Earlier this year, the mobile bookstore moved into a permanent space on Campbell Avenue.
Writer and editor Angelo Colavita has spent the better part of his adult life involved in the bookselling business. Originally from Philadelphia, he worked at six different bookstores before moving to Roanoke and founding War On Books, a mobile shop that specializes in selling independent, radical literature with the goal of bringing new and underrepresented ideas to light.
Colavita says that War On Books has always been about providing a sanctuary for the community to explore literature that can help them garner knowledge that empowers them to challenge widely-accepted ideologies.
By nature, the reading material sold also tends to spark important conversations. In some ways, this has taken off in a direction Colavita hadn’t really considered before.
“I’ve seen a six-foot folding table with a few crates of books become a safe place for leftists and right-wingers to interact, to ask questions of each other that maybe, for whatever reason, they felt unable to ask under other circumstances. They’ve told me so,” he says. It’s also been fun for him to see people from all different points on the political spectrum find literature in the store they can connect with.
In May, Colavita decided to take a chance and turn War On Books into a primarily stationary venture.
When it came to selecting a location, he says that the atmosphere of the compact, half-underground basement was a big draw. “Even some of the lighting in the common area has total bomb shelter vibes,” shares Colavita. “Kinda fits in with War On Books’ ‘underfunded Cold War program’ aesthetic, right?”
It’s also fitting that the bookstore is located in Roanoke’s West End, which is where War On Books accumulated much of their initial following during its mobile-only days. If you miss the store’s pop-ups, you’re in luck, as Colavita plans on continuing them, primarily at Golden Cactus Brewing on Wednesdays, Sweet Donkey Coffee on select weekends and at some community events.
The new storefront is home to War On Bookclubs, which is free to join and meets monthly. It will also soon be the gathering place of A Page Against the Machine, a writing workshop guided by Colavita that will “help you turn your political tirades into refined, meaningful works of literature.”
As for the future of War On Books, Colavita has a stream of ideas in the pipeline he hopes to share with the community when the timing feels right. “This is as much a personal journey of discovery and expression through art and writing as it is a direct, militant, antifascist effort as it is a cool place to just hang out and meet people as it is a retail shop. I can’t wait to see how far I can take it, honestly.”
Be sure to follow the shop on Instagram, @waronbooks, to stay up to date on all their happenings. If you’d like to help support War on Books’ mission, you can donate by purchasing a Patreon membership, shopping in store or by making a purchase online at waronbooks.com.
