Oglethorpe Alum to Open Independent Bookstore in Atlanta

Lindsi Bollinger, a 2016 Oglethorpe graduate, will open an independent bookstore called Offbeat Books in Terminal South later this summer. As the first and only speculative fiction focused shop in the southeast—and South Atlanta’s sole independent bookstore—Offbeat Books intends to bring eccentricity and otherworldliness to the city’s literary scene. 

Offbeat Books will carry mainly sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books with an emphasis on the wacky. “It’s basically going to be a bookstore for weird girls, unhinged women, and their supporters,” said Bollinger, who identifies as a genderqueer femme.  

Lindsi Bollinger (Right) of Offbeat Books with her husband Ivan (Left) | Photo by: Lilith Jenovax

But the genres under the speculative fiction umbrella are often considered, as Bollinger noted, “masculine-coded genres.” Think Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, Brandon Sanderson, and Frank Herbert. “Even though,” Bollinger said, “the best work in all of those genres, I think, is being written by women.” The trend seems to be shifting in Bollinger’s favor, though. In a 2024 list of 32 reader-voted favorite speculative fiction picks of the 21st century, 22 were authored or co-authored by women—including Babel by R.F. Kuang, Bollinger’s favorite female author. 

“Young women and femmes have just always been kind of like the drivers of culture in the literary world,” Bollinger said. “I think we're just kind of always on the edge of what's new.”  

Offbeat’s audience is anyone in their teens to their 30s with an interest in breaking out of the repetitive online recommendation cycle of the same raved-over books. In fact, this incessant digital influence is the subject of the bookstore’s namesake: a book called Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka. It inspired Bollinger’s commitment to shining light on obscure literature.  

“Something's popular, so people buy it, so more people want to write books that are like what’s already popular,” Bollinger said. They likened the publishing industry and Amazon book recommendations to Netflix and Spotify algorithms, which show users more of what they’ve expressed interest in. “You end up getting a lot less variety in general, and what kind of books major publishers will pick up.”  

Bollinger wants to combat this literary coalescence at Offbeat Books. “Independent bookstores are almost like revenge reaction against the flattening of culture caused by the tech mega companies,” she said. “I just think reading is probably the best and, in some ways, the only way to understand the lives of people who are different than you.” 

An Atlanta resident since age four, Bollinger was always an avid reader, but opening a bookstore was only a recent dream. “There’s a bit of imposter syndrome happening, as lame as it sounds,” she said. “I’m 30 years old, and I’m like, someone’s letting me run a business? Is that allowed? I don’t feel like a real adult.”  

Bollinger graduated from Oglethorpe with a B.A. in English Comparative Literature and a minor in Shakespeare. She cited the university’s Core program as the “kick in the ass” that encouraged her to dive deeper into literature. “Going through a really rigorous classical liberal arts education just gave me not only a really deep appreciation for being able to read and synthesize a lot of information, but a really broad general knowledge base with which to engage,” she said. In a nod to her alma mater, Oglethorpe students can enjoy a discount at Offbeat Books, as well as a selection of Penguin Classics Core texts.  

Bollinger hopes Offbeat Books will be a center of community where local organizations can meet, readers can connect within book clubs, and young adults can gather for social events. The store will even host regular Dungeons & Dragons sessions with an in-house game master. With steadily growing costs of socialization, “tabletop gaming is such an awesome and cheap way to spend several hours with friends,” Bollinger said. “I was like, 'Ok, you know, books are great. But also the Venn diagram of people who are fantasy readers and people who play Dungeons & Dragons is a circle.'" 

With Independent Bookstore Day approaching on the last Saturday of April, Atlanta residents might find it a great time to explore and support their local shops in anticipation for Offbeat’s upcoming opening. Bollinger said, “I cannot wait. I cannot wait to meet all the really cool people that I hope will come shop here. I'm sure it'll be a lot of weirdos like myself. I'm excited to meet all the weirdos.” 

Until then, Oglethorpe students might enjoy the brand-new Wild Aster Books in Chamblee, which is 10 minutes from campus, as well as the 30 plus independent bookstores all over Georgia. Bollinger said, “It's really important for independent bookstores to exist, to kind of push people out of their bubbles and to learn about the experiences of people whose lives they cannot conceive of, and hopefully, ideally push them to do something in reality that makes their world a little bit better.”