Two sisters from Utah convert mobile bookstore into a stationary location

DRAPER, Utah – If you ever need a book recommendation, sisters Randi Rose and Kayleigh Dixon are the girls to ask.

“Our typical first question is something like: ‘Have you read A Court of Thorns and roses by Sarah J. Maas?'” Rose said.

If the answer is no, then The Book Box is the right place for you. If the answer is yes, then The Book Box is the right place for you. All you need is a passion for reading.

“All over Instagram, all over TikTok, people are starting to read again and everyone who reads wants to talk about it. They want to talk about what they’re reading or what they want to read,” Dixon said.

The two sisters launched The Book Box as a mobile bookstore in March. The trailer is currently located at the Traverse Outlets.

“Kayleigh has always wanted to own a bookstore since she was very little, and I recently fell in love with reading again,” said Rose.

“A bookstore seemed like way too much for us, so we made the trailer first and the response was so overwhelmingly positive that we thought, ‘We can do this,'” Dixon added.

Now, just three months later, the stars are aligned and they were able to open their first store in Draper, at 12300 South.

“We noticed that there are a lot of bookstores in Salt Lake County, which is great, right around Salt Lake City, and then of course there’s Poppy Books, which we absolutely love in Spanish Fork, and this was right in the middle,” Rose said.

In the book box you will find everything from fantasy to romance novels to horror. If you want to dare, you can even go on a blind date with a book.

“We all have reading slumps sometimes. So if you’re not sure what to read, this is a great way to do it: you go, you pick a genre, you get some pointers, and then you pick a blind book, you open it up and it’s like a little gift to yourself,” Dixon said.

This small, independent bookstore is exactly what book lovers like Sheila Mallett and Chalise Gaudio said they needed – even if their wallets may think otherwise.

“Everything is too tempting,” Mallett said.

“I’ve been to The Book Box in Traverse quite a few times, and when I saw that this was coming here, I was excited,” Gaudio said. “I think we’d both rather support small independent bookstores than the big chain stores.”

Dixon and Rose describe their bookstore as a book club for the “Scholastic Fair babies.” After a much-needed vacation, the sisters say the next chapter of their business will be about making it as fun as possible.

“We’re really looking forward to participating in events, book clubs, author signings and the like where we can bring a larger portion of the community together,” Dixon said.

The Book Box is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.