What do you call a bookstore with no address? Dani calls hers Trolley Parton, a 30-foot vintage trolley that’s been showing up outside of coffee shops, wineries, and in neighborhoods around the Treasure Valley for the past year. ​Curbside Books​ is a fully stocked bookstore and it just so happens to be on wheels.

“The whole basis of Curbside Books is even before books,” said Dani Scovel, owner of Curbside Books. “It’s really about creating community and bringing people together and finding someone to just hang out with and have a conversation.”

At the kitchen table with Grandma Marie

Dani’s grandma, Marie, is the spark behind all of this.

“We would always sit together around the kitchen table with coffee and talk about books,” said Dani.

Grandma Marie was the kind of person who could read a couple books a day. As she got older, trips to the bookstore got harder to make.

Then Dani read The Bookshop on the Corner, a novel about a woman who starts a mobile bookstore.

“That’s when it kind of all came together,” said Dani. “I saw with my grandma just how alone she felt, and not being able to get out as easily anymore. The bookstore is mobile because I’m wanting to come to people and create that community space.”

Finding Trolley Parton

The idea of a mobile bookstore was on Dani’s mind for months before it became a real plan. She looked into converting a box truck and talked to tiny home builders, but those felt so big compared to what she was envisioning.

Then she saw a vintage trolley for sale on Facebook Marketplace. She realized a trolley was perfect – tall enough to walk through with lots of windows. For the first time, a mobile bookstore felt achievable.

She tracked down a trolley broker and found a trolley for sale in Atchison, Kansas. She and her dad flew to Kansas, met the 30-foot trolley that needed a lot of TLC, and had it shipped back to Boise. Dani named her Trolley Parton.

What followed was about a year of renovation: new flooring, paint, wiring, and bookshelves, which were built by a friend’s dad. She hired a mechanic to get the trolley up and running. While all the updates were underway, Dani did pop-ups all around the valley to get the Curbside Books name out there. Her first was at Winter Garden aGlow at the Idaho Botanical Garden in December 2024.

Year one

Trolley Parton officially rolled out as a mobile bookstore in December 2025, and this whole first year has been Dani figuring out what the business actually is.

“It feels like I’m still just getting started because every season is so different from the next, especially in a trolley,” she said.

Most weekends, you can find her parked somewhere around town for a free pop-up: a coffee shop, a winery, a book fair, a neighborhood street. She’s also become a regular at First Thursday in downtown Boise.

Beyond pop-ups, she’s done private parties, photoshoots, and neighborhood stops. There’s been at least one marriage proposal inside the trolley (they said yes). Dani wants to do more of these private events going forward, especially weddings, office gatherings, and parties. For private events, she offers add-ons like curated shelves built around a person or theme, gift bags, and a blind date with a book, where guests pick a wrapped title based on a few clues and find out what they got once they unwrap it.

She’s also started curating the shelves based on the stop itself instead of stocking one general rotation for every visit.

New this fall: movie nights and reading retreats

First up: ​Movie Night Book Club​, kicking off October 10 with a screening of Coraline at the Idaho Film Society. It’s a full-on themed event with a costume contest, the trolley parked outside with a curated selection of spooky season reads, a Q&A with Lars Larsen (who worked on the film and now works at the Idaho Film Society), themed drinks, popcorn, and a few small surprises.

Also new: reading retreats. The first is the ​Practical Magic Retreat​ on October 24-25 at the Boise Heritage House in downtown Boise. All six overnight rooms are already booked, but Sunday day passes are still open for $95. The weekend includes tarot, tea blending, a blind book swap, letters to your future self, dinner around one long table, and a parlor screening of Practical Magic – with margaritas, of course.

It’s the first of what Dani plans to make a recurring, seasonal retreat series. She’s already working on the next one, timed for late January in McCall.

“The idea is a bookish retreat to hang out with other book lovers and relax and just be together,” said Dani.

What’s next

The long-term vision is bigger than any pop-up or retreat. Dani wants Curbside Books to build regular routes into retirement communities and neighborhoods that don’t have a bookstore nearby. The same kind of access she wished her grandma still had.

She’s also running the ​Mobile Bookstore Society​, a growing community where people around the country who want to start their own mobile bookstores can trade advice and figure it out together.

Dani is still balancing Curbside Books with a full-time day job, and she’s not sure if the trolley will be a full-time thing. For now, she’s just enjoying the ride.

“I’m just having a lot of fun figuring out what else we can do with this whole thing,” she said.

Find the trolley

Curbside Books has a fun lineup of ​events​ this October, with more on the way for the holiday season. Here’s where you can find the trolley in the next month:

Sep 26: Fall into Fiction at 36th Street Event Center, Boise

Oct 1: First Thursday in Downtown Boise

Oct 3: Ease Shop pop-up, Boise

Oct 4: Smuttastic Book Fair at Mother Earth Brewing Company, Nampa

Oct 10: The Movie Night Book Club: Coraline at Idaho Film Society, Boise

Oct 17: Pop-up at Bumble Coffee Co., Boise

Oct 21: ILA 2026 Rig Rally at Idaho Library Association conference

Oct 24–25: The Practical Magic Retreat at Boise Heritage House

Nov 5: First Thursday in Downtown Boise

You can stay up to date with all Curbside Books events ​here​, by following on Instagram at ​@curbsidebookstore​, or get on the email list for first dibs on retreat dates and ticketed nights before they go public.

Want to book the trolley for your own event? Find more info and send your idea to Dani ​here​.

If you see Trolley Parton out and about, go say hi. Snoots, the mini aussie, will be on quality control and there’s probably a book in there you didn’t know you needed.

Thanks for reading!

With love from Boise,

Marissa

This story is sponsored by Curbside Books.

If you’re interested in getting your product, service, or event in front of 25k Boise locals → ​book a call​