DENVER – A new independent bookstore in West City Park aims to be more than a place to buy books. Its owners say they want it to be a neighborhood “third space” for conversation, coffee and community.
The Denver Book Society opened this month and includes a community room for book clubs, events and lounging.
“Books are the best convener,” said Kwame Spearman, co-owner of the new business. “Books prompt conversation. They prompt candidness. They prompt this notion to converse with someone who's not necessarily seeing the same things that you are, and we want to build that out here.”
Spearman, a longtime Denver bookseller and former CEO of Tattered Cover, said the new store is an attempt to build and sustain a strong, local independent bookstore after the widely-reported struggles and restructuring of Tattered Cover in 2023. He acknowledged mistakes during that time, saying he took over the business when it was on the verge of bankruptcy during the pandemic. Ultimately, the longtime independent bookstore was sold to Barnes and Noble in 2024.
“Our goal was to save the business… We wanted to grow Tattered Cover as quickly as we could. We thought that the more locations that we had, the best way to get more customers, the best way to sell more books. And I think, in retrospect, that was the wrong strategy,” said Spearman. “I think you learn more in failure than you do in success. I was not successful at Tattered Cover, and the introspection of thinking, ‘why?’ I think is going to help me at the Denver Book Society… I think it’s going to help me in my life.”
Spearman said one of the things he learned from his experience at Tattered Cover is to take things slowly and implement changes with more precision.
“We were moving so fast that we stressed our staff, we stressed finances, we stressed the business,” he said. “I think with Denver Book Society, what's been amazing is we're doing things incrementally. We're going to learn our community, we're going to understand what our customers want, and we're going to evolve from that. So, my hope is that this time around, it'll be more successful than the first time.”
Co-owner Rich Garvin said the goal is to create a hospitable place that happens to sell books. The in-store cafe is already up and running, and they're set to have their liquor license within the next couple of weeks. They have already started hosting events for community groups, and more are planned for the near future.
“We don't have enough spaces to come together as a community. We're at home on our zooms or whatever we're doing, and we all crave human interaction,” Garvin said. “We hope that friends come together in the Denver Book Society. But, more importantly, we hope people make new friends.”
The opening has not been without controversy. The Denver Book Swap Society, a community group that meets to swap and discuss books, has been operating since 2022. They raised concerns about the similarity of the names and the potential for confusion. In a statement, Nicole Wiebe, the founder of Denver Book Swap Society said:
“Denver Book Swap Society has been hosting community book swap events across the Denver Metro area since 2022. When I learned in September 2025 about a new bookstore opening with a nearly identical name, I immediately reached out to the owner. While I loved the concept of their store, I was deeply concerned it would cause confusion within Denver's reading community.
We exchanged a few polite emails, but the owner ultimately dismissed my concerns, stating they didn't believe the similar names would be an issue. In November, I had an attorney send a formal letter reiterating our position and requesting a name change, to which we received no response.
Now that the store has opened, the exact confusion I feared is happening. I am fielding questions from people who think we are connected, and I have to continually clarify that Denver Book Swap Society is in no way affiliated with this new bookstore. It is a really unfortunate situation, but my focus remains on serving our amazing community of readers."
Garvin said they were unaware of the swap group when they chose their name and were too far along in the branding process to change the name when they learned about the name of the other organization. Garvin said he encouraged collaboration between the two groups, hoping that the Denver Book Society could host events for the Denver Book Swap Society.
“If they wanted to have events in the space, we would be happy to host them,” said Garvin. “Even if they wanted an area in the space that they put the books out and people could swap, we'd be happy to do that. We want to be supportive of anyone who wants to read a book.”
Spearman framed the new store as part of a broader push for community dialogue.
“Fundamentally, we here in Denver are more similar than we are different,” Spearman said. “Third spaces provide… this opportunity to connect, to have conversation, to learn about each other, and our belief is that’s exactly what we need right now.”
Spearman hopes that people can try out the new store and community space, even if they are upset with how the situation ended at Tattered Cover.
“No one is more disappointed about the outcome of Tattered Cover than I am,” he said. “I think that if anyone looks at their life, there have been times that they've failed… and all we can do as our society is when someone does fail… we can ask them to learn from that, and to try to do better… I’m 100% confident that if you come into Denver Book Society… you will believe it is a value add and an important part of our city’s economy, and that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”