Books have always been a passion of Viva Stowell’s no matter where she was.
Stowell moved from California, Australia, Oregon, New York and New Jersey. Stowell finally landed here in Moscow and opened Palouse Books. Stowell, the owner of Palouse Books, was born California but was raised in Australia until the age of 13.
She first got into the book industry in 1991 by working at the chain company Tower Books in Seattle.
Later, she moved to Portland, Oregon, and worked in another Tower Books branch until 1997. She was then offered a position as a manager in the New York branch of Tower Books and worked there for a year and a half. It was there she met her husband, Edward Bell. She said working for Tower Books was great, but the company ended up going bankrupt.
After Tower Books went under, Stowell found herself working for the art publisher Phaidon Press as a traveling sales representative. She stayed at this position until she became a manger for their distributing publishers. Unfortunately, she was let go from the company. After this, Stowell and Bell moved to Moscow.
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“It’s a nice little town,” Stowell said. “When I first moved here it was 2010, so a lot of Moscow still had empty store fronts. And it was because of the recession. So, we were able to move into this space for really affordable.”
In Moscow, Stowell and Bell re-entered the book industry by selling books on Amazon. They did this for four years while holding other jobs in Moscow simultaneously. Bell worked as a janitor at the Palouse Mall and Stowell worked at Carpet Mill.
Stowell always wanted to open up her own bookstore, and that dream became a reality in 2014.
“I inherited some money from my grandmother,” Stowell said. “I kind of got to that point where I knew if I just didn’t do it, I wouldn’t do it at all.”
Getting the store off the ground was easy for Stowell. Back then, there weren’t many places in Moscow that were open on Sundays, aside from the Breakfast Club.
She said being a long-time member of the book industry has contributed to her success. Stowell knows many book dealers and publishers who can supply her with quality books that her customers will enjoy.
She also provides customers with in- store credit when people can trade in their books for others.
Kieran Gordon, a customer of Palouse Books, enjoys shopping there. He enjoys talking to other customers and Stowell. He’s been coming to the store for two years and enjoys shopping there.
“It’s a good bookstore, it’s got interesting books,” Gordon said. “The people who run it are pretty interesting people too. They’re always good to talk to, and they have good information about books that are interesting.”
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As Moscow grows, Palouse Books continues to thrive. It has been running effectively for six years and shows no signs of stopping.
Stowell plans on having a party to celebrate Palouse Books’ sixth year in business on March 15. There will not only be a party, but a book sale as well.
Palouse Books is open Thursday through Sunday. Their hours are 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Sundays. Palouse Books can be contacted at [email protected].
Ryan Hill can be reached at [email protected]