Support Local Bookstores
Pretend that I started this post with something poetic about the smell of books and the quiet
magic of a bookstore.
Instead, I’m going to cut to the chase:
If we don’t support local bookstores, they will disappear.
Not dramatically, ala 1984 or The Handmaid’s Tale (I’m talking about the book, NOT the TV
series). Just slowly, practically… and then all at once.
With the addition of my hometown’s very own independent bookstore (Hello friends at One
More Chapter Books!), I feel the importance of it and other local stores very keenly right now.
Also, I get the appeal of convenience. I’ve ordered plenty of books online from that monster E-
retailer that is a curse word in the indie bookstore scene. In the last few weeks, as I’ve been
completely embraced by my local bookstore, this is a bad habit I’m committed to breaking. And
I want to give all of you a gentle nudge that local bookstores matter more than we sometimes
admit.
They create actual book communities
Local bookstores aren’t just places to buy books—they’re places where readers accidentally find
each other.
You go in for one title and end up talking to someone about a completely different one. In my
weekly (maybe twice weekly) visits to One More Chapter, I’ve already met four people I adore
talking to about books. One of the workers showed me the stack of her recently read books – it
was an impressive stack, and my TBR (to be read) list grew by at least five titles.
Independent bookstores also host book clubs, author events, and conversations you simply don’t
get from a screen. Again, thank you to the bookstores who have supported me with author
events!
They make space for stories you wouldn’t find otherwise
Large retailers (yes, even the very efficient Amazon) are designed to prioritize scale. Which
often means the biggest books get the most visibility. It’s all about algorithms and numbers. We
are readers – those algorithms and numbers are our enemies!
Local bookstores operate differently. They hand-sell. They curate. They take chances on quieter
books, debut authors, and stories that might not already have a marketing machine behind them.
And then they recommend them to you so you’re not only reading trending titles of Tik Tok
books (I feel dirty even writing that…)
They’re part of the writing ecosystem
This is where I admit some bias.
Bookstores are where writers meet readers. They host events, stock books that algorithms might
ignore, and give stories a physical place to exist in the world. Many indie stores have a “local
writers” section. Who doesn’t want to support local writers?! (Rhetorical question, of course!)
When a local bookstore closes, it’s not just a store we lose. It’s opportunities. It’s discovery. It’s
one less place for stories to find their people.
So what do I mean by “support”?
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
It can look like:
Buying a book there once in a while
Pre-ordering through them
Showing up to an event (even briefly)
Telling other people about the store
Small choices add up. They really do.
I’m not suggesting we all suddenly become the kind of people who exclusively shop in charming
bookstores like in a Hallmark movie.
But if we love books—not just reading them, but the whole world around them—it’s worth
paying attention to the places that keep that world going.
Because someday, you’ll want to walk into a bookstore, pick up something unexpected, and hear
someone say, “You should read this.”
And it would be a shame if there was nowhere left for that to happen.
