Great Escape Book Store

Walking into The Great Escape Bookstore immediately gives customers a small town feel in the big city. If these walls could talk, they would have a lot to say for the 40 years they’ve sheltered books and curious minds. Current owner Katya Nosko is a literary connoisseur who worked at the shop for about 12 years before taking over as owner in 2011.

For Katya, it all started when she was 17. While adventuring with a friend in Charlottetown, Virginia, she snuck into an old mansion with “trees reaching their branches into broken windows, and years of dripping water, creating its own wallpaper designs,” she describes. There she found an old room filled from “floor to ceiling with piles of books.” Katya became fascinated with the story unfolding before her of the owner of these treasures. While shuffling to collect and rescue the old books, the door mysteriously slammed shut as if they were no longer welcome. In a scurry, the friends grabbed one small schoolbook and made their escape.