What is the history of the Reading Grounds?
We wanted to create something that we didn’t see in Omaha, especially in the Midtown area. We wanted to create a venue where people could come and socialize, and be themselves. A place that would attract independent thinkers. A place that would attract all kinds of people. We consider ourselves a general bookstore; we carry books in all categories: biography, political, poetry, general fiction. We do have a GLBT niche, and we wanted to have a place that GLBT people could be comfortable to come in here and not be judged. We are politically and socially minded. We don’t generate those kinds of things; we just support what the community wants. So we’ve got our coffee shop, and we’ve got books and a stage area, which is a great venue for all kinds of things. What kind of crowd do you usually see come into the Reading Grounds? Well, other bookstores will say ‘this is our demographic.’ Ours, in Midtown, it’s a very wide range. We can have people that are living in the neighborhood, people th
