In the late ’90s, Josh Spencer went online and sold a few cookbooks from his grandmother to help pay the bills. He had just graduated from college and had not yet found a job. This initial small sale led him to start selling more books (among other things) on Amazon and eBay off and on for the next ten years. Always a reader, as well as a writer, perhaps it was serendipity that he ended up in the book business.
In 2009, a friend persuaded Spencer to open a brick and mortar bookstore. He had more books in his private collection than he knew what to do with. Ten short days after that conversation, Spencer took on a lease for a low-risk, low-rent loft in downtown LA. His father built the bookshelves in just a few days, and the doors opened.
The store did very well for the first year and a half and when the right opportunity came about, Spencer expanded into a space about ten times larger. The Last Bookstore in LA is now known worldwide, especially in Asia. Spencer was even invited to speak at the opening of a massive bookstore in China.
A couple of years ago, after having their second child, Spencer and his wife, Heidi, moved to Bend. They were looking for a place with a slower pace of life, somewhere to raise their family. There was no intention to purchase a bookstore when they moved here. However, one day while purchasing used books elsewhere in Bend, Spencer overheard that The Bookmark was up for sale; he and Heidi felt they could open a store here in Bend without too much extra work.
After just a couple of months of renovation and building new shelves, the doors to Big Story opened. The inside is truly spectacular: Winding shelves full of a perfect selection to fill any reader’s appetite, a rainbow display of titles lining shelves overhead and that lovely bookstore smell that sends bibliophiles into another dimension. A grand opening is planned, with hopes to show all of Bend that this is a real gem of a bookstore that must be experienced.
Visit Big Story bookstore in Bend, on the corner of Third and Greenwood, and experience a book lover’s paradise.
541-617-9271, bigstorybend.com
