Revati
A vivid red building stands on Walnut Street in Old Town, Fort Collins, its brick walls weathered by nearly a century of service as a firehouse. Today, the old station is split in two: The right side hosts Happy Lucky’s Tea House. The left is filled with books.
Old Firehouse Books opened in 2009, but Revati’s been working for the store since 2007—back when it was called The Book Rack and sat next to the Dairy Queen on her college campus. She came to Colorado State University planning to become a veterinarian. She worked as a vet tech for a while—even left Fort Collins for a job in Seattle.
“But then I found my way back,” she shares.
Revati is now the manager of Old Firehouse Books. She’s planning to buy the shop with a co-worker next year.
“My main challenge was what to do with my career. Deciding to stick with being an independent bookseller was probably the biggest thing. That’s a leap that’s coming up, but that was a long time in the making.”
Revati couldn’t tell you her favorite book, but she loved the last one she read: Katabasis by R.F. Kuang. She enjoys meeting people in the store and bonding over shared passions. She leads “Queer and Loathing,” one of the shop’s four book clubs.
“I’m very introverted, but at work, I have an excuse to be extroverted. It’s a really good place to connect with people individually—like customers, a lot of people in the community from different organizations we donate to, or businesses we partner with. Just a lot of connections.”
“A lot of people use us. Tourists use this as a help center. It’s not what we are. They just think, ‘Books: they’ll have the answer to something.’ So you just get to have a good finger on the pulse of a lot of people that come through.”
Revati not only found her career here. She clicks with Colorado, its rhythm and space.
“It’s really easy to get away and just feel like you have room, to just be kind of isolated if you want. But then you can check back in, and there’s stuff to do.”
She believes people tend to forget that second part far too often.When asked to give advice to her fellow Coloradans, she shared: “Find ways to engage with your community, even if it’s doing your favorite thing or going to your favorite store regularly. You’ll meet people that share interests, that talk to you. . . . We need human connection. People, even introverts like me and quiet people, are hungry for that.”
That basic human need helped Old Firehouse Books thrive during the pandemic. In a time when the shop could have dwindled, Revati watched her community flock to the old firehouse.
“People during that time were really cognizant of what we could lose, so we had a lot of good support from the community, of like: ‘Hey, do you need us? We’ll order books from you more.’ I think it also helped to give people a chance . . . to walk outside the house, an excuse to do that: to come pick up a book. . . . Honestly, the people around here really stepped up and ordered from us. I think we got some new customers from it.”
