Tall Stories, located at 164 Cherry Road, is a bookstore that specializes in mostly sci-fi, fantasy, and mystery genres. The store has collectible items and many signed books as well as first editions.
The store is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is a family–owned business. The owner, Donna Rankin, runs the store with her daughter–in–law, Ashley Rankin. Jenna Deaton, a Winthrop alumna who works Winthrop, is also an employee at Tall Stories.
Donna Rankin used to live in California and had many bookstores down there until she decided to move down to South Carolina to be closer to her family, and that’s when she decided to open a bookstore in Rock Hill.
“We had moved to this coast about eight years ago from California,” Ashley Rankin said. “And when my son Dylan was born, about a year later, she was like, ‘I don’t ever want to leave.’ And I’m like, ‘I love that.’ And so I volunteered to help her unbox some books. And all these years later. I’m still unboxing, but I love organizing. And so it works.”
Although the store is only open a couple of times a week, the employees are always there putting in the work and keeping the business thriving.
“We opened in May 2019, and we were going great. And then, all of a sudden pandemic hit, and we had to close. And so, we had to figure out another way to be able to support the bookstore.” Donna said, “So, we spent all of our time cataloging and doing online sales. And we’ve just, that’s just taken off and done really, really well for us.”
The bookstore, located within walking distance from campus, has a good deal of customers who are Winthrop students.
“We have people that are looking for literature, like I say we have a lot of students who are interested in theater will find books for them,” Donna Rankin said. “Another genre that has always been a popular one is poetry, we have a really good poetry section, lots of science fiction.”
Tall Stories carries a lot of older fantasy and sci-fi books, so with so many books being adapted into shows, many customers come looking for the books the shows are based on to read.
“They’re all into everything that’s current in with the media, and the shows that are on Game of Thrones, and we have newer books, but a lot of the older books are now such as Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Lock and Key,” Donna Rankin said. “So we have all of that.”
While the banning of books continues to happen in states like Tennessee, Tall Stories also collects banned books that are not being provided in schools.
“We will sell any banned book; we don’t believe in banning any literature.” Donna Rankin said, “We don’t believe in banning books. That’s shutting people’s minds off. Readers should have the choice.”
