The following is from Michael Scialfa, owner of Lake Tahoe Books and Art Windows on the Sierra and Beyond. Follow them on Facebook here.

An open letter to our patrons:

As you may know, Lake Tahoe Books and Art was conceived as a “pop-up” store designed to service our community for the winter holiday season. We do not have a long-term lease at our present location and it is not yet altogether clear how long we will be able to renew our month-to-month lease options.

In the meantime, we thank all of those that have visited, especially those that have supported us through a book purchase!!! Many of the folks who have visited have told us how much South Lake Tahoe needs a bookstore and how glad they are to see one again, but we are not so sure folks realize how critical it is to support local merchants with store purchases, in particular specialty stores designed - in part - to help build community identity. So we have two things to let you know about.

One, we will be open at least through the end of February. We have some 1,500 titles in stock, and thanks to customer recommendations, our collection of fiction continues to grow. Better yet, we are still offering our special-order promotion – prepaid special orders are 15% off, with no shipping charges and typically arrive within 3-5 days. We would like to think that is pretty competitive pricing – and brings you more than just a book . . . it helps build our town's sense of community.

We will be taking special orders up through the time we are open and will have arrangements for order pickup at one of our fellow Village Center tenants. So if you haven’t been to our store yet, please visit and let us know who you are, what you read, and weather we can help you source a good read at a reasonable price. You can also go to our (or your own) Facebook page and “share” us with your Facebook friends.

Help us explore a community bookstore model. The second item is that we are beginning to think about what Phase II of Lake Tahoe Books and Art might look like. We have had a number of excellent suggestions and have been approached by several potential “partners” so to speak. We even have some ideas of our own. But we would like to hear more.

With the goal of exploring what it would take to develop a more permanent community bookstore here at the south shore, we would like to invite you – the reading public – to one of two meetings to help us learn about what our community would like to see in such an endeavor. In addition, these meetings will allow us to inform folks about what bringing a bookstore back to the south shore requires; and to help us identify those individuals and organizations that might be able to help make that happen. Perhaps you have information or feedback you would like to share on any or all of those agenda items. We would love to hear it!

The meeting will be held at the store on Wed. Feb 22, from 5-6:30 PM. We invite all those that have an interest in the value of the presence of a local bookseller here at the south shore to attend. Seating is limited of course, so if you plan on attending and can let us know, that would help us prepare the meeting space. We will also have the store open after the meeting, and as a thank you, attendees will have the opportunity to purchase books at a special 15% discount.

You can reach us during store hours at (530)600-2020 or any time at (530)542-3245. Hope to hear from you soon.

- The Staff at Lake Tahoe Books and Art