in here I would call evil. A group came in and wanted to buy a “Satan Bible”. They’ll have to go somewhere else for that. There’s a Christian bookstore across the street. The owner wants me to buy her out, so that’s a future possibility.

Also, too many kids hate to read. I want to change that. I want to provide books that will get kids reading.

Debbie and Stacey

I wish Debbie every success in her endeavor and if you’re ever in Grenada, Mississippi be sure to stop by The Yellow Bike to browse and drink some delicious coffee.

Prospero's Books

210 N. Washington Marshall, TX

Open Monday-Saturday 8am-5pm

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One day while cruising through downtown Marshall, Texas, a sign caught my eye. It said, "Prospero's Books." I can never resist a bookstore, especially a small, privately owned one. As I walked in, I was immediately greeted by Damon Falke, the son of the proprietor. He talked amiably to me about himself ( he has a Master's degree in English literature. I found out later from his father that he's also a published author and playwright), his wife (she got her Ph.D at York University. Her dissertation on autodidacts-self taught readers and writers of the last century- is getting published), and the different books they were selling- all the while bottle feeding his baby son. While he talked, I browsed. This was not your typical best seller book store. The books here were in great condition, both used and new and reasonably priced. It also held the sort of books that I am mainly interested in: good, substantial literature that have endured the test of time, well written and enjoyable.

 The bookstore contains both fiction and non fiction, contemporary and classic. A couple of weeks later I returned to take photos of the store. I was disappointed that Damon was absent, but not for long. This time I met the actual owner of the store, Don Falke, Damon's father. I found Don in the back room sitting at a table with some ladies sharing coffee and visiting. I got the impression that this was a regular practice with him. After the ladies left, he moved to a sofa and comfortably stretched out across it, with his arms crossed behind his head and proceeded to tell me a little about himself and how he came to be owner of a bookstore.

“I was raised in Port Arthur. When I graduated from high school, I could barely read and write. When I became a Christian, God called me to preach but in order to do that, I had to learn to read. So I did. In the process I fell in love with books.”

This started another kind of calling for Don. “I love to put a good book in people's lives.”

When asked why he came to Marshall,  Don told me that he attended East Texas Baptist University and saw that the town of Marshall was trying to save their downtown. Don wholeheartedly agreed with that. He believes that towns need the centers to be alive and active in order to keep the community alive. So, two years ago he began Prospero's Books.

Don hopes that he can influence people in a positive way by attracting them to books that are worth reading. Books that are rich in vocabulary, strong sentence structure, and, I personally add, imagination as well as information. He hopes to steer both young and old to many of the classics that have endured for so long.

He also thought that with three colleges Marshall would have a good number of kids who  love to read, but that hasn't turned out to be the case. We discussed at length the different reasons why young people today don't read- largely because of the media and technology.  Then what little they do read isn't worth reading. Don had a lot to say about the lack of literary taste in the majority of people. He believes it's because publishers care only about selling books and they give people very poor selections to choose from.

Then the preacher surfaced and Don said something provocative. He asserted that filling your mind with mediocre reading is just as ungodly as any other sin. I believe he was saying that it is our Christian obligation to use and exercise our minds. Stop giving the rest of the world the impression that Christians are anti-intellectual. God gave us a brain, we need to use it. One of the ways to do that is by filling it with quality reading and not pop-culture -saturated, flash in the pan, best sellers (my words, not his, but I believe that's what he meant.)

Prospero's books is one of the most inviting bookstores I've ever been in. The rooms are basically how my dream house would be structured, comfortable chairs, tables and sofas, the walls lined with book cases simply packed with books. He also provides delicious coffee, tea and friendly conversation. If you ever get to Marshall, Texas be sure to stop by and browse (and buy!)