PEOPLE ON THE PLAINS 

Have books, will travel

By Bill Radford

Thus is the mission of Tally Kerr and her bookstore on wheels, Roadrunner Bookshop. It debuted in April at AffoGatto Coffee in Falcon and has since made stops at businesses across the Colorado Springs area, from restaurants to breweries to a yoga studio.

Kerr started by approaching businesses that she was familiar with as a customer. “So I ask them, ‘Would you be willing to host my bookshop on your property?’ I haven’t had anyone say no. With social media and word of mouth, I’ve also had small businesses reach out and ask me to visit.” So now, it’s about evenly split between businesses she approaches and those that approach her, she said. 

“It’s worked out really well, because we can self-promote each other.” 

The idea of a mobile bookshop was not her own, she said. “There are several other women across the country who are doing similar things, so they were my inspiration. … I just thought it was a great idea.”

It is a lot of work, she found out. “I originally thought I would be able to have a part-time job and do this, but this is full time,” Kerr said. “So it’s not a side hustle, it’s not a hobby, it is a full-time job.”

She previously worked at Buckley’s Homestead Supply on the west side of Colorado Springs. When the owner warned her that it might close (it later sold and is now called Hatch & Gather), Kerr started thinking of her next steps. And that made her think of those other women with bookstores on wheels.

“I thought, I can do that,” she said. One transformed trailer later and she was ready to hit the road.

She needed books, of course. Most of her books are used books — or “previously enjoyed” books, as she calls them. Or “wild books,” a term used by English writer Virginia Woolf: “Second hand (sic) books are wild books; homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.” 

The previously enjoyed books sell for $3 to $10, and Kerr gets them from a variety of places. Some have been donated; others she finds at estate sales, moving sales, thrift stores and elsewhere. She also has a small collection of new releases that she orders directly from the publishers. 

With under 100 square feet, “I have limited space; I can’t have as much as I would like to have,” she said. Still, she tries to cover all the bases: Her offerings include fiction and nonfiction — everything from self-help to finance to health to science fiction, historical fiction, kids’ books and on and on. 

And there are her “uncover books.” They’re books wrapped in newspaper, but with clues to their identity. And they come with an assortment of goodies, including tea bags, a piece of chocolate, a bookmark and a pen.

“We’ve always been encouraged to never judge a book by its cover, so this is a spin on that saying,” she noted.

Kerr also sells used games and stickers, book lights, tote bags and more. “I try to cover all the bases,” she said.

She also sells honey; that’s courtesy of the bees she and her husband have on their land in Falcon. They also have chickens, ducks, geese, llamas, rabbits, dogs and cats on their 5 ½ acres. 

Kerr is originally from Raton, New Mexico. She said both sides of her family were ranching families, so she was used to having critters around. She moved to Colorado Springs in 2002 and graduated from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with a degree in forensic science. She worked for the Colorado Springs Police Department for several years, then in the nonprofit sector before joining Buckley’s. She has lived in Falcon since 2020.

And, yes, she is a book lover. Kerr worked at her rural public library in high school and also worked for Pikes Peak Library District for a couple of years.

Her favorite thing to read: memoirs. “I love hearing people’s stories, either in person or in written word,” she said.

(To find out where Kerr’s bookstore on wheels will be next, look for Roadrunner Bookshop on Facebook; you can also find it on Instagram.)