‘The Road Virus’ mobile bookstore

Image credit: The Road Virus on Facebook

I’ve long been intrigued by bookmobiles’ capability to expand a library’s physical reach — and so, The Road Virus was an especially memorable aspect of our stay in Sacramento.
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The Road Virus is a bookstore that operates out of a retired library bookmobile. Its proprietors, Sade and Em, are, respectively, an author and former librarian who, in December 2016, purchased a retired bookmobile and converted it into a full-time living space and bookstore (The Road Virus, ‘About’).

Since last December, Sade and Em have traveled around the country and, for about a week-and-a-half in October, the Sacramento-area Dimple Records was hosting them at various store locations; we encountered them in Folsom.

The mobile bookstore carried an eclectic selection; it specializes in “fringe literature” according to the “About” statement for The Road Virus’s page on Facebook. More specifically, this includes “Horror, science-fiction, queer lit, subversive non-fiction, pulp pocketbooks and more.”

Among its offerings, I recommend The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships by Temple Grandin and Sean Barron. The book offers an excellent and thorough explanation of the “rules” that frequently elude people who are on the autism spectrum. I’d recommend this book to people on both sides of the social equation.

I left with Superconnected, a book by sociologist Mary Chayko on “The Internet, digital media, and techno-social life.” This book appealed to my interest, as a paralibrarian and journalist, in the ways that society engages with technology for connecting and information-gathering.

As of Sunday, Oct. 22, “Tour Dates” were listed through Saturday, Oct. 21. Keep up with The Road Virus via its website or Facebook for upcoming locations.