Originally from St. James, Missouri, Larry Bowen has lived in Rolla since 1979. Practically living at the Lucy Wortham James Memorial Library in St. James as a youth, Larry has always been an avid reader and enjoyed being surrounded by books.

He attended Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri where he majored in business and minored in accounting. He worked in residential and commercial construction in the summers between semesters of college and after finishing school he moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin where he spent four years as a  carpenter and expeditor for a  firm that built motels and apartment buildings.

Larry moved back to Missouri and settled in Rolla where he worked for the University of Missouri at Rolla for six years. He began working at Powell Lumber Company in Rolla in 1985 as a construction estimator and contractor’s outside salesman and spent the next 16 years there until the 91 year old company closed it’s doors in June of 2002.

How to Start a Bookstore

After the lumber company closed, Larry discovered online book selling and in just a few months he was spending most of his time at book fairs and sales across Missouri, Illinois and Kansas acquiring books to sell on the Internet.  The idea of opening a bricks and mortar used bookstore began to take shape in early 2003 and he spent the next two years reasearching the used book business. Larry shadowed bookstore owners in Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia, Missouri. With the wealth of information and advice gathered from these gracious booksellers, he started to form the vision for what would become The Reader's Corner. 

Larry bought the building that Rolla residents will remember as Rolla’s first Subway sandwich shop at 819 N. Pine St. in downtown Rolla, Missouri. He took possession of the building on September 2nd, 2004 at 10 AM and started demolition at noon that same day. Over the next ten months, working 10 to 12 hours a day mostly by himself, he gutted the 100 year old building and restored the inside and outside of the structure to its present condition including the design and construction of the custom built bookcases. One of the unique and most commented on features of the store, the rich, antique mahogany finished bookcases took 160 sheets of plywood, five thousand feet of moulding and two months to build and finish.

Our Business Philosophy

Central to the idea of owning and operating my own business was my feeling that consumers have become bored and dissatisfied with the generic, “big box”, mega stores that have devoured retailing in the last thirty years. Customers are no longer treated as the reason a business exists, please and thank you aren’t in employee’s vocabularies and service is mostly of the serve yourself kind. Because of that, I have endeavored to provide a unique store with a warm, friendly atmosphere where customer service and satisfaction really are the most important things we do, not just an advertising cliché. At The Reader’s Corner, my professional staff and I genuinely care about your satisfaction. We pride ourselves in the quality of used books in our inventory and in knowing customers by name and reading interests. We’re always happy to find out of print books and special orders are a large part of our business. We’ll do whatever it takes to make your visit with us a pleasant experience that will make you want to return again and again.

Involvement in the Community

Since moving to Rolla, Larry has served on the Board of Directors of Big Brothers and Big Sisters and was a Big Brother for three years. He coached and refereed Optimist Basketball for eight years, volunteered with the Friends of the Rolla Public Library for ten years and served on their board of directors for two terms as president. He has been on the Rolla Free Public Library Board of Trustees for the last seven years and is currently serving a three-year term as President of the board. He has been involved with the National Association of Home Builders, the Rolla Jaycees, is the Vice-President of the Rolla Downtown Business Association and is a member of the Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce.