Redstick Reads is a little “Mom & Pop” bookstore and café off of Eugene St. that has been serving Baton Rouge with good reads and cookies since 2020. 

Owners Tere and James Hyfield started doing research on opening a bookstore after James left his position at Whole Foods. Tere said that while their quantity of life may have been good when he was working there, their quality of life was poor. They wanted to start and work for something that would make them happy. 

“What we were going to lose in money, we were going to gain in happiness,” Tere said. 

Some of their events this year include their Boozy Bookfair and their weekly story times, which are hosted at the store every Saturday morning with a wide variety of local authors. 

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It was at the Mid City Farmer’s Market where they started selling books out of a pop-up tent when the directors of the market and owners of MIMOSA Handcrafted Jewelry, Madeline and Dawson Ellis, offered them their office space to start their business. 

They signed their lease in February of 2020. In March of 2020, the world shut down because of Covid-19. In response, the Hyfields started delivering books and puzzles. The store officially opened in December 2020, but the pandemic limited the number of customers. The store became even bigger last summer when they expanded it by 300 more feet. 

“We’re just as surprised as anybody that people come in, in the world of Amazon,” Tere said. “I feel like we’re playing pretend every time someone comes in the door.”

Tere is in her 15th year of teaching 3rd-8th grade Spanish. Originally from Miami, Florida, she had a hard time enjoying reading because her first language was not English. A hurricane forced her to pick up a book in college, forging her love for reading. 

“While I was reading the book, I forgot about the fact that I was sweating in my living room, as miserable as I have ever been,” she said. 

Tere said one of the most important aspects of reading is finding yourself in a book or relating to a situation. She said there are benefits to relating to somebody like you and learning from somebody who is not like you. 

“Representation really matters, and people need to see themselves in a book,” Tere said. 

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Tere said that there is a “human connection” that people miss out on when they go the Amazon route. Their store gives a “homey” vibe, and customers can relax, browse for books and connect with the owners. She said that when someone makes the choice to shop there, they are helping their family. 

“We’re not Jeff Bezos, who is trying to colonize the moon. We are Tere and James, who need to pay our car bill and put dinner on the table,” Tere said.

My first impression of Redstick Reads was hearing a conversation between Tere and a young customer. Tere listened and chatted with the girl about the most recent book she read. “Great minds read alike,” she told her. 
Tere and James and Redstick Reads can be found on their website: https://redstickreads.com.