RiverRun: A Vital Part of the Cultural Life of Portsmouth

Locally owned, locally operated, locally involved.

RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, opened three years ago, but it has already become a vital community resource, by design of co-owner Tom Holbrook. RiverRun tailors its titles to the book buyers of Portsmouth, offers an exciting and full events calendar, and sponsors many cultural events outside of the bookstore, including the town's poet laureate program, the only city with a population under 50,000 to do so, said Holbrook.

Portsmouth is a tourist town on the New Hampshire seacoast, a section only 17 miles long. "It's the most liberal city in New Hampshire without a doubt," said Holbrook. "There are a lot of galleries, a lot of historical culture. It was settled in 1623." Holbrook co-owns RiverRun with Robert Hugo of The Spirit of '76 in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and Dan Chartrand of Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, New Hampshire.

The bookstore, in a 150-year-old brick building, is 900 square feet and stocks 7,500 titles, with an emphasis on fiction and history. Holbrook said, "We have a ridiculous number of titles packed in. We have books, books, and only books. No sidelines. And 95 percent of the books I like, 5 percent I don't like."

Holbrook doesn't use bestseller lists to select any of the titles. "It's all about our staff," he said. "We don't use the Times or any other bestseller lists. We just sell the books I know our customers are going to like."

Among Holbrook's favorite recent reads is Chuck Palahniuk's latest, Haunted (Doubleday). Holbrook told BTW, "It's completely freaking me out right now. I'm loving it." Another Holbrook pick is Alexander Parsons' In the Shadows of the Sun (Nan A. Talese). Parsons is kicking off his national book tour at RiverRun. The store also sponsors Poetry Hoot, a large monthly open mic reading.

In addition to sponsoring the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program, Holbrook serves on its Board of Directors. The program is dedicated to building community through poetry, and its current poet laureate is Mimi White, a former University of New Hampshire professor. Each laureate develops a long-term project. One year the laureate organized Portsmouth residents to create a book about the city. Most recently, winning entries of a juried competition of art, created by the collaboration of visual artists and poets, were permanently hung in public places throughout the city.

Holbrook has shaped the store to create a unique Portsmouth fit, but he still highly values and participates in the national marketing campaign of Book Sense and the Book Sense gift card program. "I'm a strong proponent of the gift card program because if independent bookstores want to expand, as I hope they do, we need to do everything we can to convince customers we can do everything the chains can do." Holbrook explained that offering a national gift card program was something customers don't expect of small stores. "It makes us look more professional," he added.

RiverRun also makes good use of its BookSense.com website, riverrun.booksense.com. "It's another way to advertise," Holbrook said. "It's another professionalism thing."

The sum total of the hand-selected titles, author reading series, and the many cultural events RiverRun sponsors points to how the bookstore, in just three years, has become a vital part of the city; that was always Holbrook's intention. "We're the only independent bookstore left in the area," he said. "We have a small dedicated group of customers we know personally. They depend on us to recommend books to them in a way that they can't get anywhere else. There isn't a better job on the planet. I walk to work every day, spend all day selling books, and I'm involved in my community." --Karen Schechner