Sundrop Books is becoming a ray of sunshine to local readers

David and Taylor (Walker) Batton are the proud owners of a new business in Durant. Sundrop Books, a long-time dream of the couple, opened its doors July 23 to a large grand opening crowd and had its Chahtapreneur ribbon-cutting July 28.

Taylor grew up in Sherman, Texas and David is originally from Clayton, Oklahoma. They met in 2015 while attending Southeastern Oklahoma State University and have been married for four years.
In addition to co-owning the bookstore, David is also employed as a GIS/GPS Specialist for the Choctaw Nation Historic Preservation Department.

David and Taylor found a prospective location in downtown Durant and visited with the Choctaw Nation Small Business Department. They were given helpful tips and general information about opening a business, including information on writing a business plan, contact and grant application information, and leads on who they needed to talk to to get the ball rolling.

“The business plan was a lot of help,” Taylor said.

The couple has a sweet story about how the name of the bookstore came about.

Both wear a necklace with an emblem of the sun. David originally purchased a red and silver sun pendant necklace at age 10 in Florida. He wore the necklace constantly until the day he decided to put it around Taylor’s neck upon their first dating anniversary, and it became very special to her as well.

According to David, the symbol on the necklace means “determination” and “strong spirit.” On their wedding day, Taylor gifted David with a new necklace like the original.

“It’s our symbol,” David said. “It’s part of our personality and who we are, kind of in a way our crest.”

According to Taylor, she thrives off sunlight and knew when they opened the bookstore she wanted to name it something related to the sun.

When playing around with the wording for the potential name, Taylor caught herself thinking of a song from the Sound of Music and the line “Re – a drop of golden sun” was part of the lyrics she liked. The name Sundrop Books was born.

Sundrop Books, the only generalized independent bookstore in the county, carries a large variety of genres, authors and best sellers. The store has new and used books and a growing variety of Native American books.

“I knew that I wanted to promote Native voices, Native topics, cultures, histories, and languages. I wanted that to be a whole section in our store early on,” Taylor said.

The store also highlights many authors who are not readily available elsewhere.

“There are a lot of good authors out there, a lot of good stories out there that are overshadowed,” said Taylor.

Special orders are available if a reader is looking for something they cannot find on the store’s shelves. The Battons encourage local authors to reach out to the store for information on how to get their books on the shelves.

Those who prefer audiobooks purchase them from the store’s website or by going online to Libro.fm. When purchasing from Libro.fm, the customer designates a local bookstore to receive a share of the profits from the sale, or if going to Sundrop Books’ website to make an audiobook purchase, it will go directly to Libro.fm and automatically credit the sale to Sundrop Books.

A trade-in program is also available. Customers can bring in as many as 30 used books per week for store credit. Books in good condition earn up to 25% trade credit of the price on the back of the book. Customers can then use store credit to purchase books. In-store purchases also accrue points.

A 10% discount is given to school employees, first responders, firefighters, police, medical EMTs, Choctaw Nation tribal members and associates, and students.

The store has hosted several events since its opening, with more being planned, including author talks and book signings.

There is already a very active monthly book club.

“We have a fairly diverse group of people. It’s all age ranges, all different sorts of backgrounds. We get a good discussion going,” Taylor said.

According to Taylor, the books are chosen from a wide variety of genres, and readers seem to enjoy that because they are saying they may not have necessarily chosen the book to read unless the book club recommended it, and that makes it the discussion fresh and new each time. The store carries the selected books for book club events, or readers can purchase them online.

Mary Ruth Barnes’ book, Little Bird, will be December’s book club title, and the author will attend the club meeting to speak.

88 Straight author Stanley Nelson will also be on hand when book club members review his book in February. His novel tells the true story of the depression-era basketball team from the Oklahoma Presbyterian College (former headquarters of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) in Durant.

Kids’ events are also important at Sundrop Books. Recently Trey Hays, author of Little Loksi (published through Chickasaw Press) had an in-store book signing and story time. More book signings and story times are being scheduled for future dates.

Even Santa Claus is on Sundrop Books’ calendar of events for Saturday, December 10, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., when he drops by to take photos with young customers.

Future plans include additional store shelving, more Choctaw and local artists, local club meetings (local clubs are encouraged to reach out to the store for a possible meeting space), a coffee cart and YouTube posts.

Sundrop Books is located at 137a West Main, Durant, OK 74701.

To keep up with all the events scheduled at Sundrop Books, visit sundropbooks.com. Those interested in the bookshop can also follow them on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram by searching sundropbooks or signing up for emails.