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Kimberly Hill has always been interested in books and if things go well, she will soon own a large number of them as she opens her own bookstore in Hollister.
“Mom was always yelling at me, ‘Get your head out of that book,’” she said, “and they have been with me all my life. I did two deployments on an aircraft carrier in the Navy, and books are what helped me survive.”
A registered nurse by profession, books were also her constant companion when she first came to Hollister in 2019 and served in a COVID quarantine unit.
“It was hard during that time to keep your head on straight,” she said. “Everyone was so confused about what was going on in the world. I escaped by reading, and I really found my genre: fantasy.”
The more she read, the more she became fixated on the idea of opening Hill’s Bookstore, constantly bouncing the idea off of her husband, Adam.
“I kept telling him we don’t have any choices here except Amazon and what we can get at Target,” she said. “We brainstormed and fine-tuned the business plan. He said, ‘Let’s start small and do a pop-up.’”
Hill ordered a selection of books that she thought locals might enjoy, taking suggestions from people she knew and members of a book club she belonged to.
“I went and did a pop-up at Ohana Shaved Ice,” she said. “It did super well. I started with 120 books, and I came home with about 30. And I think that was kind of like the tipping point.”
Currently limiting herself to pop-ups, Hill plans to offer her books every other week at the Hollister Farmers Market and will be at the upcoming Baler Band Booster’s Spring Boutique at Hollister High School on April 13. But her ultimate goal is to have a brick-and-mortar store.
“I want to see how things go,” she said. “But I want a place for people who love the idea of having a bookshop to walk into and where people can become addicted to the smell of new books.”
At a recent pop-up hosted by Vertigo Coffee Roasters in San Juan Bautista, Hill focused on contemporary authors and children’s books.
“Hollister as a community likes a combination of mystery, thriller and romance,” she said. “But in my experience, most of my customers are women, and it is really important to have books by women, for women.”
Author and musician Julian Colbeck was among those who browsed Hill’s offerings that day. He wished her success and agreed that having a bookstore locally would be a great idea.
“There is nothing like holding and reading a book,” he said. “There is a physical, visceral experience in holding a book that you can’t get with a tablet, laptop or phone. It is a different thing and a precious part of life.”
Hill created two reading lists for BenitoLink. Of the first, she said, “Everyone has a different concept of what a ‘must read’ should be, and anyone can Google the ‘classics,’ but these are the books that I felt had had the most impact on me.”
- “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig
- “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern
- “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult
- “The Giver” by Lois Lowry
- “In Five Years” by Rebecca Serle
- “Heaven is for Real” by Todd Burpo
- “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins (in explicit language and clean language versions)
- “Keeper of Enchanted Rooms” by Charlie N. Holmberg
- “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros
Here is Hill’s second, “to be read” list:
- “One Dark Window” by Rachel Gillig
- “Echo of Old Books” by Barbara Davis
- “Throne of Glass” series by Sarah J. Maas
- “The Librarian of Burned Books” by Brianna Labuskes
- “Expiration Dates” by Rebecca Serle
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