Loose Leaf Pages serves tea and literature in Honesdale

IAN PUGH
Posted 8/23/17

HONESDALE, PA — Since its grand opening in May, Loose Leaf Pages has served as a welcome addition to Main Street in Honesdale: a combination bookstore and teashop that offers written works from …

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Loose Leaf Pages serves tea and literature in Honesdale

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HONESDALE, PA — Since its grand opening in May, Loose Leaf Pages has served as a welcome addition to Main Street in Honesdale: a combination bookstore and teashop that offers written works from independent publishers and local writers, tea from local sources and activities for aspiring writers and voracious readers alike.

“I was born and raised in Honesdale, and I’ve always loved reading,” says Cathleen Lathrop, the owner of Loose Leaf. “That was something my mom and my dad, both teachers, really instilled in me. So I went off to college for English literature—after that I lived in Maryland for a little while. But I came back home and saw how much was changing, and I felt like if there was any point in time to open a space like this, it would be now. Having a bookstore/tea shop had been running in my mind for a couple of years, and as a writer myself, I was always interested in getting my stuff published. But once I started walking into the publishing world, [I saw] what needed to happen and how not only competitive, but how controlling it was—it really was the inspiration for this space to be locally dominated and small-press dominated. So all the books in here are either by local authors or published through small and independent publishing companies.”

For Lathrop, the combination of books and tea is a natural one: “To me they go together hand in hand. To me—I grew up with tea, rainy days, tea and a book—it was like peanut butter and jelly. So complementary. If you added my pet cat in here, I’d never leave. I made the store that I would have loved growing up and what I see other people really enjoy. There are people who go crazy over the tea, there are people who go crazy over the books, and there are even more so patrons who come in who love both.

“While I curate all the books, I met a woman, Bridget [Gerow], who is our tea blender. So while I’ve always done miniature loose-leaf tea experiments at home, she has been studying it and has been interested in it... So absolutely, for one person, it might be overwhelming; you might want to have a tea shop or a bookstore, but with me focusing on the books and her focusing on the tea, it’s much more manageable. Plus, at least for me, this place is and always will be first and foremost an independent bookstore. The tea is a great cherry on top, and we do direct trade and we do house blends—we take any local or organic fruit, dehydrate it in-house, and that’s all great, but I’ve always been interested in the literature aspect.”

Given her own creative background and the possibilities laid out by her ambitions, Lathrop has considered what a print of her own would entail. “That very well might be in the future. Right now, with there being so much out there, I would ask, ‘why reinvent the wheel?’ Right now we have over 1,000 titles from different publishers who are doing a great job in my opinion, but to have an independent publisher in Honesdale would be great. Right now, the part I want to play is just bringing that to people’s attention. It’s something very similar to musicians or artists who create music and try and sell their CD, or have their art—much like here—in a gallery, and try and push it. I think there’s something that’s changing not only in the writing community, but the publishing world that is changing how people think about ‘vanity press,’ or what it was called. There used to be a kind of ‘turn-off’ to people who were either self-published or published from these smaller places. But to me, it gives the writer so much more power. When you look at it in the realm of the other arts, people have been doing similar things for decades, and I think it’s about time to change the perspective on literature that’s not published by a big name.”

In that vein, she looks forward to offering relevant opportunities for the local scene and its growing community of writers. “Month after month, it’s been better and better. Not only from the people who are local, who come in, but also the writing community. My next step, I really want to focus on a children’s and young-adult section, and I have people asking ‘how can we help you make this happen?’ There’s so much talent in this area, and when I say ‘this area,’ I don’t even mean specifically Honesdale, but the surrounding areas—and they’ve been so helpful, and they see what I’m trying to do. And again, even the people who are published and doing well, that’s great, but also the people who are young and just want to share their stories on an open mic, or hear from a published author how they’ve gone about either working on their pieces or publishing their pieces—that’s a space that I’m trying to provide. We’ve had workshops, open mics, readings, Q&As, book signings, so [I’m] trying to make this place a bridge [for] that gap—for people interested, and people who have already done it.”

Loose Leaf Pages is located at 627 Main St. in Honesdale, and is currently open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. For more information about the store and hosted events, call 570/253-0907 or visit its Facebook page at facebook.com/LooseLeafPagesInc/.

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