Ever fancy a quiet spot to curl up with a good novel, away from life’s distractions? Or to find fellow book lovers without the pressure of joining a book club? San Antonio is suddenly alive with options that aren’t bars or cafés but another kind of place to hang out.
Libros Readers Lounge, a goth-themed, late night reading room, offers overnight hours in a cozy nook on West Hildebrand Avenue. Neotopia Books, a bookstore focused on theology, spirituality and philosophy, adjoins a hip vintage clothing shop in Midtown near San Pedro Springs Park.
Communion, inside a former church building on South Alamo Street, hasn’t established normal open hours yet but will evolve into a space dedicated to books and music, and the San Antonio chapter of the Silent Book Club has a twice-monthly meeting schedule at various locations around town.
These so-called “third places” — first is home, second is work, third is a place to hang out that isn’t necessarily a bar or café — are intended to create community for anyone who finds that being absorbed in a book can be as rewarding an encounter as meeting a like-minded person.
Libros Readers Lounge
Libros opened quietly and somewhat mysteriously in late January, offering a spot to read starting at 2 a.m. Mostly intended for service industry workers who finish their bar shifts in the wee hours, the dimly lit space was opened by the owners of Cream Cocktail Lounge next door.
But the space quickly became popular enough that open hours were expanded, now from 7 p.m. to midnight on Mondays and Tuesdays and 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. the rest of the week.
“We’ve been very well-received,” said Bilo Garcia, who attended the space on a recent weeknight. “A lot of people come over here and chill.”
For $5 admission, patrons receive a hand stamp that can be used all night. The space is divided into several rooms, with comfortable couches and chairs in each corner. A TV screen inside and a movie screen outside show films, music plays in the background, and the general vibe is that of a relaxed vampire cove.
The owner donated an initial bookshelf filled with fancy hardcover versions of books from a Charles Dickens novel collection to Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. Most of the other books have been donated by fans of the space, Garcia said.
Coffee and light snacks are available, though the selection might expand as the space evolves, Garcia said. He said most weeknights tend toward the low-key, while weekend nights can get a little bit rowdier.
Libros is mostly intended for late nighters who want to stay away from bars, Garcia said, though patrons are allowed to bring their own wine.
“There’s many [bars] everywhere in San Antonio. Everybody knows that. But spaces like this, we keep it chill,” he said.
Silent Book Club
A librarian’s stereotypical ‘shush’ would be most welcome at Silent Book Club. The idea is to gather and read, not alone in one’s home but with a group of like-minded readers who choose their own books and largely keep to themselves.
Cidnee Le’Sure learned about the nationwide organization on TikTok last June, then asked if she could restart a dormant San Antonio chapter and did so by July.
She wasn’t sure how many people would show up to the first meeting but was pleased to see more than 20 interested members.
Since then, to broaden potential membership and attract readers young and old, Le’Sure said, the club schedules meetups at diverse locations including the Granados Adult and Senior Center, the Normoyle Community Center and the Potranco branch of the San Antonio Public Library. A Feb. 4 meetup at the McNay Art Museum drew more than 100 members, Le’Sure said, in part due to enthusiastic interest and because the club is free to join and there’s no pressure to read a book selected for you in time for the meeting.
Le’Sure admitted that people are sometimes confused about the purpose of the Silent Book Club, but she said it explains itself when someone experiences it. She said the effect of being around other folks reading quietly or strolling through a space listening to an audiobook on headphones “is magical.”
Neotopia Books
Neotopia Books owner Jillian Shannon said she hadn’t heard of the ‘third place’ concept, but the idea fits her vision for the bookstore.
“I’m really drawn to that idea of a third place,” Shannon said, “because I have a recurring theme in my theology of the third option,” which she explained, is “because we’re in such a binary, divisive society, you know, look for the third nuanced option.”
The bookstore’s selection of new and used books reflects Shannon’s broad definition of theology, from James Baldwin essays on the faults of American culture to illustrated biographies of punk rocker Kim Gordon and filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Neotopia grew out of Shannon’s own collection of books by philosophical authors Thomas Merton, Simone Weil, Carl Jung, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Richard Rohr, among others she’s studied.
“All the books that I have are where science meets scripture meets philosophy meets experience and spirituality,” she said.
Shannon originally went to college to study theater, but her favorite class was Religious Studies. She went on to earn a master’s degree in theology from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.
In college, she learned not to look away from gaps in reasoning and instead to examine more closely the biggest questions about life’s meaning and purpose. She incorporated Neotopia Books as a nonprofit in order to grow a community of like-minded seekers without the pressure of consumerism, and she has held book fairs, hosted book club dinners and art exhibitions, and taught theology classes to further those ends.
She thinks of the space as “a sanctuary for seekers and skeptics” and said, “It’s important for it to be known that this place exists where you can ask bigger questions, and [seek] deeper and broader answers, and where people can commune about things that can be scary otherwise to talk about.”
Communion
The idea for Communion started out in June 2020 as a third place that would open up co-owners Michelle Maloney’s used book collection to readers and give access to spouse Chris Hernandez’s record collection.
The pandemic shutdown forced them to rethink the concept of opening to the public. “The major shift in our concept has been becoming much less conventional, much less tied to the idea of having a functional business or business plan,” Maloney said.
Communion space has not yet established regular hours but has hosted several music events, a fundraiser for a local activism group and, currently, an art exhibition.
As they look toward establishing a community hub for activist and cultural events, along with their initial books-and-music concept, Maloney and Hernandez are resolute in their determination to run a public space that charges nothing to enter and sells nothing to patrons.
“We don’t have a brand, we’re not selling something to you. I mean that very genuinely, because it feels like everything has been commodified,” she said.
“I prefer to see it as exciting and ephemeral and flexible in terms of we’re able to evolve to meet whatever we think the need is at the moment,” Maloney said.
