Book Vault — Local services in Oskaloosa

WOW! Of all the Independent Iowa bookstores on the tour this year, Book Vault in Oskaloosa, Iowa was architecturally my favorite. It was freakin' cool, awesome, granie-solid, and vaultedy excitement with how they integrated the vaults, safe-deposit boxes and layout of the olde bank into this bookstore. We SHALL return!

And specifically for the book, "Dracula Daily." The horror classic is read in story timeline time. So the tale starts in May (as in the book) and you read it as the characters experience each day's passing. You may read a page or two one day, and when the next event or day arrives in the story, you read that part. You may go days reading nothing...cuz nothing happens. It...

I visited this store on a lazy Sunday afternoon after enjoying lunch at the adjoining Smokey Row coffee shop and Cafe. It's a great one-two punch of food and shopping. The Book Vault offers a wide variety of reading materials, including a great selection of cookbooks and Iowa interest books and maps. The KITCHEN supplies, WRITING and JOURNALING materials, TOYS, and DECOR are delightful surprises which I tapped into for Christmas gifts (get 'em early folks and stash them well!) I've noted before, but it's worth repeating, the locals do a good job offering a wide variety of shopping...

I love a good book store and when its right next to one of my favorite coffee shops its a even better. Located right next to Smokey Row this book store has everything from local history books to kids books to cook books and everything in between. Its also more than a book store with great gifts for the kitchen or games for the family. I loved browsing the 2 levels while sipping my hot tea. If you love a good bookstore this one is charming and you can feel the history of the building with the different vaults full of books. Ill be...