The Reading Attic was opened on the Marietta Square in June 2023 by Caroline Tillman and her mother, Elizabeth Kunetz, member at FPC Marietta. Elizabeth shares her daughter’s love for reading and both give Caroline’s grandmother credit for nurturing that love. Caroline’s grandmother had a library in her home and whenever they visited, her grandchildren were invited to choose a book to be read to them before bedtime. Being around bookstores reminds Caroline of her grandmother’s love and the elephant logo for The Reading Attic is a tribute to her grandmother’s collection of elephant paintings and figures. Caroline grew up in Marietta and started her career in online marketing, transitioning to project manager for Home Depot. When she decided to follow her dream and open a bookstore, she brought that experience with her, with Elizabeth contributing her business and financial expertise. The lack of a bookstore on the Marietta Square gave Caroline and Elizabeth the last bit of incentive needed to turn dream into reality, and the Marietta Square is a more vibrant business community as a result of that decision.
Once you climb the stairs to the second floor at 21 West Park Square, you can enjoy perusing the shelves of books organized by genre in several different rooms, or you can sit in rooms with wide windows overlooking the Square with a lap full of books, selecting your favorites to take home. The Reading Attic sells new books, specializing in children’s books and books by Georgia authors, while still offering a wide variety of novels and nonfiction works.The staff is happy to work with local book clubs to supply books on their reading lists and will gladly special-order books to fulfill their customers’ needs and reading desires.
The Reading Attic expanded downstairs into an area adjoining the gift shop of Tiny Bubbles Tea Shop to provide access to those in a hurry or unable to climb the stairs to the second floor. It features a smaller collection of top sellers and children’s books and upon request someone will be glad to retrieve books from the upstairs collection from which you can select your next page-turner. The bookstore is open Tues/Wed 11-6, Thurs/ Fri 11–7, Sat 10–7, Sun 12-5.
The Reading Attic hosts a variety of activities for book lovers including book clubs. Currently there is a once-a-month Thursday night club whose recent books include The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell and At Home in the World by Joyce Maynard, and a book club that meets the last Saturday of the month with the February 22nd discussion about The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. December marked the inaugural book club for children, hosted by Fields, the (literal) shop dog. The discussions are expected to appeal to those 7 – 12 years of age and include a snack and craft option. The next discussion on February 9 is Spy School by Stuart Gibbs and copies are available for purchase.
The Reading Attic provides opportunities to meet authors and get your books signed. Those in February include:
Feb 20 @5pm, DL Mitchell, Mystery
Feb 23 @ 1pm, Hannah Dollinger, Romantasy
If you are on the Square and want to take a break, climb the stairs to the main store of The Reading Attic or investigate books on the lower level and be taken back in time to the favorite book place of your childhood.
At https://www.thereadingattic.com/ you can sign up for The Reading Attic newsletter and receive monthly information about current events.
Written by Nancy Jo Kirk
