This has been a tough time for independent bookstores, with West Side Books shrinking both its size and focus, and the Bookies changing hands…again.
And then last month, Kwame Spearman started a new chapter when he opened the Denver Book Society, a bookstore at 1700 Humboldt Street, and in the process started a war of the words. What was with the red shirts, which seemed corporate at best and MAGA at worst? What was with the name, when there was already a Denver Book Swap Society? What was he going to do right here, when his stint as an owner of the Tattered Cover bookstore had gone so wrong?
And what was with that comment about ICE that Spearman had made when he ran for Denver mayor? It was all the stuff of a great novel, but these questions were all too real, and in their comments on the Westword Facebook page and Westword Instagram, as well as in emails, readers have continued the conversation:…