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More Than Words, a nonprofit bookstore and youth advocacy organization in Boston, Mass., has created a bookmobile that will hit the road this summer, the Boston Globe reported.
The bookmobile, which was built out of a four-wheeler truck and can hold up to 2,000 books in its 130-square-foot interior, will have its grand debut at Roxbury Community Week early next month. The truck has been outfitted with solar panels that power lights, air conditioning, and heating, and More Than Words chief of social enterprise Shaun Newell described the aesthetics as "urban modern."
Newell explained that the nonprofit thought of having a mobile bookstore about eight years ago, and first tried out the idea in 2019 with the use of a prototype built out of a trailer. However, when the Covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020, the plans for a mobile bookstore went on the back burner and the organization focused on its bricks-and-mortar store. Those efforts finally resumed in August 2022; Flexetail, a company based in Avon, Mass., designed the mobile store.
"We always wanted to be more flexible," Newell told the Globe. "We always wanted to get out. Books are heavy. We love them, but it takes some weight to get around. We wanted to figure out a way to get the product out in our communities.”
Following the Roxbury debut, More Than Words will take the mobile bookstore to locations throughout the Greater Boston area.