Hinterland Bookery celebrates one year anniversary

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Hinterland Bookery is about to celebrate its first anniversary. The mobile used bookstore's history lies at the intersection of equity and literacy.

"I wanted to have a bookstore that was mobile so that it could be accessible and versatile." Says owner Joe Germick, "We live in a smaller town-about 10,000 people-at the time there was no brick-and-mortar bookstore there, so I wanted to be able to pop into our town as much as possible and pop into smaller communities that don't have bookstore and do pop up collaborations."

Their first year has been them saying yes to everything, from trying out new partnerships to picking up donations near and far. Their trailer has an accessible ramp, and their books feature diverse authors and themes. Hinterland Bookery's goal is to aid literacy, remove reading barriers and create an ecosystem of book lovers.

Being mobile has its perks.

"It really helps cut out the barriers," says Germick's wife and cofounder Justine Johnson. "We are finding that books are more expensive or harder to get to. We bring used books to people, so we are breaking down those barriers."

But access and cost are only part of the problem. Some people just genuinely don't want to read. Joe was one of them.

"I was a late bloomer to liking reading." Germick said. "And now that I've found a genre that fits me, I'm all about it and I don't want to stop."

The mobile bookstore is inviting. With real book pages as the floor and Germick's hand-crafted shelves supporting all of the books. The couple knows about all of the books on their shelves and wants to help you know about them too.