Amy Truckner stands at the entrance of Sips and Sequels, a bar, beer market and book store located on Carthage Street in downtown Sanford. S&S has more than 250 different beers and hosts multiple book clubs and gatherings each month. 

“Reading a book at a bar is equal parts sophistication and humility. It combines the refinement of the erudite with the informality of the bohemian. You can’t help but look cool doing it. On top of that, it’s incredibly enjoyable. There’s something about a bit of a buzz that makes the words on the page more meaningful; the emotions being conveyed more intense.”

— Dustin Parkes, The National Post —
By Billy Liggett

Fans of downtown Sanford’s only bar and bookstore — and just a year into its existence, there are many — can thank Amy Truckner’s dogs. They’re the reason she left her hometown of Durham for Sanford back in 2018, as houses with fenced-in yards were far more affordable here than in the Bull City. Had she not found Sanford, she wouldn’t have fallen in love with its then-forming brewery scene, and without the support of that community, there would be no Sips and Sequels today.

Truckner, an HR data analyst in the Research Triangle Park by day, opened her book shop and beer store last December after several successful “pop-up adult book fairs” at Camelback Brewing (where she worked part-time) and Hugger Mugger Brewing. She always thought beer and books made for a great pair, but those fairs showed her that she wasn’t alone in her passion for both. 

“My friends and I noticed a few years ago there was a gap in Sanford for a good, strong independent bookstore,” she says. “We have [downtown’s] Books at a Steal, which is fantastic, but it’s a nonprofit run by mostly volunteers, and there are a few Christian-themed stores as well. But we lacked the cover-all-the-bases bookstores, and I wanted to bring that.”

As for the beer, Truckner is a big fan of the city’s breweries and bars, but aside from grocery stores, she saw the city lacked places that offered a large variety of beers — all beers, from the darkest stouts to the fruitiest sours. Pilsners, IPAs … you name it. 

“I got here about the same time Camelback opened, and that’s where I found my community,” she adds. “I didn’t know anybody here, and I was the weird one who walked into bars with a book and read at the bar by myself. Readers are usually pretty protective of their reading time, so you typically don’t interrupt people who are in their book. But I found that just about everybody in Sanford decided they wanted to talk to me about whatever book I was reading. And I thought that was interesting.”

Guests chat at the bar inside Sips and Sequels on a Sunday morning in November (owner Amy Truckner is “testing” Sundays as a potential open day in the future. 

Truckner has built her own small community through Sips and Sequels’ numerous monthly book clubs. The first Wednesday of each month invites fans of science fiction, and the second Wednesday is for horror enthusiasts. A “Romance After Dark” book club is scheduled for Dec. 12, and those more interested in writing the next great novel can meet the following morning for the Saturday Writers Workshop. 

And one of the more popular events is the Silent Book Club (6 p.m. on Dec. 9 this month), where patrons are invited to bring or buy a book and read in silence among friends without the distraction of kids, spouses and pets.

“I love all of our book clubs, but the silent one especially,” Truckner says. “There’s a lot of people who struggle to find time to read, for whatever reason. The most common thing I hear is, ‘Wow, I just sat here for two hours and was able to read without hearing mom, mommy, mom the entire time.’”

Sips and Sequels’ book list goes deep. Truckner says you probably won’t find the “classics” in her store, but if it’s been written in the last five to 10 years, there’s a decent chance she has it on her shelves.

“We’re pretty heavy readers on our side, so there are books here you’re not necessarily going to find at your bigger bookstores,” she says. “And one of our favorite things to do here is talk about the books we love, so it’s pretty easy to point people in the right direction. If there’s a bestseller you really like, we can probably point you to an author who you’ll enjoy just as much.”

The true joy of her store, Truckner says, is that for as much as people love to talk to like-minded readers about their favorite books, beer connoisseurs also enjoy talking about different types, new finds and their favorites. Sips and Sequels currently features more than 250 different beers, including hard-to-find brands and several seasonal flavors. The most popular shelf is her sours selection — “We can hardly keep them on the shelf, to be honest.”  

Dec. 16 will mark Sips and Sequels’ one-year anniversary, and Truckner says Year 1 has been a good one for her store. She credits her team — she’s the sole owner, and she employs four others — for building the kind of atmosphere and community that welcomed her when she moved to Sanford nearly eight years ago.

“[Our success], it’s been a surprise, but in a great way,” Truckner says. “The appreciation from the community — seeing the space we’ve created and seeing the intentionality behind it — has been wonderful. This isn’t a place that you come to just drink beer and get drunk. It’s very clearly intended to be a kind of safe space for people to enjoy the things they enjoy and maybe enjoy them with friends.”