In the heart of downtown McKinney, lovers of the written word have a new shop to find books that can range from T. S. Eliot to Britney Spears.
The independent bookstore is offering 3,000 items in what was once a hardware store that dated back to the 1880s, according to co-owner Joey Honescko. Neighbor Books, which covers about 5,000 square feet, gives visitors an airy, welcoming environment with plenty of room for browsing and comfy seats for reading and chatting with friends.
“I love what we are doing,” Honescko said. ”I really believe in the power of neighborhoods — the name Neighbor is not like, cutesy. It’s like everything I believe in, pretty much. And it’s this idea of you being embedded in your community.”
While independent bookstores can be found in the city of Dallas, Neighbor is providing something more uncommon in Collin County — at least with the selection and genres they’re offering. The titles can range from cookbooks and novels to children’s titles and memoirs — and Honescko’s particular passion, poetry.
“There’s a world for more indies,” Honescko said.
Beyond North Texas, independent bookstores are getting more attention. Over 200 independent bookstores opened for the third straight year in 2023, according to the American Booksellers Association. Neighbor, while not currently a member of the group, opened in July before a grand opening the following month.
Neighbor — which formerly housed a store for comic book fans — welcomes visitors with walls lined with books and a loft that oversees the main area.
Honescko was careful in how the books are organized. For example, a fiction section is organized by author — and not locked into specific genres — to give shoppers the opportunity to stumble on titles they may not have otherwise discovered on their own.
He said he hopes the books can spark curiosity amid visitors, as Neighbor enhances connections among the people who live and work around his bookshop.
“[It’s] this idea of you’re stepping into another person’s imagination; you’re stepping into another person’s view,” Honescko said. “I always say it trains us in the act of empathy, and it trains us in the act of paying attention.”
An avid reader, Honescko has long been involved with writing, having worked projects that included ghost writing a book. Honescko, who previously worked at Faith Driven Entrepreneur as a content producer before Neighbor opened, began to seriously consider the idea of opening a bookshop roughly a year ago.
Then, when the space opened up earlier this year in McKinney, the time came to make a decision and step forward. Honescko co-owns Neighbor with Jonathan Robinson, founder of Indie Shops, which is involved in other similar stores in Alabama and New York. Ginny Honescko, Honescko’s wife, is another co-owner.
”When the space became available, that was really where it was like, you’re either going or stop pretending you’re going to do this,” Honescko said. “There’s a line that you have to cross.”
