Out of the ashes: Popular Oakland bookstore reopens after devastating fire

After a devastating fire destroyed East Bay Booksellers in July, it was the pandemic-era all over again for owner Brad Johnson. He set up shop in a cramped break room offered by a fellow bookseller and got to work, once again, boxing up online orders. But he always knew the pivot to digital would be temporary.

“I think what we do—if we do anything special that makes people want to support us—has nothing to do with our digital presence. It’s purely physical,” Johnson said. There’s not much point to running a bookstore, he has found, if customers can’t make surprise discoveries while browsing or connect with fellow readers.

Now those opportunities are returning. On Nov. 30, Johnson celebrated the soft opening of his new storefront for East Bay Booksellers, welcoming patrons at 6022 College Ave. — about half a mile from the original Rockridge storefront.

Eric Seigel and his wife Suzy Logan, of Oakland, browse books at East Bay Booksellers on College Avenue in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. After help from a GoFundMe, owner Brad Johnson opened the store again on Nov. 30 after a devastating July 2024 fire at his previous location. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

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Johnson credits the reopening to support from patrons, including a GoFundMe campaign that has raised around $233,000 to help cover employee salaries, lost inventory, and other expenses.

“It’s been tough without the physical store, but the outpouring of support has been incredible,” he said. “The fundraising campaign allowed us to open more quickly.”

The reopening has been highly anticipated by patrons.

“We’ve been following Brad’s journey, and we can’t wait to see the new space,” said Emily Gordon, who was a regular customer before the fire. “It’s not just about the books — it’s about the energy Brad puts into curating the space and making it feel welcoming for all of us.”

When the fire left the store in ruins, Johnson faced an immediate logistical challenge. Without a physical location to receive shipments or fulfill online orders, he turned to a fellow bookstore owner for help. For four months, he operated out of Orinda Books, using its extra space to process requests.

The work was labor-intensive, with Johnson responsible for managing inventory, shipments, and customer orders from a small, makeshift space — all while maintaining his commitment to keeping East Bay Booksellers in the hearts and minds of its customers.

“The intention was to keep people reading, keep people connected to us,” Johnson said. “We wanted to provide the opportunity for people to get books, even if we could not offer the full in-person experience.”

The essence of East Bay Booksellers, which was known as Diesel Books before Johnson took over in 2016, has always been more than just selling books.

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“When I bought the store, it had been Diesel Books for almost 30 years,” he said. “It had roots in the community, with strong connections to authors, publishers and readers all over the Bay Area, and beyond.”

The new location is smaller, which brings its own challenges, from fitting in shelves to curating the right selection of titles. “It’s like solving a puzzle every day,” Johnson said. But he’s had some practice. During the closure, Johnson would regularly host pop-up stands at local businesses that featured indie Bay Area publishers, like Current Editions and Sming Sming Books.

Despite having to downsize, Johnson aims to maintain the essence of what made the store special: a diverse and thoughtfully curated selection of hidden gems from small presses and bestsellers from large publishers. “It’s a work in progress,” Johnson said. “But I didn’t want to sacrifice the diversity of our books simply because the space is smaller.”

As the store welcomes customers back, Johnson said they shouldn’t expect any radical changes to the experience. “It’s just in a different space. We want it to feel familiar,” he said. “It’s all about providing a space for discovery.”

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