Tombolo Books, St. Pete’s 1,500 square-foot, indie bookstore at 2153 1st Ave. S, made its debut in the Grand Central District mere months before the Covid-19 pandemic shut the world down momentarily.
After many months of maintaining its online store, delivering books via bicycle, slowly reopening its doors while its neighbor Haslam’s closed theirs, and eventually operating at its fullest capacity, Tombolo Books has proven to be one of the most booked (no pun intended) and busiest word-dealers in town. With a calendar full of children's storytimes, author talks, book clubs, signings and poetry readings and shelves stocked with a constant rotation of both popular and up-and-coming titles, Tombolo Books has quickly nestled into its niche and shows no signs of slowing down.
On the precipice of the bookstore’s fourth birthday, Events Coordinator Kelsey Jagneaux shares with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay all of the ways that the little local bookstore continues to grow. She describes the Tombolo team as “ambitious individuals” whose scrappy perseverance through the pandemic propelled them to success in 2023.
“Although I wasn’t a part of the team yet, I know that the entire crew kind of just put their heads down and worked their butts off to keep the bookstore going in its early days,” Jagneaux says. “ I think a lot of that ingenuity has carried us through the last four years—we're just constantly thinking of ways to be more creative and innovative. Just in the past year, our events program has grown tremendously.”
“Tremendous” is certainly correct. Its author-oriented events usually celebrate the release of their latest work, and may cover a wide range of genres from local, Tampa Bay history and Florida nature to investigative journalism, self-help, spirituality, psychological thrillers and much, much more.
For larger gatherings, Tombolo has to move its literary events off-site since the capacity inside the intimate bookstore is so tight. Sometimes events happen across the street at Coastal Creative or at The Palladium and Seven C Music & Coffee. The bookstore recently collaborated with the Poynter Institute for a journalism-focused event and plans to work with art space Studio@620 and the annual Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival in the upcoming year.
On-site events are usually free to attend, and are kept that way by encouraging attendees to purchase the featured book of the evening, although off-site events may include a small entrance fee.
This week’s occasion is not its typical author talk or story time, but a celebration of everything Tombolo Books has accomplished since opening its doors.
Tombolo Books hosts its fourth birthday party on Thursday, Dec. 14 from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. The free, courtyard-hosted celebration features drinks from neighboring businesses Black Crow Coffee and Squeeze Juiceworks, local art vendors and bites from The Twisted Indian and The Crumb Factory.
While the festivities will remain outside for the most part, best-selling author Lisa Unger will be signing her books inside of the store, amongst many shelves of Tombolo’s up-and-coming titles, Florida-focused works, innovative kid’s books, LGBTQ-driven content and more.
When it comes to maintaining Tombolo’s contemporary rotation of fiction and nonfiction titles, Jagneaux contributes its ever-growing inventory to owner Alsace Walentine, who continuously scours new releases from publishers across the country.
Walentine stated in 2019—before Tombolo opened its doors—that her bookstore would hold about 6,000-7,000 works on its shelves. As 2023 comes to an end, Jagneaux says that its shelves boast significantly more than that, especially during the annual “literary Tetris game” that the holiday season demands. A new crop of books gets delivered to Tombolo every Tuesday, which are then showcased on social media and on the store’s “New and Notable” table.
And its kid’s section receives just as much curation as its adult book selection.
Amanda Hurley, a mother and running enthusiast, is the store’s children’s book buyer and staunchly believes that books are just as important for kids as they are for adults.
“She wants kids that walk into our store to just be in awe of all of the possibilities and actually see themselves and their families represented on the shelves,”Jagneaux explains. “I think it’s really important to walk into a kid’s section and see the world reflected back to you.”
By offering a robust kid’s book section, the Tombolo team hopes to create both life-long readers and customers.
“We used to be right around the corner from Haslam’s and adults would always talk about visiting that store as a kid and being able to come back and shop there as an adult—that’s the kind of relationship with the community that we hope to create as well,” says Jagneaux.
Tombolo Books always expected to co-exist with its historic neighbor, Haslam’s bookstore, which sadly never reopened its doors after the pandemic. While its quiet closure saddened Tombolo’s team and St. Pete residents alike, the little bookstore continues to flourish in its own literary niche and hopes to build a multi-decade legacy of its own.
“I think there’s this narrative out there that indie bookstores are a dying breed, but we feel like we’re kind of flying in the face of that notion, Jagneaux tells CL. “Tombolo itself is like a microcosm here in St. Pete and we’re only thriving because of the community’s demand.”
Even with all of the small businesses’ growth since 2019, Jagneaux says that Tombolo has no plans to physically expand or move into a larger building.
“We’re really comfortable with where we are right now but are always thinking about creative ways to expand in terms of collaborations and pop-ups,” she explains. “Being out in the community—just existing with people—is a natural, more meta-physical extension of the business without actually moving.”
Even if you can’t make Tombolo’s anniversary gig this week, Jagneaux still encourages local residents to do their holiday shopping at Tombolo and other local businesses. The bookstore offers free gift wrapping year-round, but the service comes particularly in handy during Christmas time.
To keep up with all of Tombolo’s events in the new year, head to its Instagram or Facebook, both at @TomboloBooks.
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St. Pete’s Tombolo Books is flying in the face of the narrative that indie bookstores are a dying breed
It celebrates its fourth anniversary this week.
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