By: Grace Braswell 

For Joshua Rigsby, opening a book store has always been a dream. That dream became a reality when Pretty Good Books opened its doors on Dec. 17 in LaGrange. 

Rigsby has always had a passion for books and reading. He started his first book business as a shelf on River Market Thrift, a used item store in Valley, Alabama. After the success with selling at the thrift store, he began to sell books online through platforms such as Facebook.

“People were buying the books like crazy,” Rigsby said. “I had always wanted to start up a book shop, and when we moved to LaGrange, my wife and I thought this would be the perfect place to start one.” 

When Rigsby moved to LaGrange a few months back, one of the first things he noticed was that there was no book store in the area. His love of reading and people that read pushed him to open a store of his own that will be an easy-going place for book-lovers in the community to feel at home. 

“We want people to come in as they are. This is the kind of place where people can just come and read, nothing fancy. We’re here for a good time,” Rigsby said. 

With such a laid-back atmosphere, Rigsby knew his bookstore needed to have a name that matched. 

“When we were deciding on a name for our store, we wanted something that would be pretty good, like just a good book. That’s sort of the simple version of how we came up with Pretty Good Books,” Rigsby said. 

As an English professor at Columbus State University and a father of young children, reading and literacy is something that Rigsby feels very strongly about. 

“Reading offers experience,” Rigsby explained. 

“Reading makes people empathetic, improves cognitive skills and lowers the chances of developing dementia.” 

Pretty Good Books offers over 20,000 different books with all types of genres. 

The store is located on 1591 Vernon Road and is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.