Frequently Asked Questions
The Basics
What is The Unruly Servant?
The Unruly Servant is a member-supported independent bookseller in Denver, built around pop-ups, a carefully chosen selection of books, special orders, and personal recommendations. The idea is simple: fewer books, chosen well, brought to places where people already gather.
Where is The Unruly Servant located?
The Unruly Servant is based in Denver, Colorado, and has no permanent storefront. The books come to you through pop-ups at bars, cafés, breweries, markets, and other venues around the city.
Do you have a store I can walk into?
No. The Unruly Servant is a pop-up bookseller, not a brick-and-mortar store. Check the Pop-Ups page to see where I’ll be next, or get in touch if you’re looking for a particular book.
Who runs it?
The Unruly Servant is run by Michael Schiavo, a bookseller, writer, poet, editor, and publisher with more than two decades of experience around books. He has worked at Northshire Bookstore, The Bookstore in Lenox, Yale Bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.
What does “The Unruly Servant” mean?
It began as the name of a poetry blog I started in 2004, when poets still had blogs with names like Tony Tost’s Unquiet Grave. It also owes something to John Ashbery’s line, “Each servant stamps the reader with a look,” and to the idea that words are unruly servants: useful, necessary, and never entirely obedient.
There’s a family joke in it, too. My last name, Schiavo, comes from the Italian word for “slave” or “servant,” and I come from a long line of unruly servants.
What does “virgilone” mean, and why is it on the site?
I use virgilone to mean a trusted guide through books, music, film, and the other arts. It’s the role I want The Unruly Servant to play: not telling people what they ought to like, but using experience, taste, and conversation to point them toward work worth their time.
Pop-Ups
Where is the next pop-up?
The schedule changes often, so check the Pop-Ups page for upcoming dates and venues around Denver.
What happens at a pop-up?
You’ll find a curated selection of books to browse, and I’ll be there to talk books, make recommendations, or help you find something. You’re just as welcome to browse on your own. Admission is free, and there’s no expectation that you buy anything.
How do I pay at a pop-up?
By card or contactless payment through Square.
Can I host a pop-up at my bar, shop, or event?
Yes. I’m interested in Denver bars, cafés, breweries, markets, shops, cultural organizations, and other venues where a small independent bookseller makes sense. Tell me about the space, event, or idea through the Contact page.
Membership
What is membership, and what do I get?
Membership supports The Unruly Servant directly and gives you a little more in return: special pricing on most books and selected merchandise, priority holds and special orders, early notice of pop-ups and events, and curated recommendations and reading lists. Office hours, private gatherings, and other benefits will be added as the project grows.
You don’t need to be a member to buy a book. Everyone is welcome at the pop-ups.
How much does membership cost?
Membership is $29 a month or $300 a year. Monthly membership can be canceled at any time. Annual membership is paid in advance at a discounted rate and is nonrefundable.
Why does an independent bookseller need members?
Bookselling runs on narrow margins, and pop-ups don’t have the steady daily traffic of a permanent store. Membership provides a steadier base for buying inventory, running the business, developing events, and the work that makes the project useful: reading, choosing, recommending, and bringing books to people.
The larger idea is collective support. A small bookseller can do more when a group of readers decides it is worth sustaining.
I don’t live in Denver. Can I still be a member?
Yes. The Unruly Servant is built around getting people off screens and together in person, so membership is most useful in the Denver metro area. Some benefits for members elsewhere, including online ordering, member discounts, and a regular members’ email, are still being developed, and I want remote members to be able to use them as they come online.
The Books
How do you choose which books to carry?
I look for writing that rewards attention, whether it comes from a famous name, a hidden gem, a university press, or a book everyone seems to know but plenty of people have never read. I’m a writer’s writer’s writer: I love the major figures, but I’m just as interested in the strange, overlooked, and less obvious books that one reader passes along to another.
That might mean Moby-Dick, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Vasistha’s Yoga, Shakespeare, a religious text, or something well outside the conventional canon. Part of the point is demystification. Serious books aren’t homework meant for somebody else. At their best, they are mirrors and echoes of the long train of human thought already present in the mind, waiting to be recognized.
Can you order a specific book for me?
Yes. Special orders are generally paid in advance, and most books arrive within about three days, depending on the supplier. I’ll let you know by email if an order will take longer.
Pickup is arranged around the pop-up calendar and may later be available at partner venues. There’s no special-order fee, and members receive their usual book discount.
Do you sell used books?
Not yet. The Unruly Servant sells new books, both recent releases and older titles still in print. I may add a carefully selected used section later.
Do you buy books or take donations?
No. The Unruly Servant isn’t buying used books or accepting book donations at this time.
What kinds of books will I not find here?
I don’t want to define the selection by what it leaves out. Most of what I carry is trade paperbacks, hardcovers, and mass-market books, including work from university and independent presses, chosen for curious general readers: books worth reading, thinking about, arguing with, and enjoying. I won’t have everything, but no subject or genre is ruled out in advance.
What The Unruly Servant Stands For
Why do you say good books should challenge us?
“Challenging” doesn’t mean difficult to read. Like music, writing has a tone and a voice, and sometimes you have to spend a little time with it before you hear what it’s doing.
Reading exercises our capacity for language and thought the way we already exercise the body and pay attention to what we eat. There’s nothing wrong with the literary equivalent of Burger King, but it shouldn’t be the whole diet. A good book can take us somewhere unfamiliar, make us think differently, or introduce us to something we didn’t know we cared about.
Is The Unruly Servant political?
Of course.
“While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” (Eugene V. Debs)
The Unruly Servant isn’t affiliated with a political party, but it isn’t neutral in the sense of pretending that cruelty, authoritarianism, inequality, censorship, or the exclusion of other people are merely competing points of view. I believe in human dignity, intellectual freedom, solidarity, and the obligation to remain interested in lives beyond our own.
What does “collective support” mean here, beyond membership?
It means readers, members, venues, booksellers, and the wider community helping sustain something none of us has to build alone. I’m especially interested in pooling resources to put books into the hands of people who can’t afford them, while also encouraging people to use Denver’s excellent public library system.
Over time, that could include partnerships, shared events, book-giving efforts, and perhaps a lending library if The Unruly Servant eventually has a permanent home.
Getting in Touch
How do I contact you?
Use the Contact page or email theunrulyservant@gmail.com for special orders, questions, pop-up invitations, partnerships, press, or anything else.
Are you on social media?
Yes, on Instagram, Facebook, and X, but social media plays a small role. One aim of The Unruly Servant is to get people off screens and into places where they can talk to one another, so I rely mostly on the website, members, customers, venue partners, and word of mouth to spread the word about pop-ups.
Can I write for you, read at a pop-up, or collaborate?
Yes, selectively. I’m interested in hearing from writers, artists, publishers, venues, booksellers, and others with ideas that make sense for The Unruly Servant. Send a short note through the Contact page. I can’t promise every proposal will fit, but I’m always interested in a good idea.