The Bookshop opened its doors in 1985, as a partnership between Bill Loeser and Linda Saaremaa, long-time booksellers in the Chapel Hill area. After more than 20 successful years, Bill and Linda decided to retire, and sold the store in the summer of 2007 to Eric Johnson of San Jose, California. Eric and his staff intend to continue the traditions of The Bookshop in Chapel Hill.

Being in an academic community (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) with two other major universities nearby (Duke University and North Carolina State), The Bookshop has always had a great selection of scholarly books in the humanities, social sciences, and foreign languages. Being in the South, we also have a rich supply of North Carolina and Southern history and literature, as well as a broad range of books in more than 90 different categories.

The 18,000 books listed on this site represent the best of our 100,000-book inventory and the most likely to appeal to a world-wide audience.

Our store is an open shop with books shelved by category. Our hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. We are closed on New Year's Day, July 4, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.