Dragonfly Books opens in downtown Decorah

Dragonfly Books opened this week in downtown Decorah at 112 W. Water. Dragonfly Books is owned and operated by Kate Rattenborg, with the assistance of her daughters, Rachel and Sarah.

Dragonfly will primarily deal in the sale of new books, with a few other book related items. They will carry some audio books, and may later include selected used books. Rattenborg wants to emphasize that this is a community book store, one that grows and develops with the needs and interests expressed by the community. She hopes to have many special events, work with book clubs, and do special ordering for customers.  She will also make e-books available. But rather than strictly confine Dragonfly to the store itself, Rattenborg hopes to do book related events at other local venues that have topical connections to specific books .

Currently the shop is still in set-up and organization stage, at about 60 percent capacity of the desired 10,000 in-stock titles. Rattenborg says that the image of the declining bookstore is not necessarily accurate. Many "big box" bookstores are struggling, but that is not really the trend with small, independent bookstore that provide unique atmosphere and capitalize on being local businesses.

Dragonfly hours are Monday thru Friday, 10:00 to 5:30 (8:00 p.m. on Thursday), and Saturday from 10:00 to 5:00. A special grand opening is planned for March 19.

Rachel, Kate, Sarah