Our Story
Some ideas arrive slowly, accruing evidence over years until they can no longer be ignored. Unfettered Books is one of those ideas. It was born from two careers spent inside the world of books and business and from the persistent, shared belief that downtown Greensboro deserved another bookshop because variety is always a good thing.
The name says everything. Unfettered. Released from restraint or inhibition. We chose it not as a slogan but as a philosophy for the books we carry, for the conversations we hope happen between these walls, and for the readers who walk through our door looking for something they didn't know they needed.
At Unfettered Books, we stock the books YOU want to read, not the books WE think you should read.
"A bookshop should feel like a conversation, not a transaction." — THE IDEA BEHIND UNFETTERED
Where we came from
We've spent decades building things: retail stores, courses, businesses, classrooms. Lisa opened twenty stores from the ground up for Premier Retail and Tanger Outlets, and spent years in regional buying for Barnes & Noble College Bookstores. She knows how a good retail space breathes through knowing how inventory moves, how customers discover, how the right book in the right spot changes everything.
Brian has taught English composition, and American Literature at Guilford Technical Community College for years, closing every class with the same words: make it a great day, be safe and be healthy. He's spent his career believing that the intimate, honest conversation about what a book means is one of the most valuable things a person can offer another. Unfettered is his attempt to take that conversation out of the classroom and into the community.
What we carry — and why
We carry selections of new and used books that we curate based on what the community is most interested in reading. Our new selections are ordered each week based on demand and sales while our used selections are collected over time through strict hunting and cataloguing specific titles that we know the community is interested in. In the near future we will begin a trade / buy back program that will also add to our used selections.
We also carry yarn and fiber arts because we believe that making things with your hands and losing yourself in a story are the same kind of medicine. Lisa crochets. Brian reads. Both are acts of patience and attention in a world that doesn't ask enough of either.
We are proud to be the sole retailer of Malabrigo hand died yarn in Greensboro, and are continuously working with other distributors and manufacturers of yarn and fiber arts to increase our selection.
Our Native Literature section is curated with intention as it is informed by Lisa's Haudenosaunee heritage. You'll find Louise Erdrich, Tommy Orange, Terese Mailhot, Joy Harjo, and many others whose work demands to be read and discussed and passed on.
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Our daughter Tori handles our social media, coffee bar, and contributes staff picks. Her taste runs sharp and wide, and she's not afraid to tell you exactly what she thinks of a book. We think that's exactly right.
We're at 337 S Davie Street, a short walk from UNCG, NC A&T, Greensboro College, Bennett College, and the heart of downtown Greensboro. Come in. Have a coffee. Stay a while. Tell us what you're reading.