Light streams through the book store’s ample windows as I walk through the front door. On my right, I see book nerd magnets and punny candies (“Alice’s Enchantmints”), on my left, yellow armchairs in a midcentury modern style. Stacked on the tables are rows of vividly illustrated book covers, enticing and colorful as a farmers market display. In the front of the store, William Robin, a professor of musicology at the University of Maryland, prepares for an event on his new book, On Minimalism, and makes conversation with his discussant, The New Yorker’s Alex Ross, as well as some of the store employees. In the back, in the children’s book alcove, a mother and her young child browse the titles and whisper to each other.
Welcome to People’s Book, an independent bookstore that opened this past June in Takoma Park.
Sandwiched between the House of Musical Traditions, a town mainstay since 1972, and local radio station WOWD-LP, this little corner of downtown serves as a triptych of the cultural inclinations of the “hippiest city in Maryland.”
People’s Book is owned and operated by Megan and Matt Bormet, a married couple with two small children. The Bormets moved to Takoma Park from D.C. in 2020 and immediately seized on its lack of a general interest bookstore. In the wake of the isolation—as they stayed home taking care of their newborn—they hatched a plan to bring a community-oriented bookseller to Takoma Park, first as a joke, then for real. On a summer vacation to Lost River, West Virginia, in 2021, they went to a downtown bookstore called WordPlay and made friends with the owners, Marlene and Tom England. “Marlene is my book mom,” Megan gushes. “She’s the most wonderful person in the world, and she’s the biggest asset. There aren’t really any secrets in the bookselling world—everyone is really supportive.”
Megan, once a third-grade teacher and reading coach, works remotely for the education nonprofit Achievement Network, while Matt, a former Capitol Hill regular, is now a contract lobbyist specializing in aviation and fish policy. Bookstores have been important fixtures in both their lives. A Massachusetts native, Megan spent many years wandering the Montague Bookmill, a historic bookstore with a cult following and the motto, “Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find.” (This is where the Bormets held their wedding rehearsal dinner.) Sherwood, Oregon, native Matt, meanwhile, grew up frequenting the famous Powell’s Books in Portland, reading “leftwing prop” he says, between visits to the city’s Everyday Music store.
In setting up their Takoma Park shop, the division of labor between husband and wife came relatively naturally. “One of the early steps we took,” Megan says, “was our course with Paz & Associates, which is the no. 1 independent bookseller trainer. We learned about all the different parts of the business, and when we were learning about book ordering and Excel trackers, I got really excited.”
Matt was drawn to discussions of finance and accounting practices, measures to ensure their dream bookstore would thrive. “Matt is more of an extrovert,” Megan adds. “And I’m more of an introvert. Matt was a bartender for a while, and that element comes more naturally to him. I want to sit in front of the computer and buy all the books.”
It took about two years from conception to a quiet opening in June, followed by a grander affair in July. This lengthy process not only included permitting with the town and managing nursery school illnesses, but also remedying logistical puzzles (what do you do if the shelving arrives before the flooring?).
That time was also spent connecting People’s Book to the growing literary scene in Takoma Park. Owner of HouseMouse Books and Vintage, Orly Keiner, says that “People’s new inventory is a great complement to the used and vintage we have at HouseMouse, and we are all excited about the resurgence of bookstores in Takoma Park!” HouseMouse opened in 2022. Around the corner and just across the Maryland-D.C. border, the Takoma location of Busboys and Poets sells a smattering of new releases and gifts alongside its bustling restaurant business.
Megan and Matt look forward to partnering with the local library, as well as with Historic Takoma, a nonprofit designed to maintain and educate people about the town’s history. Jim Douglas, the nonprofit’s archives manager, helped the Bormets unpack boxes for eight hours. (When asked about the subject, Douglas credited his wife, Janet, and specified they were helping as private citizens, not as representatives of Historic Takoma.) The nonprofit also has been working with the Takoma Park Library—as well as the Friends of the Library program—to host a Takoma Authors series, and Douglas hopes to do more collaboration in this vein with People’s Book. All the bookstores and literary organizations in town share a calendar and trade spaces, in a joint effort to coordinate events that spotlight local writers and attract respected authors and personalities to Takoma Park.
In developing the voice and catalog for the store, Megan and Matt worked closely with publishers’ representatives to research titles several seasons into the future. They want People’s Book to showcase the D.C. area’s literary scene, including presses located in the DMV, as they seek to strike a balance between bestsellers (as of a few weeks ago, James McBride and Jamie Raskin topped their sales) and alternative, more obscure titles. Last year, Matt attended the annual Small Press Expo in Rockville to find those “graphic novels and voices you won’t find anywhere else.” Maintaining relationships with many major zine publishers in the U.S. has alerted him to exciting titles, including 2003’s Prisoners’ Inventions from Half-Letter Press.
And while no bookstore in this part of the country would be complete without a collection of political books, Matt emphasizes that their inventory and related events are “for readers who think the people on Meet the Press are lousy.” To that end, he mentions the store’s upcoming event on Oct. 26, when scholar Robert P. Jones, a commentator on religion and politics, will discuss his new book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy (American Sign Language interpretation will be provided).
For those who enjoy perusing the shelves at People’s Book or even attending the book events, including the already highly trafficked Sunday ASL Children’s Storytimes, there are other ways to get involved. Nearly a dozen volunteer-led book clubs are based out of the store, with themes ranging from poetry and novellas to young adult fantasy.
Joelle Chall discovered People’s Book through Instagram and now leads the New Lit Fic group, which started in July. “People’s Book is just a mile from my house, a lovely walk!” she says, adding that she was eager to lead a book club based on truly contemporary releases, from the past year. “Literary fiction cries out for conversation, and it crosses many subgenres,” she says.
The group usually meets on the third Friday of the month. This month, they’ll be discussing McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store on Saturday, Oct. 28. (Ayobami Adebayo’s A Spell of Good Things is on the docket for November.) “Megan and Matt have been so welcoming. I feel like a true member of this bookstore community, and members of my bookclub are amazing. … I love meeting new people in my neighborhood,” Chall says.
After the first few months running their new venture, the Bormets are starting to settle in. They are still married, and they are starting to get “regulars” who come in to buy the newest installment of their favorite series and who set up shop by the window to do their homework. As the store continues to grow roots in Takoma Park, they’re keeping their eyes trained on why they opened the store in the first place. As Matt explains, “We’re modeling for our kids what’s important. For us, that’s reading, and it’s building someplace our community can gather.”
People’s Book, 7014-A Westmoreland Ave., Takoma Park. peoplesbooktakoma.com.