About Curbside Books
We bring the bookstore to you (in a literal trolley!)
Curbside Books started with a simple idea: everyone deserves a bookstore, even if that bookstore arrives on a big red trolley.
Today we pop up at coffee shops, wineries, markets, residential streets, and community spaces across the Treasure Valley, and she books for private events, book clubs, photoshoots, and reading retreats too.
If you love stories, slow moments, or bookstores that show up where you least expect them, we're so glad you're here.
What a visit looks like
Most stops look like this: a cozy, browse-at-your-own-pace bookstore inside a real vintage trolley, parked somewhere you already love.
- Used books worth discovering, with new titles arriving all the time
- Seasonal and neighborhood-inspired picks
- Bookish gifts (candles, prints, puzzles, and the like)
- A cozy space that encourages lingering and conversation
The free traveling tiny library rides along to every stop, and the full calendar lives on the events page.
Meet Dani and Snoots
Hi! I'm Dani, reader, trolley renovator, and the human behind Curbside Books. And that fluff-ball beside me is Snoots, my mini Aussie and self-appointed Quality Control Manager (he takes the role very seriously).
I also founded the Mobile Bookstore Society, where I help people around the country start mobile bookstores of their own (more neighborhoods, more bookstores).
Curbside started with the two of us, a lot of support from friends and family, and a community that kept reaching out to offer help, and it continues to grow.
Where it all began
I wasn't the kid devouring novels under the covers. Reading didn't become a true love until later, when Grandma Marie and I started trading books constantly, over cups of coffee and tea at her kitchen dining table.
As she got older, getting out and about became harder, and even a quick bookstore trip started to feel like a stretch. I wanted to bring books (and the community that comes with them) to her.
Then I read The Bookshop on the Corner, and it was the first time I'd heard of a mobile bookstore. Something clicked, maybe this is how we could do it.
It started smaller than a trolley
The first version of Curbside Books was a little book kiosk, opened in December 2024 while the trolley was still mid-renovation, with our very first pop-up at Winter Garden aGlow at the Idaho Botanical Garden.
Bringing Trolley Parton to life
Finding our trolley was its own adventure. My dad and I flew to Atchison, Kansas, where we met a 30-foot vintage trolley that needed a lot of TLC (we found her through a trolley broker, which is a real job that exists).
We named her Trolley Parton.
A year of tune-ups, paint, flooring, shelving, and stubborn determination later, she rolled into Boise as a fully stocked bookstore, and she's been out meeting the neighborhood ever since.
The trolley was just the start
Here's what we're building (some of it already rolling, some of it on the way):
The long-term goal is simple: help neighborhoods build their own third places through books, art, and shared experiences. Bookstores for the people who love them, and for the neighborhoods that don't have one nearby yet.
Thanks for being here
Curbside Books is built on the belief that stories matter, and that bringing bookstores into neighborhoods builds real community.
Come find us at a stop, bring the trolley to your street, or just say hi. Would love to see you.
Where we stop, the stories begin.