A New Indie Bookstore Opens in Fort Worth’s Near Southside With Book Clubs, Open Mic Nights, and Art Crawls

In a changing world where technology continues to evolve, independent bookstores have unfortunately seen a decline in business, as consumers shift to online purchases and use digital platforms instead of physical books for reading. (Personally, you’ll never catch me with a Kindle.) But this hasn’t stopped bibliophiles from continuing to keep traditional bookstores alive, including the owners of Fort Worth’s newest independent bookstore, Recluse Books, on South Main.

Opened recently on Main Street, Recluse Books is the creation of owners Josie Smith-Webster and James Webster. Josie, who grew up in nearby Arlington, met James while working at a bookstore together in New York City in early 2019. The couple moved to Fort Worth in 2023 to be closer to family and opened the bookstore in Near Southside to give the community a local gathering place where they can also immerse themselves in new ideas and stories.

“Near Southside has such a strong sense of small business community and culture, and that’s what we were looking for when dreaming about the store,” Josie tells PaperCity. “We want to know the names and lives of our neighbors and be able to collaborate on events and programs that can reach the whole neighborhood, and we found that immediately here.”

Browse the shelves and you’ll find a little bit of everything, from children’s books and about a dozen nonfiction sections to adult fiction and more. They carry a lot of small-press titles as well, plus various translated literature, which Josie and James recommend. Can’t find what you’re looking for? Just ask Josie or James, and they can order it for you or recommend something similar.

“We’re thrilled when someone leaves excited about a book they hadn’t known existed before walking in,” Josie says.

As far as favorites go, Josie is recommending books to get people out of their reading comfort zone, such as short story collections or novellas, if you’re used to plot-heavy titles, for example.

“I’ve loved Robin McLean’s Get ‘Em Young, Treat ‘Em Tough, Tell ‘Em Nothing recently,” she notes, while mentioning that James is excited about Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu, which publishes next month. Want a challenge? Josie says that I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita is well worth all 600-plus pages.

And the bookstore’s name, Recluse? It comes from the owners’ fascination with the idea of the “reclusive author,” who we usually only know through their books, plus they thought of reclaiming a word with a negative connotation.

“We liked the idea of reclaiming it for the introverts. There’s a lot we can discover about the world and ourselves through stories, and much of that work we’re doing alone,” Josie says. “There’s also something a little tongue-in-cheek about it, too, by intentionally curating a community space for what is often such a solitary activity.”

Aside from a wide array of books, merch, and greeting cards available for purchase, Recluse also hosts events like a lo-fi (no technology) open-mic night, where guests are invited to read their own writing, pick a tune to a guitar, or read someone else’s poem that they love (while giving credit where credit is due). There are also themed book clubs that meet weekly, and the Third Thursday Art Crawl, which promotes local artists and encourages the community to shop local.

“Every neighborhood deserves their own indie bookstore,” says Josie. “Fort Worth is a long way from that kind of saturation, so we figured we might as well start our own.”