A hybrid, donations-based secondhand bookshop & creative reuse center in Roanoke, VA making crafting, art, & book collecting more accessible & more eco-conscious so that we can all take better care of our Earth, ourselves, & each other. 🏳️🌈📚🎨🧶🧵🪡✏️ Dragon Bite Books & Crafts is a hybrid, donations-based creative reuse center & secondhand bookshop, located in Roanoke, Virginia, that strives to make less expensive, more eco-conscious, secondhand crafting & collecting available to a greater number of people so that we can all collectively take better care of our one Earth & ourselves & each other. Shopping secondhand decreases the number of new products that need to be made & the pollutants & resource depletion associated with those products’ production & shipping. Dragon Bite values what has already been made, seeks to spark inspiration for reuse & repair by showcasing goods made of recycled material, & hopes to keep items in circulation, whether whole or in part, for as long as they are usable, encouraging repurposing & recycling when items can not longer serve their original function. The community has turned out to support this project in ways that I couldn’t have anticipated, by donating items to the shop, including books, yarn, fabric, artificial greenery & flowers, jewelry, beads, jars & vases, paper & paper goods, craft kits both unused & partially completed, thread, office & school supplies, paint, paintbrushes, & more - but also turning up to share their talents & enthusiasm & time — & I will be forever grateful! I strive to match the cautiousness of the most Covid-cautious person in the room, & face masks & hand sanitizer are always available for those who want them. Music heard at the shop will be family-friendly, excluding references to self-harm, including alcohol & cigarette use, harm to others, overt sexual acts, language you wouldn’t want your young child to use, & explicit religious messaging. In June 2025, Dragon Bite became a foster home to a young tabby, Betty Grayble, sponsored, trapped, & neutered by local rescue Barn Cat Buddies. She is available for the right home. In elementary school, we sold t-shirts to benefit the World Wildlife Foundation & collected coins for UNICEF. Meanwhile, at home, closets & cabinets became cluttered with the surplus materials from completed or uncompleted craft & art projects, old plastic & plush toys, & games, some materials passing several decades untouched. When I wanted to try something new, I would buy new materials & almost always would have to purchase more than I needed or would use for the project. Later, as I watched book prices soar, I became aware of how much marketing & money affect which books are available & which books are prominently displayed in shops & which books are recommended by sellers, & I saw favorites of mine become difficult to obtain as their publication dates grew more distant, though their quality had not decreased & their messages were no less relevant. Increasing national pressure on libraries & major retailers to censor their recommendations to fit the standards of a vocal few, increased my desire to open an independent shop to spotlight the voices & stories in danger of disappearing from shelves in places beholden to shareholders or public opinion. I did not realize that I was queer or that my feelings had a name & label until after college, & I have to wonder if I might have been able to orient my life to better pursue my happiness sooner if I had seen more people like me represented in the stories I read & watched. I don’t want younger generations to be without language or example as I was. I seek to keep books by & about historically marginalized communities available to our community, & available inexpensively. The pandemic showed me the need for spaces that could hold to higher standards of community care without shaming — explicitly or implicitly — those who wanted to be more Covid-cautious. As an independent business, I am able to make decisions that help me be one of those spaces.
