The Book Catapult 2.0

If you are a faithful reader of this website, you’ve no doubt realized that it has gone somewhat dormant over the last year or so. For that I apologize, especially if you’ve been jonesing for a bit of literary snark and have found the same old posts at the top of this page. BUT I have a good reason for this abandonment and I think you’re going to dig it.

The Book Catapult is transforming into an actual bookstore, my friends. With walls, tables, bookcases, and lots of books. A true “brick-and-mortar” bookstore.

My wife, Jen Powell, and I are taking over ownership of an existing boutique shop in our San Diego neighborhood of South Park. The store is called the West Grove Collective at the moment but we will be rebranding it as The Book Catapult. Right now the West Grove has about half of their space devoted to bookselling, with the rest being a mix of gifts & stationery with several vendors selling their own brands of clothing, home goods, and art textiles. Our plan is to turn the main 1000 square feet into a 100% bookstore, with a healthy emphasis on Catapult-friendly fiction & nonfiction plus a rockin’ kids section. And plenty more, of course. The vendors in the store now will still be bringing their eclectic mix of products to a Book Catapult Boutique within the space.

We are set to take ownership on October 1st. We’ll be closed for a few days while we get things ready, casually opening back up on October 5 with a grand opening of sorts on Saturday, October 7th during the Fall South Park Walkabout. If you live in San Diego, do come on by that Saturday evening starting at 6:00pm (or before, of course) – we will have music, drinks, food, and a shitload of books.

We are also planning on rolling out an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to help with some of our startup costs – please stay tuned for more on that front. We would love your support, especially if you’ve enjoyed this ridiculous blog for all these years.

As for the Book Catapult website, it shall remain, have no fear. We are planning on integrating the blog portion into our new site once we get all that together. Same ol’ snark, just with a fresh new look. I’m also keeping my job as a publishing rep for Ingram Publisher Services, by the way. I’ll handle most of the book buying for the Catapult, but Jen will be running things day-to-day for the most part.

Thank you for your readership all these many years, friends. We truly would not be doing all of this if we didn’t believe there was a wonderful community of fellow readers out there in the world. Thanks for making me always feel connected to that community.

Thanks, Seth