Editor’s note: This story, originally published at 11:37 a.m. on Nov. 22, 2024, was updated on 5:51 p.m. on Nov. 22, 2024, to add that Amazon Books opened a Bethesda row months after Barnes & Noble closed in 2018. It closed in 2022.
Two Chevy Chase residents will realize their dream of opening an independent bookstore when their business, Wonderland Books, opens its doors in early December in downtown Bethesda.
Co-owners Gayle Weiswasser and Amy Joyce said this week they are aiming to open Dec. 6 at 7920 Norfolk Ave. in the Woodmont Triangle neighborhood.
“Having a bookstore has always been a dream,” Weiswasser told MoCo360 Thursday, who noted that downtown Bethesda has been without a bookstore since Barnes & Noble closed in January 2018. Months after the retailers closure, Amazon Books opened a location on Bethesda Row. Amazon Books closed its doors in 2022.
“I zeroed in on Bethesda pretty quickly because there’s no bookstore in Bethesda … it’s also just a very great fit for a bookstore. It’s a very engaged, vibrant, educated community of people who are readers,” Weiswasser said.
Weiswasser is a former lawyer and communications executive turned “book influencer” who writes the Every Day I Write the Book blog and participates in The Readerly Report literary podcast. Joyce is a former Washington Post reporter and editor who said she left the newspaper in December 2024 to work full time on her dream of opening an independent bookstore.
Aside from selling books for adults, teens and children, the owners plan for Wonderland Books to host panel discussions, author talks, books clubs, game nights and private events. Overall, they hope the shop will be a “community space centered around books.”
According to the owners, the bookstore has planned January events including a dog adoption event and a discussion about mothers reentering the workforce.
“A lot of it is going to be dictated by the community,” Weiswasser said. “We want to see what the community is interested in and what kind of authors they want to hear from and what kind of topics they want to hear about.”
This week, contractors added signage to the store’s façade and received a delivery of bookshelves that will be installed over the weekend, Joyce said. After the installation, the store is expecting a delivery of about 11,000 books.
“Gayle and I and bunch of our friends and family members will be spending the week before and after Thanksgiving putting all [the books] into our system and shelving them and making everything look great,” Joyce said.
Weiswasser and Joyce said they have received a lot of community support as the news of Wonderland Books’s upcoming opening has spread.
“Anytime we’re over [by the store], people stop us, people we don’t know [ask] ‘When are you going to open? I can’t wait,’” Joyce said. “So that has been the thing that I’m so excited about, is just being in that store and actually finally being able to open those doors and have the community coming in.”
