Books in Spanish and English line the blue walls of the former fire station on 24th Street. Light from the open door hits the large plants on the floor and the record player on the checkout counter. The mat on the ground and the name “nos” itself — Spanish for “we” — reflect what the owner wants both the community and the University to know: that they are welcome.
Luis Luján opened Nos Books in late April, though the idea had come to him much earlier. Between the book bannings and the pandemic, Luján had a lot on his mind.
“I did a lot of navel-gazing, ‘What am I doing professionally?’ ‘Am I happy?’” Luján said. “And I’ve always had a great love for literature, I studied literature in school. I thought, well, maybe it would be a good idea to start by doing pop-ups.”
To differentiate itself from larger bookstores, Nos Books works to curate both unique works and strong relationships between staff and customers. Luján aims for customers to have the option to converse with staff about any books they have read, to get recommendations.
After years of pop-ups at festivals, markets and even some businesses, a friend introduced Luján to the owner of xBk Live, who was looking for a tenant for the space next door. When Luján visited the space, he immediately fell in love.
“I remember walking in, seeing the tall ceilings,” Luján said. “You can’t see it on the other side of this wall, [but] the brass pole is still installed from when this was a working fire station. So, it’s a wonderful place to be. I feel good walking in.”
Luján also appreciated that the property was in the Drake neighborhood. Redlining, the segregationist practice of mortgage lenders or insurance providers discriminating in their practices based on the racial makeup of a neighborhood, had deeply impacted its development. Neighborhoods with large populations of color, including the Drake neighborhood, were marked as risky for lending, making development in the area difficult.
“The Drake neighborhood has been without an indie bookstore for decades,” Luján said. “I feel the mission of the store, the types of books I’m trying to promote, really reflect the community that lives here around Drake.”
Luján said he feels it is important to curate a collection where people from the neighborhood can see themselves in the works. Nos Books carries bestsellers and popular works but focuses its curation on authors of color. To achieve this, Luján works with publishers and book suppliers, filtering through their available materials to find books he wants to add to his space.
“We can see each other in other people’s sort of experiences, and by sort of focusing on authors of color and underrepresented voices, I want to increase empathy. And, if I may be so bold, hopefully with that empathy, maybe we’ll turn into compassion for one another,” Luján said.
Collaborations are important for the new bookstore. Luján works with xBk to prepare for musical events, at which there’s a “fuzzy space between music and literature,” and attends monthly meetings with the Dogtown business community. Together, they are working to draw people to Dogtown as an arts and entertainment district.
“It’s a good foundation for building something here, a part of town, like an honest-to-goodness arts and entertainment district that’s not just nightlife, but also family friendly,” Luján said.
Luján is also open to collaborating with Drake University. He said he would welcome student organizations holding meetings in the space.
“Now that school’s starting, I’m getting tours of students coming in through here, and some of the administration has come through here as well and really saying, especially after the summer, being gone for the summer, coming in and really kind of reintroducing themselves,” Luján said. “There’s a lot of excitement to have a bookstore here so close to the University.”
Brynn Dillow is a first-year whose Peer Mentor/Academic Consultant took their group of first-years to Nos Books during Welcome Weekend. Dillow thought the store was “cool” and appreciated the variety in genres and languages.
“It’s great that it’s walking distance, it’s super nice that we can just go there and even just have a place to read,” Dillow said.
While Luján has goals for a buyback system for used books, for now, Luján’s main focus is getting the store through its first year and slowly but surely growing its profit.
“I really hope that Drake University and the Drake neighborhood see me as their local bookstore,” Luján said.
“So not just for the students and not just for the community, but really for both, for both communities that are going to come together.”
This story was originally published on The Times-Delphic on September 3, 2025.
