Local book readers have no shortage of selection at JEM Books. The Friendswood store boasts around 70,000 books for sale and about 130,000 more that have not yet made it onto shelves.

Elizabeth Mantoura opened JEM Books with her husband in Friendswood in July 1994.[/caption]

Owner and longtime book lover Elizabeth Mantoura said she has about three or four bookstores worth of reading material still in boxes. Even in an age of electronic reading devices, Mantoura said people continue to seek out paper selections, especially for children’s and homeschooling books.

“[Books] have been around for thousands of years,” she said. “I don’t see them [ever] going away completely.”

Mantoura and her husband opened JEM Books in July 1994 at its original location near FM 528 and Bay Area Boulevard. Looking to leave behind stressful professions, the couple combined Mantoura’s love of books and her husband’s business education to join the industry.

At the time, Mantoura said, several big-box book retailers entered the local market as well. Because of the amount of competition from these national chains, the couple decided to use a buy-back model where customers could sell their used books.

“It made a difference in the type of store we decided to be because we knew we couldn’t go head on with the new book stores,” she said.

About 90 percent of the store’s inventory consists of books Mantoura bought from customers. She said she often reads selections at home before putting them on the sale floor.

Since the age of 3 or 4, Mantoura has enjoyed reading. She said her passion for books is in her blood.

“I come from a reading family,” she said. “In our house—where what other people would’ve called their dining room—my parents put floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and it became a library.”

JEM Books relocated to FM 2351 after about five years because of an increase in rent. Mantoura said when entering the business, rent cost is the most important factor in a bookstore’s success.

Mantoura said JEM Books has every genre imaginable, from religion to sci-fi. While electronic readers have dominated the market recently, she said the demand for physical copies will soon be on the rise again.

“Based on all the research I’ve done, I think the pendulum is going to swing back [toward paper books],” Mantoura said.

JEM Books

4815 FM 2351, Ste. 101
281-996-9918
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., closed Sun.