Resilient Like Water
Lessons from the 2026 Bookish Flood
Community is everything at Bookish. Our customers, our staff, the connections we make & hold dear—those are what get us through the tough stuff. Like a small flood in the bookstore.
We’ve had so many folks ask about the flood. And of course, book lovers are always worried about, well, the books. So we want to give you an update (and a peek behind the commercial leasing machine).
First, we want to assuage your fears: very few books were harmed during the water intrusion. Yay!
Unfortunately, the drywall and the baseboards did not fare as well. They had to be cut out and replaced. And now that work has been completed.
So, done and done, right?
Well, kind of.
Signing a commercial lease means being almost entirely at the mercy of the landlord and the systems (like electrical, plumbing, HVAC) that keep the building running. What does that mean? Most anything that happens to the building eventually shows up on Bookish’s tab to pay. Even though we don’t own the building.
No, it doesn’t seem fair.
But, yes, we do know that we are reading the lease right.
Many, many commercial properties are both exceedingly hard to rent (we went through a process of financial vetting that was almost as rigorous as getting approved for a mortgage) and become primarily the lessee’s obligation to maintain.
Imagine renting a car and driving into a large thunderstorm only to realize that the windshield wipers don’t work. You pull over and call the rental company, who tells you that you will be responsible for replacing the windshield wipers. But you’ll need three bids on said windshield wipers. Which they will obtain for you. They’ll let you know once they receive the bids. Then they’ll forward those bids to the heads at corporate. And then they’ll send someone out to replace the wipers. It could be a few days. You don’t have any say in who replaces the wipers or how much it costs. But corporate will bill you in about a year for those services—give or take a few months.
Can you imagine?
So, while very few books were lost at Bookish, we got heaps of the kind of stress that having little control over one’s own destiny brings (for a Virgo, it’s an exquisite kind of torture). We didn’t know how long it would take for the drywall to dry out. Or what next steps might be. We didn’t know how much drywall needed to be replaced or when we might be able to reinstall the shelves that held all our party supplies, fixtures, backstock—which had all been piled in the middle of the store to keep it safe and dry and to prepare for repairs. We didn’t know how much it would cost—still don’t—but we couldn’t seek out our own contractor because we don’t own the building and can’t structurally alter the building without—wait for it—approval by the landlord.
Repairs were being made to a space we’d lovingly built over the last (almost) 7 years—and the crews making repairs couldn’t talk to us (because they don’t work for us) and we had no say in the repairs or the timeline.
While no Grumply Monkey books or copies of Shark Heart (both fan favorites with entirely different demographics) were harmed during this flooding event, we lost one full week of in-store revenue. Kendra is sure she has at least one new gray hair from being stuck in limbo for a week before deciding to open the store partially while repairs continued. And all the disappointed kids that couldn’t get into the children’s section (where all the things that had been in the middle of the store were being stored) that second week of repairs made her cry. More than once.
We had to move a party we’d been planning for months to an entirely new venue (thanks Peoples Town Coffee!). Our staff was completely flying by the seats of their pants because we couldn’t tell them if we’d be open on their next shift or not. And all the planning, book ordering, cool sticker gathering that we’d been doing as a team came to a screeching halt while we dealt with the crisis at hand.
It was like sitting in a thunderstorm waiting for someone to bring you windshield wipers. Maybe.
The bright spot in all this: you.
Our people showed up for us (like y’all are known to do). So many of you ordered books on Bookshop. And purchased Bookish merch. And bought gift cards. We knew you were cheering for us. And it mattered. So much.
Our staff rallied and checked in with us to make sure we were okay. Their love of Bookish is always palpable, and we love them right back. Deeply. They are family to us.
So what’s the long and short of all this?
Commercial leases are one of the very worst parts of owning a small business. It will likely be another year before we fully understand the financial cost of this little water event.
But our community is the very best part of owning this bookstore. We love you like crazy. We are grateful for you. And grateful to be able to offer you good book recs, a warm & welcoming environment, and good vibes–in a space that looks like it was built with love & is good as new.
Thanks, y’all. For everything.
