Unearth The Voyage
In Northwest Arkansas, one remarkable independent bookstore invites visitors to wander through more than 250,000 books, relax in a cozy café, discover rare literary treasures, and lose themselves among shelves that seem to go on forever. Guests come for endless browsing, collectible editions, comfortable reading spaces, family-friendly events, unique book displays, knowledgeable staff, and the thrill of finding an unexpected favorite. It’s the kind of place where stopping in for one book often turns into spending an entire afternoon exploring.
The experience extends far beyond the shelves. A welcoming café, community events, rare collections, creative displays, children’s books, literacy programs, and a passion for reading have helped make this one of Arkansas’ most beloved independent bookstores. Whether you’re a lifelong collector or simply looking for your next great read, it’s easy to understand why visitors happily return again and again.
Here’s why Once Upon A Time Books and Café has become one of Arkansas’ favorite bookstores and one of the region’s best destinations for readers of every age.
A Warehouse Address That Hides Something Magical
The address, 1094 E Henri De Tonti Boulevard in Springdale, Arkansas, does not immediately hint at what waits inside. From the outside, the building reads as a modest warehouse with a metal roof and a practical brick exterior.
But once the door swings open, the sheer scale of the interior reframes everything. Row after row of shelving fills the space from end to end, organized by genre, subject, and era, creating a navigable labyrinth that rewards patient explorers.
The store sits conveniently right along the highway, making it easy to spot without GPS gymnastics, and a generous parking lot means arriving stress-free is entirely possible. The Springdale location operates Monday through Saturday from 9 AM to 6 PM and on Sundays from noon to 5 PM. You can reach the store at 479-927-6001 or explore their inventory online at onceuponatimebooks.com before your visit.
From a Garage Full of Books to a Regional Institution
Greg Giezentanner did not set out to run one of Arkansas’s most beloved bookstores. He had a horticulture degree, a landscaping business, and a garage that quietly started filling up with books after a few volumes sold surprisingly fast at an antique mall booth in 1997.
That small experiment snowballed quickly. By 1998, Greg and his wife Cilinda were selling books on eBay, and by 1999 the landscaping business was closed for good. The couple committed fully to bookselling, eventually opening their first physical warehouse in 2004.
What began as a family side project has since expanded into multiple locations across Northwest Arkansas, including Fayetteville, Bentonville, and Tontitown. Their two children, Allison Harrison and Andrew, now serve as general manager and operations manager respectively, making this a true multi-generational enterprise. The Giezentanner story is proof that following a passion, even one that starts in a garage, can lead somewhere genuinely extraordinary.
Over 250,000 Books and a Vault Worth Finding
The inventory at Once Upon A Time Books is not just large in a polite, understated way. It is genuinely staggering. More than 250,000 books fill the Springdale location, spanning fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, textbooks, comics, audiobooks, CDs, DVDs, and vinyl records.
Some material on the shelves is over 300 years old, and at least one volume has been traced back to the 1830s. For collectors, the most exciting feature may be the dedicated book vault, a secured area housing rare, signed, and first-print editions that are kept separate from the general browsing collection.
The children’s section stands out as the single largest category in the store, reflecting the Giezentanner family’s deep commitment to reaching young readers early. Antique books are organized by the color of their covers in one particularly creative section, a detail that interior designers and aesthetically minded visitors have noted with genuine delight. There is always something new to find, no matter how many times you visit.
The Atmosphere That Makes Hours Disappear
There is a particular kind of quiet that settles over a well-loved bookstore, and Once Upon A Time Books has mastered it. The wide aisles and high shelves create natural pockets of calm throughout the space, each one feeling like its own small reading world.
A cozy couch and a classic rocking chair are tucked into the store, offering genuine spots to settle in with a newly chosen book before you even make it to the register. On rainy days, the metal roof turns into an accidental sound machine, producing a steady, soothing rhythm that somehow makes the browsing experience even better.
The scent of old paper and the soft shuffle of pages turning create a sensory environment that feels deliberately unhurried. Visitors consistently describe losing track of time entirely, arriving for a quick look and staying for hours. That kind of effortless absorption is rare, and it speaks to a space that was designed with genuine affection for the reading experience itself.
The In-Store Café With a Bookish Twist
Most bookstores would be perfectly satisfying without a café. Once Upon A Time Books decided not to test that theory and tucked one right inside the Springdale location, making a long browsing session even more sustainable.
The café serves coffee and tea, giving visitors a reason to pause, recharge, and settle into a chair with whatever they have picked up so far. The drink names on the menu are a particular touch of personality, each one a playful twist on a book title, which regulars tend to notice and appreciate after their first visit.
Pairing a warm cup of something with the sound of rain on a metal roof while surrounded by shelves of books is the kind of sensory combination that is difficult to replicate anywhere else. The café is not a large, elaborate operation, but its presence transforms the bookstore from a place you visit into a place you linger. That distinction matters more than it might initially seem.
Events, Book Clubs, and a Community That Gathers Here
Once Upon A Time Books operates less like a passive retail space and more like an active community hub. Scheduled events run throughout the year, drawing readers of all ages into conversations, creative sessions, and shared literary experiences.
Book clubs cover a genuinely wide range of interests. The Fantastical Fantasy Book Club caters to genre enthusiasts, while the Adventures in Reading Book Club introduces younger readers to early chapter books. A Summer Teen LGBTQ+ Book Club provides a dedicated space for teenagers to explore stories that reflect diverse experiences and identities.
Beyond reading groups, the store hosts craft nights through the Scrapbook Society, LitFlix events that blend books with film, and the Indie Book Club for those drawn to independent publishing. Midnight release parties for major book series have also drawn enthusiastic crowds. Each event reinforces the store’s role as a gathering place, not just a shopping destination, making it the kind of spot that earns a permanent place in the weekly routines of its regulars.
The Book Throne and the 13-Foot Tree That Stops Visitors Cold
Not every bookstore has a throne. Once Upon A Time Books does, and it is exactly what it sounds like: a custom-built seat constructed entirely from books, positioned so that visitors can sit down and feel appropriately regal while flipping through their latest find.
The throne is one of those details that seems minor until you actually encounter it, at which point it becomes the thing you mention to everyone back home. It captures the store’s personality well, equal parts playful and deeply serious about books as objects worth celebrating.
During the winter season, the store goes further with a 13-foot-tall book tree, a towering construction built entirely from bound volumes that transforms one section of the space into something genuinely spectacular. It draws visitors specifically during the holiday months and has become a seasonal landmark in its own right. These installations signal something important: this is a place run by people who think about books the way artists think about their materials, with creativity and a lot of care.
Championing Literacy Beyond the Storefront
The Giezentanner family has never treated Once Upon A Time Books as simply a place to move inventory. Their commitment to literacy extends well past the store’s walls and into the schools and communities of Arkansas in a meaningful, organized way.
For roughly two decades, the store has partnered with local schools to bring one-dollar book fairs directly to students and to offer educator discounts that help teachers stock their classrooms affordably. Homeschooling families also benefit from a dedicated educator discount card, a practical acknowledgment of how many books that community goes through in a year.
The most ambitious initiative is the Great Arkansas Book Giveaway, which uses a Bookmobile to visit elementary schools and give children the experience of selecting and owning their own books. In a state working actively to improve reading scores, this kind of grassroots effort carries real weight. The Giezentanners have also expressed plans to establish a nonprofit in partnership with other book dealers, aiming to distribute books to children across the entire state.
Pricing, Discounts, and What to Realistically Expect
Pricing at Once Upon A Time Books is a topic worth addressing honestly before your visit. For older, vintage, and antique titles, the prices are generally regarded as fair and competitive, particularly given the quality and rarity of what is on offer.
For more recent releases from the past decade, some visitors have found the prices slightly higher than expected for a used bookstore. That said, the store runs periodic sales, including significant discount events that can bring prices down to well below what you would pay at a standard retail shop. One visitor picked up a book for $2.60 during a 40-percent-off sale, which gives a sense of the range that is possible.
Educators and homeschooling families can apply for a discount card that provides ongoing savings, which adds up quickly for anyone buying in volume. The store also buys used books, though it is worth calling ahead to confirm current buying policies before bringing in a large collection. Knowing these details before you arrive helps set the right expectations and makes the visit smoother.
Tips for Making the Most of Your Visit
A visit to Once Upon A Time Books rewards those who arrive without a rigid plan. The store is large enough that a strict agenda tends to fall apart within the first ten minutes anyway, so the better approach is to give yourself a real block of time, at least two to three hours, and let the shelves guide you.
The sections are clearly labeled in most areas, which makes targeted searching possible, but the best finds often come from wandering into a genre you would not normally explore. The staff is knowledgeable and approachable, and asking for recommendations or help navigating the layout is always a reasonable move.
For those who cannot make it in person, the store maintains a robust online inventory that ships worldwide, and local customers can place orders for in-store pickup without paying shipping costs. The phone number is 479-927-6001, and the website at onceuponatimebooks.com keeps the online catalog current. Whether you visit in person or order remotely, the experience of finding something unexpected is almost always part of the deal.
