About the Shop

flyleaf provides thousands of quality used books for purchase, and is sprinkled with brand new books as well. Each book is sought after, considered carefully and added to the shelves after careful consideration. This gives the book shop its reputation as a place to find great books in gently used good shape. flyleaf is also a place for book clubs, writing workshops, story hours for kiddos, and is the hub for the New London Story Show.

A flyleaf is the blank page at the front or back of a book. In researching the website Textual Histories, it is discovered that, “ The endpapers are supplied by the binder and serve the purpose of strengthening the book and protecting the opening and closing leaves of the text block.” (emphasis added)

This was the perfect name. The metaphorical meaning, of strengthening and protecting a story. It’s almost too much. Every story needs blank space for notes and edits, for remembering, circling back, or beginning again. And every story, or life, becomes worn down and tired with use. We need the strengthening purpose of the blank page flyleaf. We need space to rewrite some chapters a time or two. We need space to tell our own stories, and to honor the stories of those around us. flyleaf lives within the walls of Lake Affect Coffee on Main Street in New London, Minnesota. We are a quaint and creative community. This combined business bookstore/coffee shop (coffee and books, together, it’s great!) is a part of a network of New London’s wildly interesting, vibrant and unique shops, studios, boutiques, art installments, galleries and more. Visit us!

Heather King, flyleaf’s owner, grew up in the New London-Spicer area, moved from here to there for many years, and returned to New London in the spring of 2014.  Heather became a blogger many years ago and gained a wide readership, helping her to become a freelance writer and then she added print publications to her repertoire. She is a lifelong dreamer, lover of stories, the smell of a bookstore, and the endless options for getting lost in pages. Heather is the mother of three children, Miles (2005), Asher (2007) and Elsie Jane (2011).