Midnight Readers offers curated books, handcrafted drinks, local pastries and special events
Love books? Love coffee? Love pastries? There’s the perfect place to satisfy your craving for all three — and it’s in Apple Creek: Midnight Readers.
“Midnight Readers is an independent bookstore and coffee shop built for people who love stories,” store owner Kara Smith said. “We pair thoughtfully curated books with handcrafted drinks.”
Midnight Readers began when Smith found herself homebound after an ankle injury and multiple surgeries.
“I began selling Blind Date with a Book online as a way to stay busy and contribute to my family,” she said. “The business grew rapidly, and my husband quit his job to help me run it out of our home. We quickly outgrew our home and moved into a commercial building simply to have more space to work. But the more we settled in, the more we realized we had an opportunity to create something bigger.”
What started as a workspace eventually became the bookstore and coffee shop.
“Today,” she said, “it’s a place where our community can gather, connect and share a love of stories.”
As an Apple Creek native, Smith wanted her business to be local. Midnight Readers is located in the building that was originally the Apple Creek Post Office.
Surprisingly, Smith did not always love reading.
“For most of my life, I thought I hated reading,” she said. “But as an adult, I discovered many different genres and stories and realized it wasn’t reading that I hated. I was just reading the wrong books. I now love experiencing new worlds and stories through reading.”
With a desire to create a community spot for Apple Creek — and a place to hang out with a good cup of coffee — the coffee shop seemed like a natural addition. It serves espresso drinks, lattes, cold brew, Lotus energy drinks, tea and chai.
“We also serve an array of pastries, like muffins and scones from a local baker, chocolate chip cookies made by another local baker and more,” Smith said.
The store’s signature offering is designed to help customers discover a book they might not have chosen on their own.
To experience a Blind Date with a Book, all a customer or gift giver has to do is choose a genre. Midnight Readers picks books rated three stars or higher on Goodreads and separates them by genre. Once the customer selects their genre, Midnight Readers wraps a book, writes a teaser on recycled book paper with the genre, and adds a highlighter, a reading log bookmark it has designed, a magnetic bookmark it designs and makes by hand, and annotating tabs. Blind Date with a Book is available in-store and online.
Midnight Readers also offers Blind Date with an Audiobook.
“It’s a new offering that is so unique and unlike anything else that exists out there as far as we know,” Smith said.
Blind Date with an Audiobook combines the joy of a surprise read with the convenience of digital listening. Each date includes a mystery audiobook selected by the store, with the genre chosen by the customer. The package includes an audiobook redemption code inside a custom 3D-printed miniature book that serves as a reusable keepsake and gift card holder.
Midnight Readers also has an audiobook listening station and recommends customers use Libro.fm as opposed to other big audiobook companies for online audiobook purchases. Libro.fm is an employee-owned audiobook purchase platform that directly supports independent bookstores. Midnight Readers gets a portion of every purchase made through its link. It functions similarly to bookshop.org.
As a community gathering spot, Midnight Readers offers special events and ongoing activities. These include four different book clubs — Blushing Hearts for romance, Myth & Moonlight for fantasy, Fates & Fairytales for young adult and The Page Turners for over 40.
“They all have specific names because we are all about romanticizing life in any way possible,” Smith said.
Midnight Readers events have included crafts such as painting, jewelry making, bookmark making, book bedazzling and more. It also does a variety of other events including special days such as Indie Bookstore Day and Audiobook Day and book signings and readings by local authors.
Midnight Readers stocks a mix of the newest releases, popular titles, classics and a large variety of sale books.
“We pay close attention to the quality of each book and provide great suggestions for anyone needing to find their next read,” Smith said.
For those who can’t get to the store or want something they don’t have in stock, shipping and special orders are offered.
“We ship books and our other bookish items daily and will custom order anything in,” Smith said. “We also love when people support us by ordering on bookshop.org.”
The website is bookshop.org/shop/Midnightreaders.
Not only are there always new books to explore, but also every season it launches a new menu with new drinks.
“We give every drink a unique name that is very bookish or literary/magical,” Smith said.
Readers also can keep in touch with the bookstore by signing up for its newsletter on the website or picking up a print version in the store.
“We make everything feel very mysterious and fun by making it seem like it’s written by ‘The Midnight Courier,’ who reports on all things happening at the shop,” Smith said.
Midnight Readers is located at 123 E. Main St., Apple Creek. The store can be called at 330-439-0053. Hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. Find Midnight Readers online at www.MidnightReaders.Shop, on Instagram at www.instagram.com/midnightreadersshop, on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@midnightreadersshop and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/midnightreadersshop.
