By Ed Nawotka | Jan 29, 2021 When Drew Cohen and Scott Seeley opened the Writer’s Block in 2014, it was Las Vegas’s only independent bookstore. Today, it still is. It is also the only independent bookstore in southern Nevada and, along with Sundance Books and Music in Reno, one of only two independent bookstores in the state focused on selling new books. “The growth of Las Vegas has really outpaced the book scene,” said Cohen, who noted that Las Vegas’s best-known used bookstore, the Amber Unicorn, closed at the beginning of January after nearly 40 years in business. Cohen and Seeley came to Las Vegas from New York City, where Seeley had been cofounder and executive director of Brooklyn literary nonprofit 826NYC. The opening of the Writer’s Block was serendipitous: “[Author] Jennifer 8. Lee was working with [late Zappos CEO] Tony Hsieh and approached Scott to ask if he knew anyone who might want to come to open a bookstore in Las Vegas,” Cohen recalled. “He said he did: us.”