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In July, Alison Sheridan wrote a business plan for the bookstore she wanted to open. Two months later, in September, she signed a lease in downtown Mount Holly.
That kind of quick decision making, Sheridan said, is common for her.
“I have a Shakespeare quote that is my guiding principle in the decisions that I make,” she said. “It’s, ‘Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.’ I read it in college, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is it.”
Sheridan opened Cleary’s Bookstore at 105 N. Main St., Mount Holly, in early December, less than six months after developing her business plan. The bookstore is a culmination of her passion for reading and her years spent working at both a bookstore and a publishing company.
She has a master’s degree in publishing from the University of Galway in Ireland, and she worked for University Book Store, Seattle’s oldest bookstore, then for Penguin Random House.
After her husband, Matthew, was offered a job in the area, the couple intended to move to Charlotte. Their plans quickly changed.
“So when we were driving around, we came out to dinner in the area. His boss brought us out to dinner, and we just kind of fell in love, both with Belmont and Mount Holly,” Sheridan said.
The couple initially moved to Belmont, but they have plans to move to Mount Holly in the coming months.
Cleary’s Bookstore, Sheridan said, is centered solidly on the books. The bookstore is small, but cozy, with shelves of books lining the walls. The genres present include historical fiction, mystery, science fiction, fantasy and romance, as well as selections in nonfiction, a special shelf for cookbooks and an entire room dedicated to books for children.
“I just want this to be a place for readers of all ages to find their favorite books and either continue their love of literature or discover the joy of reading. It’s basically a celebration of books,” Sheridan said. “This place is just going to be bursting at the seams with new and used books.”
The store is named after children’s author Beverly Cleary.
“Her entire mission in life was basically just to get books in kids’ hands so that they would learn to love reading as much as she did, because she was a librarian from the Pacific Northwest,” Sheridan said. “And her mission is very aligned with mine: just kind of promoting a culture of reading, because I think that reading is the best way for you to find a sense of the world without having to leave your room.”
Sheridan herself is what she considers a genre reader, and her shop is a reflection of that mindset.
“I think it’s really interesting how there are tropes within each and how people have their, you know, tropes that they go to,” she said. “So like, in historical fiction, I read World War II… In fantasy, I’m all about the world building. And romance, if I had to have a trope, it would be romantic comedy, or, you know, enemies to lovers. And horror actually is having this great resurgence right now, because everybody needs an escape from the reality of the world.”
“You go through so much while you read the book that you have this euphoric feeling after you finish reading it. So I think why I love genre so much is because there’s something for everyone,” she added. “And I’ve loved the conversations that I have with readers about what authors they like to read and why that’s their favorite genre, and why they keep going back to it and it’s so great, you know, just to see the diversity.”
Sheridan has special events planned for the coming months, all focused on books, including author readings and signings, book clubs and story time for children.
“I knew that there had to be this untapped community of readers, and that’s the feedback that I’ve been receiving from everybody,” she said. “They’re so excited to have bookstores. They’re so excited to spend their days at the shop and reading, and we’ve had a lot of families locally that are regulars already. They’ve come two weekends in a row, and the response to the kids book room has been really positive too.”
The store’s first author event, featuring Mount Holly author Christy Healy, will be on Jan. 19. Healy’s debut novel, Unbound, will be released Jan. 16.
“She actually was the first person to see the store. When we were setting it up, she came and we chatted about what she wanted the event to look like and what we were thinking we were going to do,” she said.
Sheridan plans to spend December building out the store.
“We have a big fixture that’s coming here. It’s several sided. So we’ll have an aisle on either side and more fixtures in the back. And in the kids room, we’re going to have magazine style fixtures so that the books are phased out,” she said. “But we’re just going to continue to grow to support our readership. Mount Holly is growing like crazy, and a lot of development and economic resurgence is coming to the area… So we’re kind of aligned with the direction that the city is going.”
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