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Posted: 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015
New bookshop opens in Middletown
By http://www.journal-news.com/staff/ed-richter/" rel="nofollow - Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN —
As a student writing his first book,
Braydon Soale said finding a quiet place to read and write as well as get a cup
of coffee was hard to come by in Middletown.
So he decided to open his own bookstore.
After a year of rehabbing the building at 1385 Central Ave., Soale has opened Crab
Apple Books, a store that caters to book lovers and also serves coffee, tea and
other beverages.
“I wanted to have something where people
can find new and used fiction, nonfiction and history books as people like
buying half-price books,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure out what Middletown likes to
read.”
Soale, who co-owns Crab Apple Books with
his mother, Brenda, said wi-fi should be up and running in a few weeks and he
will be selling gourmet coffee from whole beans as well as teas at the
bookstore. The store also has small rooms where someone can sit and read a book
or do some work.
In the two weeks since its opening, Soale
said the store has already generated business from Cincinnati
State students as well as Middletown residents.
He said the building itself built before
the Great Flood of 1913. Soale said it was Middletown’s original Kroger grocery store
from 1910 to 1925 and from the 1930s to post-World War II it was a clothing
store. In the late 1950s and early 1960s,
it was a paint and wallpaper store and it was later used as an office by Armco
Steel Co. in the late 1970s as a employee office. Soale said Armco refurbished
and updated the building in the early 1980s. After Armco sold it, he said the
building was in disrepair until he acquired it just more than a year ago.
Soale is originally from Camden, and his father owned B&B
Automotive Repair on First Avenue
for a number of years. Soale started
college at Miami University Middletown and the history major graduated with an
education degree from Miami’s Oxford campus. He previously worked as a
teacher for Lakota Local Schools.
He is also active with Heritage Hall in Hamilton as its curator
and as a board member and said books and history are his main passions and collects
first editions books of American classics from the 1800s.
His interest in history led Soale to write
and self-publish his own book, “From Foggia to Freedom” which is the story of
50 World War II veterans that were held as prisoners of war in Germany. Soale
hopes to share his experiences in self-publishing his books to budding authors.
“I would love to help people get
published,” he said.
Toward that end, Soale is planning to
renovate the building’s basement to accommodate book signings of local authors
to sign their books and for writers workshops.
CRAB APPLE BOOKS
WHERE: 1385 Central Ave., Middletown
HOURS: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays
through Fridays; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays; closed Sundays
MORE INFO: www.facebook.com/crabapplebooks
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