At Read It Again, the Bookstore Comeback Is About Community
Read It Again, an independent bookstore near Johns Creek, is thriving with stronger sales and a focus on community. Owner Kim McNamara highlights how the store offers more than books, creating a local gathering space for readers.
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The bookstore comeback is not just a Barnes & Noble story. At Read It Again, the independent bookstore near the Johns Creek and South Forsyth line, owner Kim McNamara says business has been strong this year. The store, founded by McNamara and her mother, Della, in 2002, has survived more than two decades of enormous changes in how Americans buy books.
Now the pendulum appears to be moving back toward the shelves.
“This year has been great for our bookstore,” McNamara told North Atlanta Star. “Sales are up, and it’s exciting.”
The change extends well beyond North Atlanta. Some 422 independent bookstores opened across the country in 2025, a 31% increase from the previous year. A survey of American Booksellers Association members also found that nearly three-quarters of responding stores reported higher sales in 2025.
More Than a Place to Buy a Book
For McNamara, the appeal of a physical bookstore is not difficult to understand. People already spend much of their day looking at screens. A bookstore offers something entirely different.
“We know our customers’ names,” she said. “We ask about their kids and how they liked the last book they bought.”
Customers join book clubs, attend author events, meet friends, browse the shelves and stop for coffee. McNamara describes the bookstore as a “third place,” somewhere outside home and work where people can simply spend time together.
“Shopping online can be convenient, but it can also be isolating,” she said. “We’re not just a place to buy books. We’re a place to gather, discover something new, and feel like you belong.”
That helps explain why McNamara is not particularly worried about Barnes & Noble opening more stores. She sees the chain’s newer approach, with individual locations given more freedom to choose books and shape their own selections, as borrowing something from independent booksellers.
“Honestly, it’s smart,” she said. “I can’t blame them for trying to turn a corporation into something that feels more independent.”
And if North Atlanta ends up with more bookstores because of it, McNamara is comfortable with that too.
“I’d rather live in a community with too many bookstores than not enough.”
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