{"id":32146,"date":"2018-04-24T13:09:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T17:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=32146"},"modified":"2018-04-25T07:53:51","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T11:53:51","slug":"fuck-yeah-independent-bookstores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2018\/04\/24\/fuck-yeah-independent-bookstores\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuck Yeah, Independent Bookstores"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>[img of the awesome Joseph-Beth\u00a0Booksellers in Lexington, KY]<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last Saturday in April is Independent Bookstore Day, which is to say:\u00a0this Saturday<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Which means you should take the extra time, if possible, to hit such a bookstore this weekend — remember, you can find them via Indiebound.org<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — and if you don’t have one near you, don’t forget too that many will ship books directly to you.<\/p>\n

So, I thought I’d take some time to talk about why I love indie bookstores — and, now, this is with the caveat that an indie bookstore is not automagically amazing just by dint of its existence. I’ve been to several that were very anti-genre, or were not friendly, or were overall standoffish both in presence and in their design. But that is the exception, not the norm.<\/p>\n

Here then, is why I dig me some indie bookstores:<\/p>\n

1. They Tend To Contain Actual People Who Love Them Some Motherfucking Books.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen, I’m sure there are bookstore employees who don’t give a rat’s salty butthole about books, but\u00a0in general<\/em>, I go to an indie store, I am met with people who are there because they want to work somewhere that they can be surrounded by the sweet natal embrace of the book-womb.<\/p>\n

Bonus: the people who work there are also\u00a0bonafide bibliowizards<\/em>. (Same can be said of most librarians, too.) They know books. They read them. They can\u00a0recommend\u00a0<\/em>them. They can handsell them, spreading the precious BOOK VIRUS ha ha what I didn’t say there’s a book virus, YOU said there was a book virus. Now here read this book. *you are now infected by books*<\/p>\n

But seriously, bookstore employees are magical beings. They may not be real, and if they are, they are likely too good for this world and must be protected.<\/p>\n

2. Um, They Actually Sell Books<\/strong><\/p>\n

I got no problem with bookstores that sell not-books — hey, I like stuffed animals and widgets and tchotchkes and book-themed dildos the same as any other RED-BLOODED AMERICAN (wait what?), but you know, I also want\u00a0books\u00a0<\/em>in a bookstore, and indie bookstores tend to be very good ways to show them off and sell them.<\/p>\n

Which is great for me as an author.<\/p>\n

And even better for me as a reader and as someone raising a kid who will be a reader, too.<\/p>\n

3. They Are Community Facing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amazon is not community facing. They’re just not. They can’t be, because they’re not in a physical space (their kinda-creepy bookstores<\/strong><\/span><\/a> notwithstanding). And I say that as someone who sells books there and who has a Prime subscription, same as you, I’d bet. But they’re just not there for the community — and one of the things that’s fantastic about\u00a0books<\/em> is that, if you care to connect to it,\u00a0books<\/em> come with a\u00a0bookish community<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And what I mean are: people that read, people that write, people that wanna talk about books, people that wanna talk to weirdo-beardo<\/strong><\/span><\/a> authors who write stories about\u00a0pissed-off\u00a0psychic\u00a0ladies<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and cool wars in the stars<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Bookstores host book clubs and author signings and panel discussions and they, like libraries, are a nexus of that community, bringing bookish folk from all around to share in the book virus WHOA no nuh-uh I did\u00a0not<\/em> say book virus, this time I’m really sure it was you that said it. Shut up.<\/p>\n

Point is, bookstores are also Book Community Centers.<\/p>\n

Go there and be one with the bookishness.<\/p>\n

4. OMG, Some Of Them Have Bars<\/strong><\/p>\n

Okay, I know this isn’t\u00a0all<\/em> bookstores or even a\u00a0majority of them, but fuck it, it’s still a thing. And increasingly so! Changing Hands has the First Draft Bar<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Or the Wild Detectives<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in Dallas! Or BookBar<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in Denver! Or the lovely BookCellar<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in Chicago! Seriously, it’s a thing. Google it. If I can go to a bookstore and buy a book, get a coffee, or drink a fancy-ass cocktail? Pretty sure that’s what actual heaven looks like.<\/p>\n

(Hell, on the other hand, is a defunct Hoboken Toys-R-Us full of\u00a0wasps and broken prequel-era\u00a0Star Wars<\/strong> toys. You go there when you don’t buy books, so buy more books and avoid Hell.)<\/p>\n

5. A Great Indie Bookstore Feels Like Home<\/strong><\/p>\n

A good bookstore is like a room full of pillows for your mind and for your imagination. The shelves may not match, the decor may be weird, the people may be infected by a book virus, but it always feels like home. They radiate pure book-love. They make you wanna\u00a0read books<\/em>. Hundreds of narrative rabbit-holes awaiting for readers of every age. A good bookstore is an astonishing place — it’s cheesy as fuck, I know, but I am never not overtaken with the glorious vertigo of a bookstore, where you’re presented with an unholy host of new adventures and ideas, with new ones coming in every week.<\/p>\n

So, hie thee and thine ass hence to a bookstore. Forthwith.<\/p>\n

Buy a book.<\/p>\n

Read a book.<\/p>\n

Join the book virus.<\/p>\n

BECOME PART OF THE BOOKSTORE LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY AS YOUR FLESH MERGES WITH THE SHELVES AND — ha ha ha oh you know ol Chuck Wendig he’s just being silly again this is definitely not a thing that happens, ahem.<\/p>\n

*stares*<\/p>\n

*blinks*<\/p>\n

*eyelids are pages*<\/p>\n

(Oh, and here is where I am crass and selfish and I remind you that if you want books signed by me and procured from a great indie store, you can order them from\u00a0Let’s Play Books<\/strong> in Emmaus, PA, at this link<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. They will ship ’em right to you.)<\/p>\n

So now I turn it over to you, Bookish Readers.<\/p>\n

What are\u00a0your<\/em> favorite indie bookstores?<\/p>\n

[below: Powell’s<\/strong>]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[img of the awesome Joseph-Beth\u00a0Booksellers in Lexington, KY] The last Saturday in April is Independent Bookstore Day, which is to say:\u00a0this Saturday. Which means you should take the extra time, if possible, to hit such a bookstore this weekend — remember, you can find them via Indiebound.org — and if you don’t have one near […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-8mu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32146"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32158,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32146\/revisions\/32158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}