Read Booksellers by GR Doodlebug

We’ve been frequenting the toy store mostly, but this review is for the abnoxious store associate who as at the bookstore register. My kids were both allowed to pick a book each today, and when they sat down to skim through the pages, the lady who was there at around 3:30 this afternoon walks over to my 3 year old and says in a very condescending manner «make sure you don’t rip those pages!». Seriously, I wouldn’t let him read a book at a store if I wasn’t confident in his ability to be gentle enough with it. It would have been entirely different if she approached me and told me she was concerned OR even told him nicely. We paid for our book and toy at the toy store side… Will Definitely be rethinking a visit to the book store for a purchase again — who wants to be treated like that– definitely not us! Not to mention the $$ we’ve spent at this store to date. Sad how one unprofessional associate can lead to a negative review.

This was a fun book store to browse through and purchase a book to read.
Its at Blackhawk.

Stopped in looking for particular audio books and didn’t find. But what I did find is a very nice place to visit and browse around. Recommend checking it out as Italy fit your needs in a local business environment.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this bookstore! This is the Disneyland for book lovers! The décor is amazing, a treat for your senses! Wish I could live here for a while. I love the arrangements, a refreshing combination between Better Homes and all the books you ever want to browse, read and buy!
I’ve been here at least half a dozen times. Sherry, one of the staff was very friendly and most helpful with recommendations for good reads on my latest travels. This is truly a «go to» destination for out of town guests and locals. Love the gifts, books and toys? Oh boy, might have to go there again tomorrow.

A beautiful bookstore in the superfab Blackhawk shopping center! The store is large and somehow still quaint — and I have literally never seen a tidier bookstore. It’s very obvious the proprietors care about maintaing their store and making sure all items are clearly visible to patrons.
I was also very impressed with their selection of gift items, including several beautiful wedding day frames. Visiting this shop brought back great memories of visiting Borders stores.
Thanks for maintaing a beautiful shop!

We loved Read! Great selection and great customer service.
My 7 year old wanted to buy a little book for her friend for a Christmas present. She used her own allowance money.
They didn’t have the book in stock but offered to order it and have it in 3 days later. I was really impressed considering the book is only $ 5, but they did it and didn’t charge us anything.
Additionally, my daughter asked if they could wrap it. Again, i figured since it was just a $ 5 book, they would say they can’t do it, but they did, and they really wrapped it beautifully as well.
We come in here and GR Doodlebug weekly to browse and always leave with something!

This is a very nice toy store and book store for you and your little one to roam around in. They are the only toy store/​book store with a Chuggington train set and rail out (as opposed to Thomas). There are also various other toys out for play as well. They carry a nice variety of toys and I love browsing through it all while my son plays.

This is a great book store! So happy to have it in town. Aside from a nice selection of books, they have picture frames, stationary, art, and unique gift items. They will gift wrap, too!
I’ll be back to do Christmas shopping for those hard to shop for on my list.

Cool store… awful customer service…

This bookseller is the quintessence of what book shops used to be.
The staff members are intelligent, and eager to assist.
The displays are eye-​catching.
The inventory is eclectically broad.
May ‘READ’ be a sheltering island from the likes of AMAZON, the big-​box
retailers, Kindles, and other detritus… for many, many years.
Well Done, ‘READ’…and THANK YOU for showing that quality still
matters.

I feel so comfortable in this store that I could spend hours here. I frequently visit here for my son and always walk out with something. Nicely decorated with a very cute and well stocked kids area. Staff members are super nice and free gift wrapping with purchase. This store has it’s own unique vibe which I love. None of that book store chain experience here.

Beautiful store, great selection. While I would like a little less of the gifts displayed and more books, the rich breadth of exciting fiction and non-​fiction is really amazing for a small, independent bookseller. Best of all is the helpful staff. They know books and helped me find things that aren’t just on the best-​seller list. A nice alternative to a big box store. They have a fair amount of author events going on all the time.

It’s beautiful, brand new and has an upscale and inviting feel (after all, it’s in Blackhawk). The wooden bookshelves, wood floors, wood furniture, hanging globes and airplanes and substantial leather chairs evoke the feeling of your grandfather’s study, if your grandfather was a famous world explorer/​traveler. The bookstore is a decent size though the selection isn’t that extensive. In addition to books (just new books), they sell fancy writing pens, greeting cards, toys and small gifts — candles, desk accessories, tote bags, coin purses, letter sets, etc.
I wasn’t impressed with the book selection but I loved the ambiance… it definitely makes for pleasant browsing (followed by a cup of Tuttimelon fro-​yo).
My picks:
* A zippered pouch that looks just like a taco:
* Giant animal erasers
* Various cupcake themed gifts

I love going to read. It has the feeling of being in an old library– with a plethora of books, objects, notebooks, pens, cards… pretty much everything to occupy one’s attention. The employees were especially helpful and the items they suggested as Christmas presents were big hits. I also went to one of their author events in December for a new cookbook and got some great tips– plus a signed cookbook from the author– not too bad! It’s great to see a small independent store like this open in lieu of a big box chain. I find it so much more personable.

I dropped in today in need of some new reading material — this cold weather makes me want to stay under the covers with a good book.
It’s a smaller size shop… like a quaint, local bookshop. I did like the vibe in the store. Seems like a nice addition to the Blackhawk shopping center.
I browsed for a few minutes and found a book that looked interesting. I went to pay but unfortunately they could not accept credit cards. I think that it was due to a computer malfunction cause one of the workers said that the internet was down… but I’m not certain. I certainly hope that they normally do accept credit cards and were simply experiencing technical difficulties, cause who carries around cash or checks these days?!?
I may be back someday but I don’t typically frequent Blackhawk so it may be a while.

It kinda kills me to give an indie bookstore a 3-​star rating, but this place didn’t cut it for me. It’s pretty but there’s no soul. I was there for about 20 minutes. No one greeted me, no one suggested a book, no one noticed I was there.
Maybe it was me. I’ll try again and report back.

Before you walk into this store you can tell that they took pride in the design and the location. I had received several very good testimonials about Read and happened to shop there today while doing some last minute Christmas shopping. The store is stunning, the displays are top notch and the products in them are also very high quality. I was able to find some books that fit the gift I was shopping for and while checking them out at the register had a nice chat with the gentlemen there. I will be back.

I really wanted to love this place (and what it could potentially do for Blackhawk Plaza). Unfortunately I had to create a Unilocal account in order to tell prospective patrons about my experience.
This is a beautiful bookstore in a beautiful plaza. Books are full price, so you can get a much better deal on Amazon or even Borders. But I thought that the atmosphere and activities offered would make up for the pricey books. I’ve now gone to 5 kids activities — 3 «Santa Story Times,» 1 Saturday Story Time, and 1 Tuesday Craft Time. Cute ideas, but don’t work for kids. Although they are catering to moms with young children, the owners/​workers are so concerned about damage to the store that they «hover» (another mom’s words) the entire time, lecturing kids about picking up the toys and putting away every book they can get their hands on. The story times only last about ten minutes and the craft time was non-​existent. After feeling like we weren’t really wanted there, today we visited and saw the following large sign posted on the children’s activity table «Please enjoy our store with a friendly reminder that any damage done by your child is your responsibility. PLEASE WATCH YOUR CHILDREN.»
In summary, a beautiful store, but not for kids. Then again, the young woman browsing the magazines was also hovered over.

Nice new bookstore. Good selection of books, with a nice childrens’ section.
The three of us spent about twenty minutes browsing, with some of that the job of preventing the baby from pulling books down from the shelves, which is his «hobby.
As we were just browsing, we had no interaction with the clerk, which can be good and bad.