Bookavore

Linked in today’s Shelf Awareness: “Did Borders kill the small, downtown bookstore?”

I appreciate the author’s honesty, as well as her epiphany at the end:

“Suddenly I’m overwhelmed with the thought that we all should have done more. Why didn’t I just head over to Ninth Street to pick up the books I needed instead of first driving to a huge parking lot and walking into a huge chain?”

Unfortunately she doesn’t answer her own question, a question we’ve all been asking ourselves around here.  And we’ve seen people ask themselves this question over and over as good bookstores close, and every time people say “I wish I had known!  I wish I had thought about what I was doing!”

So, anybody reading this who is not a bookseller, consider this your forced epiphany for the day:  IF YOU REGULARLY CHOOSE TO BUY BOOKS FROM CHAIN/INTERNET STORES, YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE WILL CLOSE.  THE INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE YOU LOVE, THAT HAS BEEN IN AND SUPPORTED YOUR COMMUNITY FOREVER, THAT HAS A QUIRKY SELECTION AND WELL-READ STAFF–IT WILL CLOSE.  We don’t work for shareholders, we work for money.  If we don’t have enough money to pay rent (or paychecks, or bills), we don’t hang our heads and wait for a scolding and infusion of capital from a hedge fund–we CLOSE.

So go buy a book from your local independent today, either in person or at Booksense.com.