Look familiar? The layout of Northtown Books in its new location bears a lot of similarities to its old spot. | Photo courtesy Dante DiGenova.

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This just in from Northtown Books owner Dante DeGinova: Reopening Day approacheth!

Just nine and a half months after Humboldt County’s oldest independently run bookstore was incinerated (along with half a city block’s worth of other businesses and some apartments), Northtown has relocated to the other side of the Arcata Plaza, just south of Café Brio, and is about ready to crack open its new doors.

Friday, Sept. 18 is the big day, DiGenova said, and the store will be open from 4 p.m. “until whenever.”

“Everybody’s welcome,” he said. No public readings or special events are scheduled to mark the occasion, just socializing and book browsing.

“Then it’s just back to business as usual the next day,” DiGenova said. 

He acknowledged that re-establishing Northtown Books from scratch took a lot of work. After nearly three months of searching, he lined up the new location at 737 G Street. Formerly home to the Hatchet House and Pacific Outfitters, the building has been split in half on the inside to accommodate both Northtown Books and their former neighbor, Dandar’s Boardgames and Books, which reopened in June.

By late last week, Northtown staff had finally managed to clear all of its carts and shelf all the books on hand when, around 4 p.m., a shipment from Random House arrived: four more pallets of books to shelve. 

“It took six days to get them all out of the boxes,” he said.

The store still has lots of packing material left over, so if anybody’s getting ready to move, you know where to go. DiGenova said he just picked up a small sign from Visual Concepts that he plans to hang on the outside of the building, facing Brio and the Plaza. He’s having a more permanent exterior sign built out of redwood for the front of the business, as well as a new window display that will change regularly, just like at the old place.

But those are low priorities. The reopening will proceed as planned “as long as we have all the books on the shelves,” DiGenova said.

Tovi, one of Northtown’s store poodles, watches over the new stock. | Photo via Northtown Books on Facebook.



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