Happy belated independent bookstore day!
It was on 30th of April, although to be honest, every day is independent bookshop (also known as the mother ship) day.
I fear for independent bookshops, as in an age where chains of bookshops are feeling the pinch, especially at the hands of Amazon, it is a real worry how the smaller guys will survive. As tempting as it is to put in big Amazon order of shiny bargains, rather like refined sugar consumption and using cars for short journeys, if we can’t stop it altogether we should at least make efforts to reduce it where we can.
Twitter was out in force to celebrate the day, and encourage those who need it (not us) to go out and buy books. The below Guardian article is something I could see myself planning holidays around.
The image below actually brings me out in a cold sweat. There is no way I could go up and pay for a book without knowing who wrote it, or what the cover looks like. It might be something later adapted for TV and have a photos of actors on the front, and we must protect ourselves from such abominations!
And this one is for Sarah, although if Morrissey were between me and a bookshelf, he’d get a prod in the ribs with my umbrella. Go drape your untidy body somewhere else, mister!
Lucy
Sarah
I did my part for a local indie you’ll be pleased to know (my bank account is not so sure). Here in Canada it’s called Authors for Indies or something, and local authors come in and spend time visiting with shoppers and promoting their favourite books (and their own of course). Great to be part of a worldwide book initiative though!
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It is a very good idea, and I wish we had more stuff going on over here and authors coming to bookshops and stuff. Still, apparently this is quite a new idea, so maybe as the years go on it will snowball into something bigger and more exciting, a kind of bookish Mardi Gras 😀
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I wish I had a local indie. All I have is a very well stocked Waterstones. But I do support The Book Hive when I visit Norwich!
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That’s very good of you 😉 We don’t have an indie here, either. It’s quite sad that a city the size of Aberdeen just has the one Waterstones, charity shops and that’s it. Still, I do my bit and throw as much money as I can at them when I can 😉
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I do wonder how they will survive, when even the chains are struggling. I will continue to do my bit, selflessly spending the majority of my disposable income on independently (and charitably) sold books – I’m good like that 😉
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You’re a shoe-in a for a knighthood. Or a damehood (I’m not sure what women get), but you totally deserve one 🙂
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I actually like the idea of not seeing the cover – you can’t judge with your other senses, it’s just the written info that helps. If you end up with those horrid film covers, you can always use the wrapping paper the book came in to cover it up!
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I will recover a book if I have to, which reminds me of school as they made us cover all our exercise books to protect them, but I’m way too much of a control freak to surrender and let the universe pick a book for me! I’d hyperventilate! That’s probably something I should mention to a therapist one day 😉
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Ahem, interestingly enough, you just did (I’m a former therapist) ☺️ I’d freak out if you told me I couldn’t change the ugly cover, but not if I could – interesting how things affect us do differently in life.
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I always just want to rip open all those pre-wrapped ‘surprise’ books and see what’s inside! I have never succumbed to this urge, thankfully.
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I would! I’m awful at ruining surprises for myself and have the willpower of a character in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A packet of biscuits isn’t safe from me, let alone a wrapped book! 😉
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Tragically, there are hardly any independent bookshops in and around Glasgow – and no bookshop at all in my own town (except WH Smith, which doesn’t count since it only stocks bestsellers really). I’ve often been tempted to open one, but I can’t see how it would be possible to compete, not only with Amazon, but with the 5 million charity shops along the high street. Personally, I think second hand books are as big a threat to independents as Amazon… though of course I buy from both. At least with Amazon a small amount of the profit goes to the author…
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That is absolutely a concern, the less money we have as a society is going to mean more people buying secondhand everything, and it’s great for recycling, but not for production. I try to buy a new hard back now and again when funds allow for that reason. As a hobby there’s some very hard choices to face being a reader, life is so much simpler for train spotters 😉
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My local bookstores are going out of business and it makes me so sad :(!
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It is sad! One closed down in a town about 30 miles away a few years ago, and it was the only one remotely near me, it was the whole reason I went to that town. 😦
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I do love my rainbow bookshelves but I’m inclined to believe that a draped Morrissey might improve them. I love Shakespeare and Co. and can’t quite bring myself to read the article in case it has me grabbing my passport and heading off around the world for 80 books!
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Oh it does! there’s so many great bookshops out there! For the sake of AW80Books and this blog, we have a duty to leave now, NOW!
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