Marietta Square bookstore aims for June opening

May 15—MARIETTA — It started as a birthday wish from daughter to mother.

In August, Caroline Tillman, 27, wrote a letter to her mom, Elizabeth Kunetz, for her 58th birthday.

"Remember a couple weeks/months ago I asked you if Marietta had a bookstore?" Tillman wrote. "Well, I had a reason for that."

Tillman, a project manager at Home Depot, wanted to create something all her own, she wrote, built from the ground up and with the potential to become a family business passed down through generations.

Plus, Tillman continued, both she and Kunetz love books and Marietta.

"By now you may have guessed what I am getting at, but my wish for you is: will you open a bookstore with me in Marietta? My wish is to open this with you by the time you turn 60," Tillman wrote.

Kunetz had been thinking the same thing, and months shy of Kunetz's 59th birthday, it seems their wish was granted early: The duo plan to open the Reading Attic on Marietta Square next month, either June 9 or 10.

The store will be located in the space above Tiny Bubbles Tea Bar at 21 West Park Square and offer an array of adult and children's titles. The store will also specialize in children's books and Georgia authors, the owners said, and it will host different events, including readings by local authors.

It will be food-and-drink friendly, so anyone interested in grabbing a tea on their way up to the store is more than welcome, Kunetz said.

Tillman is the marketing and creative mind behind the store, her mother said. Kunetz, meanwhile, is using her longtime background in the financial world to guide the Reading Attic's business logistics.

The initial plan was to open in a house just off the Square and call it the Reading Cottage, but when 3,000 square feet of space opened above the tea shop, Tillman and Kunetz knew they belonged right on the Square.

Plus, both agree it's about time a bookstore came to the heart of Marietta. The only other bookstore Kunetz recalls on the Square was Pickle Patch, a children's shop that closed years ago.

Tillman's grandmother would read to her as a child, and her love of reading blossomed as she grew older. Ironically, she has never read less than the last few months, as planning for the store has progressed.

The pair's love for reading was also evident during family vacations, where independent bookstores were the destinations Tillman and Kunetz sought out.

The questions Tillman had for the staff of those various bookstores indicated her interest in opening her own shop was brewing long before last year.

"She's been thinking 'bookstore' for awhile, because I know she would ask me, 'Let's go to the bookstore' while we were on vacation," Kunetz said.

Tillman said she would love for this to turn into her full-time job, should it be successful. She also sees growth potential in other areas that could benefit from a local bookseller.

"We're finding it's kind of a geographic market that's been poorly served, I guess," Kunetz said. "We've got coffee, we've got gifts, we've got retail, we've got tons of restaurants, we've got too many restaurants. What we need is something else to do with your time while you're waiting for your restaurant to page you to tell you your table's ready."

There was some form of a bookstore on the Square from after the Civil War until the early 2000s, according to Christa McCay, collections manager at the Marietta History Center.

After the Civil War, most bookstores were a part of larger drugstores, McCay added. The last bookstore on the Square was Haversack Book Store, which closed in 2005 and was in the space now occupied by the Marietta Wine Market.

"Most Old Mariettans remember 'The Book Store' that was located on South Park Square," McCay said.

Marietta Councilman Johnny Walker, whose cousins own the building where the Reading Attic will be located (their grandfather opened a clothing store there in 1924), said he is looking forward to the business coming to the Square and the further diversity of businesses it will bring to the area.

"I like a variety, I don't think it needs to be all restaurants, I think the Square can be appealing to a lot of different people," Walker said. "That's what makes our Square so special, is we do have other places where people can go and shop."