“Everyone knows beer trails. So why not book trails?” wondered Chelsia Rice, co-owner of Montana Book Co., in downtown Helena. “Book people make it a point to check out the bookstore when they go to a new town. Bookstores exemplify the community in which they’re situated.”
So when Rachel Elliot-Brug, owner of Reading Leaves Books in Townsend, contacted Rice with an idea to start a bookstore trail, she enthusiastically said “yes.” Along with a handful of booksellers throughout the state, they set about making the Montana Bookstore Trail, which includes 21 independent bookstores.