In a small strip mall called the Northwest Center, across the street from Lamar Middle School, there’s a store with a peculiar name on it. Big white letters printed across a blue awning read: Birdhouse Books and Gifts. In the window, there’s a pride flag, and adjacent to it is a recently painted mural. While this little store has only been here for a year, it has already seemed to make a positive impact on the local community.

When you walk in, it smells sweet, a combination of the mixing aromas from a wide selection of locally made candles available in their gift and trinket section located in the middle of the store. Everything in that section is locally made by Austin artists. They range in items such as fidget toys, bookmarks, journals, puzzles, claw clips and of course the aforementioned candles. 

When it comes to books, the selection is no less extensive. People may have the assumption that because local bookstores are much smaller than chains such as Half Price Books and Barnes & Noble, that local bookstores will be lacking. This is not the case, especially for Birdhouse. Fiction books can be found at the front of the store, separated into genres with a few special categories, such as LGBTQ books, or recently a “What to read after watching K-Pop Demon Hunters” section. Right next to these are the children’s books, accompanied by a very friendly bear mascot of sorts. In the back, there is a classics area, discounted used books, as well as nonfiction separated into topics. In this same back area, there is also lounge seating where community events such as writer clubs are held. 

Erica Forget is an employee at Birdhouse who, a few years back, worked at Borders, a sort of precursor to the well-known book chain Barnes and Noble. There are clear distinctions between the very comforting feeling of Birdhouse and the sort of overwhelming feeling you might find at larger bookstores. Forget mentioned this as well. 

“It feels good when you walk in,” Forget said. “That’s why I started coming here. Then I liked it so much that I started working here.” 

Another thing that makes bookstores like Birdhouse stand out is the employee to customer interaction, which Forget has been keenly aware of since starting to work here. 

“Because of the fact that it’s a small independent bookstore means that I feel like I can talk to customers and I don’t have certain quotas and things,” she said.

This isn’t a one-sided assumption that the employees have. Customers walking frequently greeted the employees as though they were old friends. One of these customers is Taylor, who has been coming to Birdhouse frequently. The first time he noticed the store, something in particular caught his eye. 

“I was driving by and I saw the pride flag in the window,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he has been a fan of local businesses in the area for a while now, so when he noticed this new one pop up, it seemed like the next logical step to go check it out. His first trip hooked him, and since it is close to Taylor’s residence, it has been easy to walk over whenever he feels the need for another great read. 

“I get about a book every trip which turns into a book almost every three weeks,” Taylor said.

Half Price Books is also a short trip away, but Taylor says that he prefers supporting businesses with the same feeling as Birdhouse, compared to larger companies such as Half Price Books. 

“Half Price Books feels very industrial,” he said, “I come here [Birdhouse] to get books but also for the vibes and the people.”

One of the most instrumental people to pull off this safe and welcoming environment is the owner and founder of the bookstore, Abby Strite. She is a bonafide bookworm and has always had a dream of running some sort of local business. 

“It was a lightning strike when I realized it had to be a bookstore,” Strite said. “I read about 100 books per year and love talking about books.”

While the bookstore in its physicality hasn’t been around that long, the idea has always been in Strite’s head, where it stayed for about 20 years. However, stepping into the process didn’t take that long for Strite.

“From actually deciding that this was happening, to the day the store opened, was about 8 months,” Strite said.

The path to becoming a bookstore owner wasn’t a straightforward one. Strite worked in the Air Force and government intelligence for 10 years. After that, around 10 years were spent in the Austin tech industry. 

“It was not at all personally fulfilling,” Strite said.

Another aspect of the dream was creating a safe space for the LGBTQ and BIPOC communities, especially the youth in those communities. It has been a recurring topic for a while now that Austin, like many other cities, is losing what is known as “third spaces” dedicated to youth in minority groups. These are places where youth can congregate outside of school while being assured of their safety. 

“I think there are a lot of people who are trying, OutYouth in particular,” Strite said. “But in general, it isn’t clear and obvious where queer or black kids (or queer black kids) can safely congregate outside of school.”