SAN ANTONIO — Kenny Johnson sells dead trees for a living so it’s only fitting that the name of his book store is Dead Tree Books. 

What You Need To Know

  • Books are what brought Kenny Johnson and his wife Lisa Johnson together. 

  •  Dead Tree Books is the only bookstore on San Antonio's southside. 

  • Dead Tree Books is filling a void on a part of San Antonio that is low-income and considered a book desert. 

“You can pick it up and you can feel it, you can touch it, you can flip the pages, you can get in there and smell it,” Kenny Johnson said. 

That’s an experience you can’t get from an e-book or the internet. Books are what brought Kenny Johnson and his wife Lisa Johnson together. 

This led to them getting married and that blossomed into this bookstore —  well not just a bookstore — it’s the only bookstore on San Antonio’s Southside. 

“We’ve done our best to bring good affordable books to the Southside,” Johnson said. 

It's filling a void on a part of San Antonio that is low-income and considered a book desert. 

Juan Perez loves the tangible experience that a book can create and that’s why he and his family take trips to the bookstores. 

“There’s nothing like handling a book, so I think a local bookstore is above all way up there with everything else, music, art," Perez said. “The fact that they are vanishing is the bad part.” 

Dead Tree Books has nearly closed on multiple occasions — when books are sold at affordable prices it can lead to some financial woes, but the community has always pulled through for Dead Tree. 

“The outpour from the community is very, very heartwarming,” Kenny Johnson said. 

 To the Johnson’s this is more than a bookstore — it’s a vital resource. 

According to San Antonio Youth Literacy, the ratio of books per child in middle income neighborhoods is 13 books to 1 child. However, it’s the opposite for low-income neighborhoods when the ratio is only one age-appropriate book for every 300 children. 

“If we really think didn’t think the demand was there, if we really think that people didn’t want a bookstore one the Southside, we probably would’ve closed it a long time ago,” Kenny Johnson said.

So, Dead Tree is looking for a smaller space to lower the overhead costs. Kenny Johnson is trying hard to find a home for the store on the Southside because it’s a priority for he and Lisa Johnson to continue sharing their love of books with a community that needs it. 

“People from San Antonio from making their way from all corners of San Antonio to come in and say we need you to stay here,” Lisa Johnson said “And makes it feel like its bigger than the two of us, it makes it feel like its not just our dream but the communities dream.”