Details emerge, crowdfunding underway for new Five Points bookstore. Here’s what we know

The storefront at 734 Harden St. in Columbia’s Five Points used to be home to the Thirsty Parrot bar.

Soon it will be a go-to spot for those who thirst for the comfort of a good book.

Renovations are underway to convert the space at 734 Harden into All Good Books, an independent bookstore that will also have a cafe serving coffee, tea, beer, wine and more. Its owners are cautiously optimistic All Good Books, which will be located in a 3,000-square-foot building next door to the Swiff luxury streetwear shop, will open in early 2023.

Meanwhile, Odd Bird Books, a shop that is in a 300-square-foot space in the Arcade Mall on Main Street, will close in early 2023 as its proprietor, Ben Adams, is part of the ownership team of several people who are starting the much larger All Good Books in Five Points.

Clint Wallace, a tax law professor at the University of South Carolina, is part of the team behind All Good Books. Columbia has a need for a new bookstore, he said.

“This will be an independent bookstore that is meant to be a community institution, the type of place that exists in a lot of other college towns that I can track down,” Wallace said. “It will be a bookstore that features local authors’ work, including people from the university community. And not just the University of South Carolina, but Benedict and Allen and all of the educational institutions that are here in Columbia.”

Aside from featuring local writers, All Good Books also will carry new books of all types and from various genres, including bestsellers.

While construction work is underway to convert the former bar space into a bookstore, All Good owners have organized a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to help get the project off the ground. The campaign, which runs until Nov. 18, has a goal to raise $60,000. It had raised $25,775 as of Monday morning.

The front of All Good Books will feature a retail large space for new books — “As many books as we can fit in,” Wallace said. Toward the middle of the store there will be a cafe, that will serve coffee, tea and other goodies.

In the back of the store there will be an area called The Reading Room, Wallace said. It will be a spot where customers can have their drinks and read books, and it will also be a space where there will be author events and book group gatherings.

“We want this to be a place where people can come and hang out and have a nice, real, human experience reading and thinking about things they want to read and sharing that adventure with their friends and family,” Wallace said.

Adams opened Odd Bird Books in the Main Street Arcade Mall three years ago. He said the transition to a larger space has been on the radar for a while.

“Three years ago I opened my little space and that was kind of the most I could do with the resources I had,” Adams said. “I always assumed I would grow. I didn’t think I wanted to stay in a 300-square-foot space forever.”

Adams said he has known Wallace for several years and that they often had friendly conversations about opening a larger bookstore and cafe. He said those conversations, over time, transitioned from friendly banter to a more ambitious, tangible idea.

“For the first year or two (of the conversations), it was just kind of abstract and I’d say, ‘One day, if all these things fall into place, sure, we can talk about it,’” Adams said. “But probably a year ago, things started to really fall into place, and these fun, casual conversations got real momentum.”

Five Points, long known for its nightlife and popularity with students from USC, has seen a steady stream of new retail openings and announcements this year. Wallace said he thinks it is a prime spot for All Good Books.

“We love Five Points, and going back a long time, I think Five Points is constantly changing and shifting,” Wallace said. “People’s recent memory is bars and late night. But before that there was a lot more live music, and before that there were a lot more restaurants and daytime businesses. I think that is just the regular ebb and flow, and we think this is the perfect spot for a bookstore that will have daytime shopping element and also some evening events.”