Find your Next Great Read in The District
Discover The District – Find your next great read during Columbia’s annual Unbound Book Festival
The District is a great place for bookworms!
Not only can you explore exclusive book shops and specialty stores that include great books; The District also is part of a wonderful book festival every year. The Unbound Book Festival has been held every April since 2016. It brings nationally and internationally recognized authors of world-class renown to Columbia to talk about their books, their work, and their lives. Unbound brings together readers and writers to create diverse communities and expose participants to new ideas and authors. The event will inspire a life-long love of books and reading.
This year’s festival took place April 20-23 with both free and paid portions of the festival held in multiple venues downtown like: Orr Street Studios, Missouri Theater, and Ragtag Cinema.
The festival included: Conversations with acclaimed authors, interesting book topics discussed by panels of writers, author book signings, places to purchase books and both festival and author merchandise, Q & A sessions at each event and a second day of workshops just for writers. There’s also a variety of special events during the festival, featuring music, a photojournalism competition, readings of poetry, a 21+ lit crawl and even a film. Click here to review this year’s schedule of festival events.
During the festival, it’s always a good time to stop in and visit some of Columbia’s wonderful locally owned book stores and some of the interesting shops like: Speckled Frog Toys & Books and Peace Nook that also carry books.
Yellow Dog Bookshop, on S 9th St, is a great place for booklovers to wander in and find something they didn’t know they were looking for. Yellow Dog buys, trades and sells fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books. Look through their treasure of shelves and bring a piece of magic home with you.
Just a few doors down on 9th is independent bookshop Skylark Bookshop. It is a great place to find a gift for the book lovers in your life, especially the Skylark Reading Spa which is a book club designed with some luxurious literary pampering. Owner Alex George is a published author himself, so visiting his shop is a spot to pick up a signed copy of his latest book as well as books by keynote authors featured during the festival.
Any time you’re near Orr Street, stop by the historical Adams Walls of Books, which has been a part of Columbia since the 1920s, first as a jewelry store and later a bookstore in the 1945. It is located near The Social Room on N 8th St. This little gem has heart with its shelves of unique and antique books from new best sellers to some over 300 years old.
We hope you enjoyed your time at Unbound 2023 in the District. Its Good to be here!