When Kevin decided to leave the corporate world behind, there wasn't much debate about what came next. He doesn't play golf. He doesn't play pickleball. And by his own family's admission, he's a genuinely terrible handyman. What he is — what his whole family is — are readers. Serious ones.
The Lemmon family library is bursting at the seams, spilling onto nightstands, kitchen counters, and probably a stair step or two. Claire (the wife) and daughters Taylor, Victoria, and Grace all belong to multiple book clubs and post reviews on Goodreads like it's a competitive sport. Son Nathan spent two years working at Powell's Books — the largest independent bookstore in the world — and brought that expertise home with him. Even the pets are in on it: word has it Edmund (the dog) and Simon (the cat) recently got into it over who got to guard a book first. Simon won. He usually does.
So don't be surprised if you see the whole crew behind the counter at some point — stacking shelves, ringing up trades, and handing you a recommendation they clearly already have strong opinions about. (Simon may sit this one out. He's shy.)
It's a family business, through and through. Come be part of it.
What to Expect
Don't come looking for shrink-wrapped new releases, glass display cases, or a first edition that costs more than your car payment — that's not us, and frankly, we don't own white gloves. What you'll find on our shelves are books people actually read: a spine that's been cracked open one too many times, maybe a coffee ring shaped suspiciously like a coaster that never got used. We consider that character, not damage.
Browse slowly. There's no rush, and no algorithm trying to sell you eleven other things. You might walk out with a crime thriller someone finished at 1 a.m. last week, or a slightly dusty history of Loudoun County that's been patiently waiting for someone who actually wants to know why the roads are shaped like that. Every book here already had one life before it landed on our shelf — we're just introducing it to its next one.
Because no book deserves an undignified death at the bottom of a landfill. It deserves a second (or third, or eleventh) reader — and a decent shelf to wait on until it finds one.