What is Raven's Nest Bookshop and Why Do They Have a Blog?

Welcome to Raven’s Nest Bookshop's first blog post! I figured that the first post should be for introducing ourselves a little better, going more in depth about who we are, what our mission is, what our goals are, and what our plans are with this blog and the bookstore as a whole.

I’m going to start simple with who ‘we’ are. As of right now the business is made up of only two people, one being me, Kiley, and the other is my partner Kade. We both enjoyed reading to a certain extent as kids, but have rekindled and grown that love as adults. We both do Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, which is actually how we met and started dating, maybe one day I will dig further into those details. On top of running the bookstore and living at the gym, we both work full time, and I am currently working on getting a degree in psychology/ human services.

Kade and I at our first pop up shop event in Chelmsford, MA (December 24th, 2024)

Our favorite book genres overlap, but I am the romance reader. I love fantasy the most, but I really enjoy reading anything as long as it fits my vibe. I started to dabble in reading romance books after high school, and accidentally found smut, which is a story in itself because I didn’t know what reverse harem meant, and didn’t bother to Google it. Kade is also a big fantasy and sci-fi lover, he loves mythology and is a die hard Percy Jackson fan. I’m currently trying to integrate more of his taste in books into our inventory, but since we’re still pretty small it’s a slow process. 

Now let's talk more about the business. The website went live in October of 2024 after deciding that this is something we wanted to go through with only a few months before. We have shared goals, along with some more individualized goals to mold the bookstore into an entity that aligns with both of our values, most of which will all be able to come into play once we have a physical store. On top of wanting to get a brick and mortar store, we plan to build a community of people online and in person. We want to help keep people interested in reading and writing. We also want to make sure that people have access to books, we are not a school or library that can be forced to take books off of our shelves because people in the community don’t want them there. 

What my plans are with this blog are pretty simple

Book Reviews

I want to honestly review the books that I am reading, and that we carry in our store. I know that I might hate a book that everyone else loves or vice versa, but if I can help steer people in the direction of a book they might like, I want to do that.

Talk About Anything Bookish

I want to talk about books that I think are must reads, or promote books that have diverse characters and that are written by diverse authors. Overall, I would just like to talk about anything and everything that has to do with books or reading.

Educate People

I will use this platform to discuss topics like book bans and how harmful the practice can be, or how dangerous it could be for our First Amendment here in the US. I will also talk about the benefits that come from reading or listening to books, and so much more.

While I will not limit myself to this list, these topics are the main reason why I wanted to start a blog for the bookstore. If you want to stay up to date you can enter your email into the form on our blog page to get emails alerts when we post. Also, if you’re looking for something to read or listen to, check out our shop. We carry new and used books, plenty of book accessories, book boxes, and we partner with Libro.fm to offer audiobooks if you’re more of a listener than a reader.