BILLINGS — This House of Books in Billings is the winner of this year's National Book Award's display contest.
“We try and tie in with what’s going on around town, what’s playing at The Babcock and Arthouse, and Alberta Bair, what they’ve got going on at Western Heritage or The YAM," said Julie Schultz, the treasurer of the independent cooperative book store.
This House of Books is one store of 17% of the estimated 43,000 book stores in the United States that remains independent.
"I like to highlight a lot of Latin American authors because, y’know, growing up, you’re taught the classics and it’s like, ‘well, who chose these classics? I don’t want to read Beowulf,'" said Shirley Marin, a bookseller who designs many of the store's displays and is a recipient of a James Patterson Book Seller's award this year.
She said the curation of books for a particular audience is what makes stores like hers feel like home.
“That’s why people go and hand pick their own apples and hand pick their own pumpkins, because there’s that, like, connection of something that you did," said Marin.
She recommended Solito by Javier Zamora while her coworker read the poem Little Song from Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss.
