Bent Pages is “Page Bent” on Fostering Community and Personal Customer Relations

 

  Right now, if your sight shifts from this article and over your phone, you will probably see fellow eyes (possibly family) glaring at their “mini computers” or tablets. With just a tiny tap, books or podcasts are downloaded instantaneously. In between the tap and the download, lack of friendly intimacy is accepted. In between a facebook comment and post, in-person connectivity is excused. There seems to be a “phone jack” disconnection from human interaction and fellowship.  

Although it seems like we are being wrapped up in a wireless world and its void of vivacious hand-shakes, local businesses, particularly, Bent Pages Co., is completely connected to the  community. In between the “hugging” ‘Hello! What book are you looking for today?’ and checkout, hometown conversation imprint each visit and are inexcusable.

“With the Indie book experience, we don’t say, ‘Go over there.’ We say, ‘What are you looking for?’ or ‘What do you like to read?’” Angele said.

Owner, Angele LeBoeuf, along with her co-equal partners/ family Racquelle LaCoste Ford and Mason Ford are shelving “book-binding” relationships alongside accessible and affordable non-fiction knowledge to Jane Austen wit.      

“It’s like a barbershop. The whole point is to get to know your kids. At some point, It’s almost like a fourth generation is now entering this store,” Angele stated. 

Bent pages was founded by five women. Two of the five women, Molly Bolden and Kay Levine, owned and operated the local bookshop the majority of its “written chapters”. The doors to the Spring green building originally opened to the community in 1997 as Bent Pages Cafe Incorporation. Since then, extended chapters have been penned with loyalty and ongoing customer outreach in the same historic Bethlehem Steel building (established around 1926).

 

Current owner Angele found the green gem in 2005. She walked into her future over past original floors and found her present initiative of extending and assembling mind nurturing nooks.     

“I walked in and said, ‘Where has this been all my life?’’’ Angele said.

She fell in love with the bookstore like a sweeping fictional romance. Therefore, she conversed with the previous owners, Molly and Kay, and asked them if she could assist with organizing books. Because of her eagerness to serve, the owners hired Angele as a paid employee. She received payment for two years as the cafe manager.  

During her early years at the Indie bookshop, Angele was also attending Nicholls to receive a non-traditional degree. When she received her degree, she put a bookmark in that part of her life and would eventually come back to read the rest of her role. 

In 2022, the original owner(s) Molly Bolden experienced major health issues. Thus, in December of that year, Kay Levine closed the doors momentarily to Bent Pages due to the desire to retire and other factors. Angele then opened the bookmarked page at the opportune time. 

“I was still good friends with Molly and Kay. So, in conversation at Molly’s house one day I said, ‘Why don’t you let me buy it?’” Angele said.  

Therefore, Bent Pages Cafe Incorporation slightly turned a page and was renamed Bent Pages Co. The well-known community bookstore was officially owned and operated by Angele (and a past partner). 

Over time, a series of events happened that led Angele to become the sole operator. Thus, help was needed to manage inventory and to organize the bookstore. Assistance was requested from Angele’s niece, Racquelle and her husband, Mason. The two were happy to volunteer along with other family members. The choice to help would eventually set their “biography” more permanently in one of Bent Pages’ nested book nooks.

“We wanted to help my aunt and I also came here as a kid. So, there was a lot of sentimentality,” Racquelle said.   

From December 2023 to about March of 2024, Racquelle and Mason were consistent with their volunteership and their full-time jobs in finance. They helped maintain the magical bookstore and highly valued its shop-goers. 

In March of 2024, Angele battled lung cancer and had to endure several complicated surgeries. Therefore, Racquelle and Mason acted as passionate proxies and sustained hours comparable to a soft opening. The two also started falling in love with Bent Pages like a fictional couple amongst the rolling Highlands.

“My husband and I went over our budget and we decided to throw caution to the wind,” Racquelle stated. 

“It was an opportunity that we didn’t know if we would have again,” she added.

Thus, Racquelle and Mason resigned from the Credit Union and became co-equal partners of Bent Pages. In August of 2024, they officially became co-authors of Bent Pages’ story. One of their present and ongoing endeavors is to keep the paywall of knowledge “short stacked” for locals (offering every book at affordable prices).

“The community deserves to have access to affordable and accessible knowledge. Everything is behind such a steep paywall. The least you could do for your fellow community members is to give them that same privilege of reading books of knowledge and exploring different viewpoints,” Mason said. 

   

Since Mason and Racquelle have been fully on board the Bent Pages storybook ship, the bookstore could once again keep its doors fully open six days a week. Recently, Angele has returned in good health and has reunited with her family of partners to add storylines of rapport between consumer and checkout. 

 

“We felt like the community needed that connection, that person between consumer and purchase,” Racquelle stated.

True connection is apparently transparent like the historic paned windows that border the top of the indie bookstore. Connectivity is apparent due to the ambitious attitudes to please each customer, whether online via Facebook or in the rows of stacked bookshelves.

 

 

Each customer is physically led to their favorite genre/ author or to their new favorite fantasy within a fairy forest. Each person that browses Bent Pages is looked upon with sentiment and not as an empty consumer shell. Angele, Racquelle, and Mason take the time to look up from their “weekly agenda books” and give personal attention to each customer and their wonderment wants or knowledgeable needs.   

“You can stop in and say hi and have a conversation with us. We can also impart knowledge 

beyond where the books are located,” Racquelle stated.

The three owners are all “cozy couch” book readers and can offer more than just plain directions to a certain suspense title. They can direct you through the waves of curiosity, and offer insightful information on nuanced authors and their pivotal plots.

“We want to work with you. I want you to experience getting the thing that you’re wanting and however we can accommodate you along that path, is what we’re here for,” Racquelle said.

When you walk the adventurous paths of Bent Pages, you will find vintage floral seating areas to cozy up with your newfound romance novel or coveted 1970’s encyclopedia. Tea or coffee is also provided to sip on while searching for an aesthetic book to grace your home or Abeka homeschooling curriculum to educate your children.

 

 

“If you want an encyclopedia from 1974, older dictionaries or older history books, we have them. We even have aesthetic books that interior designers are interested in,” Angele stated.  

Therefore, Bent Pages carries an array of new and used books, some of which have been donated or traded (from children's fiction to non-fiction biographies). There are approximately one million books (500,000 individual titles) that have all been manually entered into a DOS system. This process and other store benefits reinforces connective customer service. By manually inputting books, Angele, Racquelle, and Mason can research any customer’s request. 

 

 

Other benefactions include the allowance of reserving books and the credit system. Customers can reserve books and pick them up at their convenience. Also, if a customer brings in a book(s), they will receive credit towards other titles within the many whimsical rows of Bent Pages.      

The main “genre” amongst the rows, upon the walls, and throughout the green beam building is community romanticism. Natural light shines on a local Louisiana section that includes local authors, history, and Cajun cookbooks. As you take a few more steps past an aisle of adventure, more natural light shines on a wall that displays local artwork, poetry, and handmade bookmarks. Angele, Racquelle, and Mason advocate local artistry of any fashion and fashion their sellable pieces upon their avid community ideology.

“This could be so much more. Bent Pages has so much potential; between the building, the love of books, and it being a family venture,” Racquelle said.

The potential to fortify the fostering of the surrounding community is outlined in each of the owners’ minds and hearts. They have dreams that they want to “read” into reality that expand the “bookshelves” of literacy and all arts. 

Some of those outlined ideas include a rolling library, cross promotion with Barrow Street, collaborating with a non-profit organization to encourage literacy, offering their comfy vintage sofas for book club meetings, and offering a safe space for open mic nights, jam sessions, and free music lessons.  

“In the music or the overall creative aspect, a lot of times, you’re limited to bars, club scenes or restaurants. That sets up a paywall (get something to eat or drink) or people don’t want to be in that environment. So, we want to facilitate that safe space,” Racquelle stated.

Bent Pages wants to open their space and clear the historical hardwood floors for the community to access knowledge and the overall arts without a high paywall (if any wall at all).  

“If you want to browse while I teach your child guitar, I’d be happy to do that. I want you to have access to knowledge without the paywall,” Mason, Prog rock lover and creator of the Nicholls State Guitar Program said.

“The only thing we're charging for is if you buy a book. Besides that, come fellowship,” Racquelle added.

 

Ultimately, Bent Pages Co. is “page bent” on cultivating community philanthropy and “soul-to-soul” customer engagement. Angele, Racquelle, and Mason are faithful dreamers and doers, consistently enhancing the society of their bookstore and the surrounding Bayou region. They are “bent” on going through their “rolodex” initiative and consciously connecting with every customer, whether it be a specific book request or teaching a ten year old how to strum a guitar.   

  

“This is a dream that we believe in and the community believes in it. We hear all the time, ‘We’re so glad that you’re here,’” Racquelle said. 

“It could definitely have a bigger and more wonderful impact than it already does,” Angele ended.

 

 Address: 1422 Barrow Street

Houma, LA 70364 

Phone Number: 985-876-7626

To research Bent Pages, visit their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/BentPagesCo

*Bent Pages is thankful for all volunteers.

The Beta Club is also welcome to volunteer who are in need of student credit/ national honor society hours.