Book Vault (IA)

My pick for Iowa's best book store, and there are a few excellent candidates. Located on Oskaloosa's main square, this places combines an amazing interior, great inventory, phenomenal customer service, and unmatched awareness. Linda is truly incredible with her guidance. Great writing inventory options and cards too. Love the use of the old bank Vault. Gotta visit.

My 8.5 year old daughter and I agreed this was one of our favorite stops on the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour. So glad the tour brought us out to Oskaloosa to this gem of a shop! Between the unique historic building, great variety of books, and fabulous assortment of Jellycat stuffies, there was so much to see, experience, and take home. 😉 We will undoubtedly be back!

WOW! Of all the Independent Iowa bookstores on the tour this year, Book Vault in Oskaloosa, Iowa was architecturally my favorite. It was freakin' cool, awesome, granie-solid, and vaultedy excitement with how they integrated the vaults, safe-deposit boxes and layout of the olde bank into this bookstore. We SHALL return! And specifically for the book, "Dracula Daily." The horror classic is read in story timeline time. So the tale starts in May (as in the book) and you read it as the characters experience each day's passing. You may read a page or two one day, and when the next event or day arrives in the story, you read that part. You may go days reading nothing...cuz nothing happens. It shall be wicked!

This place is such a hidden gem! Love that they utilize a vault for local authors and have the ability to order books online and pick up in store. Employees have always been super helpful and friendly. If you're ever in the Oskaloosa area, definitely pop by for a visit!