A novel turn of events

Barnes & Noble was once the villain in the bookstore story, the giant chain marching across America and flattening local shops along the way. In Baton Rouge, that meant the end of places like Elliot’s, once in Village Square on College Drive, where the Wal-Mart now stands.

The details: The plot has turned. Barnes & Noble has moved to Towne Center and is growing again under an English CEO who has given local managers more power to make stores feel less like corporate boxes and more like neighborhood bookstores.

At the same time, independent bookstores are making a comeback, even as fewer Americans are reading books.

By the numbers:

• 70% increase in U.S. bookstore companies over five years, per the American Booksellers Association.
• 605 new brick-and-mortar, mobile, and pop-up locations opened in 2025
• 200+ annual openings over the last five years.
• And 73% of booksellers reported a sales increase in 2025

The local angle: Independent bookstores are rising for the same reason they always have: people who love books decide to open stores for other people who love books.

You can see the Baton Rouge version on a bookstore tour arranged by Chapter Twenty, the mobile bookstore. Stops include:

• TBR Books & Tea, 7276 Highland Road.
• Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, 114 N Range Ave.
• Curious Cabinets Bookshop in Central, 13623 Hooper Road
• Red Stick Reads, which outgrew its Mid City space and landed in a larger one, 3829 Government Street

The bottom line: Fewer people may be reading books. But enough people still are to keep bookstores growing in Baton Rouge and around the country, carrying forward one of the more civilized ideas we have: stories shared from generation to generation.