Book Boxes Thrive In Resident's Young Adult Online Bookstore

ASHBURN, VA — Owning an independent bookstore has been a longtime dream for Ashburn resident Jessica Taylor. After working in acquisitions for a publisher in Herndon for six years, Taylor made her dream come true.

In October 2024, Taylor launched The Reading Chamber, an online bookstore focused on young adult fiction. The bookstore is online only, but Taylor hopes to launch a physical location depending on where she and her husband buy a house. Taylor continues to freelance edit while running the online bookstore.

Taylor is passionate about getting teens reading, because they might not read as much as an adult if they don't read in their teen years. Her bookstore also gets interest from adults who enjoy nostalgic reads or understanding what teens are feeling.

"Just reading stories from people with different backgrounds and different identities, I think can really help shape readers," Taylor told Patch. "Just having more empathy and understanding of the world, any librarian or any teacher will tell you how important reading is for not just teenagers, but kids too."

The Reading Chamber features books from both traditionally published authors and self-published authors. Working in the hybrid publishing industry, Taylor has found a passion for supporting authors who self-publish.

"Independent authors, they struggle a lot with getting books to replacement," said Taylor. "So unless they're like a local author, it can be really difficult to get into those physical stores. But some of my favorite books are ones that were self-published, so I wanted to give more authors a better chance."

Along with selling individual books, The Reading Chamber offers book boxes with a book and other merchandise, blind dates with a book, and book-themed merchandise. Book boxes are the most popular offering, and The Reading Chamber has been featured by Buzzfeed as one of the best book box subscriptions.

"We do book boxes each month that are themed to each month," said Taylor. "October is spooky themed, and fall. Right now it's July, so it's very summer oriented, and they all feature independently published titles. So they're a book that someone most likely had not heard of yet, and it's before that goes into the bookstore so they get first dibs on it."

The blind date with a book is another special. Customers can fill out a form for a blind date and share their favorite books. Taylor will then choose a book from her inventory that she thinks they will like.

So far, a lot of the customer base is from Virginia, but Taylor has shipped to other states like Colorado, Connecticut and South Carolina. She's also spreading awareness locally through social media groups and connecting with local librarians and bookstores. Taylor plans to do a pop-up at Vienna Oktoberfest on Oct. 4 and in Loudoun County in the future. She also hopes to network with and partner with other local bookstores.

For more information, visit www.thereadingchamber.com.