Peregrine Book Co.

It’s a real possibility that Ty Fitzmorris’ house may one day collapse from a critical mass of books. He’s concerned about it. So says Peregrine Book Co.’s website.

“To the detriment of wherever I’m living, I’ve always had too many books,” Fitzmorris admits. His wife, Michaela Carter, agrees: “We have a lot of books.”

The situation got dramatically worse after the couple (pictured) opened Peregrine in Prescott in 2012. Fitzmorris is a lifelong connoisseur of indie bookstores, and opening his own had long been in his plans. That was why he’d been trying to buy the building next to the Raven Cafe, which he opened with a partner in 2006.

The café was supposed to be part of a broader project. “It was based on Trident [Booksellers], in Boulder, Colorado, in my imagination,” Fitzmorris says. “And then I couldn’t figure out a way to get the bookstore adjacent to the Raven.”

But those plans accelerated dramatically when Barnes & Noble announced the closure of its Prescott store. “We were like, ‘We can’t live in a town that doesn’t have a bookstore,’ ” Carter recalls. “We need a bookstore, and this is a great opportunity for it to be an indie bookstore, instead of a chain.”

Since they couldn’t buy the building next to the Raven, Fitzmorris and Carter did the next best thing: They rented a historic building down the street and, inspired by Elliott Bay Book Co. in Seattle, remodeled the space with high ceilings, exposed trusses and wood floors.

They settled on the name Peregrine, in part, because of the relationship between ravens and peregrine falcons, which roost at nearby Thumb Butte. Fitzmorris had monitored peregrine falcons for the National Park Service, so there was that connection, too. But he and Carter really liked that as an adjective, “peregrine” means “having a tendency to wander.”

“That was the thing that lit us all up, because the ultimate way to peregrinate is through reading,” Fitzmorris says. “You can travel the whole galaxy, any continent, any culture.”

Unexpectedly, the couple got support from Barnes & Noble, which gave them shelving from its shuttered store. Fitzmorris and Carter also hired some of the chain’s former staff. But they got even more help from the founders of Tempe’s Changing Hands Bookstore.

“Gayle [Shanks] and Bobby [Sommer] came up to Prescott and gave us a masterclass in starting and running a bookstore,” Fitzmorris says. Tom Broderson, another Changing Hands alum, went even further, serving as store manager for the first few years.

Peregrine Book Co. opened at a time when pundits were predicting the death of print. “We got so many questions from so many customers: ‘How can you do this at this moment?’ ” Fitzmorris recalls. “I didn’t really believe it, and I don’t think either of us were really concerned.”

Time has proved them right. The rise in popularity of e-books was initially sharp, but it declined rapidly and eventually leveled off.  “I think it’s proved time and time again that the printed book is irreplaceable,” Fitzmorris says.

One of the more interesting aspects of owning a bookstore has been the window it provides into Prescott’s collective unconscious, Fitzmorris says. He and Carter expected that books about state history would be popular, and that’s been constant. The popularity of other subjects has fluctuated with the times. Interest in politics, for example, reached its heyday between 2018 and 2021. “Almost none of our readers want to read that stuff right now,” Fitzmorris says. “People get fatigued.” (What is hot now is romance.)

But besides giving customers what they want, Fitzmorris and Carter have nurtured interest in other subjects. With degrees in theater and poetry, Carter has focused on building up those sections, as well as literary fiction. Fitzmorris, who earned a degree in natural history and considers bees his true passion, feels proud to have fueled interest in natural history, science and nature publications. Although they didn’t sell well at first, “Now, we sell a lot of those books,” he says.

When they find books they like, Fitzmorris and Carter make them staff picks or suggest them for a book club. Given the extraordinary number of titles published each year, Fitzmorris believes that acting as a “book concierge” is one of the most important roles indie bookstores play. “If we’re just relying on algorithms,” Carter adds, “how do you find your way out?”

Book clubs serve what Fitzmorris and Carter see as another important role of indie bookstores: building community. “A lot of people who have moved to this town are grateful to have a place to meet like-minded people and talk about ideas and books,” Carter says.

In fact, the clubs have been so popular, it’s been a challenge to meet the demand. “[Customers] want more and more book clubs,” Fitzmorris says. “And they keep filling up.”