VaLinda Miller uses her love of books to open Turning Page Bookshop | Arts+Movies - Charleston City Paper

"I want to give back to Goose Creek what it gave to me," says VaLinda Miller, the owner of Turning Page Bookshop. 

Photo: Ruta Smith

Those are the words Miller lives by, not only as an independent bookstore owner, but as a book lover herself.

Turning Page Bookshop is the newest addition to independently owned bookstores in the Charleston area, and the second African-American-owned bookstore in South Carolina, alongside the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination in Greenville.

Before Turning Page Bookshop opened its doors on June 1 of this year, Miller commuted to and from Seneca, S.C. at the former bookstore she owned, The Booksmith...

When entering Turning Page, a table in the center is filled with best-sellers like Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness by Jennifer Berry Hawes and Becoming by former First Lady Michelle Obama, and the walls are lined with bookshelves, each dedicated to its own genre: Bibles, Christian books, local authors, fiction, YA novels, cookbooks, and more.

Though a lot of the furniture was new and the walls were repainted, Miller kept several former designs from the previous tenant. The wall moldings that framed the styles of glasses were kept, lining the top of the bookshelves for an added aesthetic, and the mirrors were kept to keep customers engaged with the books and themselves.

"People can come in with their laptops and work on a project or paper, or can pick a book from a shelf and start reading," says Miller. "I want people to come here and feel comfortable and enjoy themselves. I want them to feel at home."
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Source: Charleston City Paper