Nicole Lintemuth
Bookstore Owner
Bettie’s Pages
Tory Hall, the owner of Sower Books in Lincoln, Neb., says that she first encountered Nicole Lintemuth of Bettie’s Pages in Lowell, Mich., on BookTok a few years ago.
“Nicole’s an outspokenly progressive voice running a small business successfully in a conservative small town,” Hall says. “She’s queer and unapologetic about it: she even founded the town’s Pride event.”
Lintemuth is also a tireless advocate for the freedom to read: not only does she prominently display banned and challenged books in her five-year-old bookstore but she is the author of a reading journal, This Book Is Dangerous (Media Lab, July), which Hall praises for “guiding other activists on how to defeat book bans in their communities.” Page spreads include sidebars relating to the current state of book banning and how to effectively respond to such censorship. This Book Is Dangerous also includes lists of recommended reads—all have been challenged or banned somewhere in the U.S.
Lintemuth attributes her passion for books to a childhood spent in a very small Michigan town. She describes her younger self as “a kid who had no idea what was out there,” but who read books to “learn more about myself” and about the world. However, she notes that it wasn’t until she was an adult that she read a book in which a character fully reflected her own life experiences. She also points out that many of the books that are banned or challenged are those in which readers from marginalized communities are likely to discover characters who reflect their own lives and experiences.
“It infuriates me that anyone would try to take that away from someone else,” she says. This Book Is Dangerous, she explains, was created to demonstrate that “no matter where you’re at, no matter what you do, no matter who you are, there’s something you can do to fight book bans, and to support books in your community.”
