Minding the garden.

The people behind the counter

Brad Carey took over The Book Garden in January 2020, and he did it for a simple reason: he couldn't stand the thought of it disappearing. When word got out that the shop might change hands or close, he offered to buy it almost on the spot.

I wasn't ready to see the Book Garden change hands, go away, or become something else. I really do want the shop here, so I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of it.

Brad Carey

His plan was never to reinvent the place. Customers already loved the shop the way it was, so the changes have been deliberately modest — a broader young adult section, more of the titles people kept asking for, and a steady hand on everything else.

The one real addition was a room. The old shipping and receiving space became a dedicated gaming room, open to the public during regular shop hours, and with it came a calendar of game nights, workshops, and classes: Friday Night Magic, board game nights, one-shot roleplaying sessions, and miniature-painting workshops where beginners learn from the people a few steps ahead of them.

We have a very eccentric and eclectic selection here. We've got books on foraging, kids graphic novels, and board games. We provide a fun space where people can come in and find something that really interests them.

Brad Carey

How we got here

The Book Garden opened in November 2002, in the State Street space the City Kids store had just vacated. It was the idea of Doug Shane and Deborah Delmore, a couple from Randolph who had spent years travelling to bookstores together — and, by Delmore's account, spending more on books than on the hotel room. Five hundred and fifty square feet, mostly used books and publishers' overruns, sixty-two magazine titles, and a film section of two to three hundred classic titles on VHS. They named it for their shared love of gardening.

It's all about making the books available, keeping the ideas they contain in circulation.

Doug Shane, 2002

The motto they chose then — Where ideas grow — is still the one on our sign. Two things from those first years are worth noting for how thoroughly they've since reversed: the culinary shelves were the strongest in the store from the very first month, and the shop deliberately carried no children's books at all, for want of space. "The store's evolving," Shane said at the time. "It's organic."

Pat and Rick Powell and their three children took over on July 7, 2005. They cleared out half the inventory and widened what was left: crafts, Pat's own Nana's Lemon Curd and Raspberry Curd, and a deliberate push into fantasy, science fiction, and manga for younger readers — the children's shelves the founders never had room for. "Kids that know what that is will be excited," Pat said. Their son Chris Tanner, then 21, ran the floor as assistant manager, and the 11- and 5-year-olds had a say in what got stocked.

We're trying to create a family atmosphere. We want books that will appeal to the entire family — we're a very family owned business.

Pat Powell, 2005

Rick's eye shaped the rest. An illustrator by trade, he stocked what he liked to look at — graphic novels, comics, and anything with strong imagery on the page — and across fifteen years the store grew into a gathering place for Central Vermont's readers and gamers.

People have always said that they really like the vibe. They come in, and I think people feel comfortable here. They feel they are surrounded by the stuff they love.

Rick Powell, previous owner

Powell eventually wanted to give his own art the attention it deserved, and handed the shop on. That's where Brad and Becky came in — with a goal Brad put plainly at the time: keep The Book Garden on State Street for another fifteen years.