Friendly Bookstore celebrating 40 years

ROGERS— The Friendly Bookstore is starting a yearlong reading challenge to celebrate its 40-year anniversary.

The challenge will begin today and end Nov. 30 and contestants will be asked to read at least 40 books of their choosing in the given time frame.

The bookstore is celebrating 40 years of supporting the Rogers Public Library, said Leeanna Walker, a volunteer at the Friendly Bookstore. The bookstore proceeds always go to the library. In addition, the store is managed and operated by volunteers, and all books in the store are donated. Volunteers will not participate in the contest.

Participants can be 10 or older. Prizes will be drawn from two prize pools, determined by age. The age groups will be 10 to 17, and 18 and older.

The bookstore has scorecards on which readers will record titles and the corresponding author. The scorecards will be returned to the bookstore when 40 titles have been read for the prize drawing next year. There are no restrictions on page count or genre of books read.

“All 40 [books] don’t have to be 1,000 pages,” Walker said. The purpose of this challenge is to encourage reading, not to see how many pages can be read.

Scorecards are available at the Friendly Bookstore during store hours, which are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Walker also said the reading challenge will serve as a way to encourage traffic in the store, so it can continue to help the city’s library.

“The Friendly Bookstore is a wonderful resource,” Library Director Hannah Milligan said. “They give us tremendous support for types of different projects that help the community.”

Milligan said the bookstore supplies the books for the library’s monthly book club, “Books and Brews.” The five-year-old club is held at Ozark Brewing Co. and encourages reading, community involvement and supports a local business.

Books and Brews is “wildly successful,” Walker said.

Other events the Friendly Bookstore will have in the next year include the “Kids’ Reading Challenge” in January and “Blind Date with a Book” in February. Additional events will be announced in the future.

The bookstore will be closed Dec. 23 and Dec. 30.

(NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff) Sally Wiser shops on Wednesday at the Friendly Bookstore. Wiser lives near Springfield, Mo., but visits the store whenever she’s visiting family in Rogers. Sales of books, magazine, puzzles, music and more benefit the Rogers Public Library.