Tomorrow, December 1st, 2012 is the third annual Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. The day was started as a way to encourage parents to get their kids in bookstores and browsing; simply to instill a love of books and bookstores. Needless to say Take Your Child to a Bookstore has grown into more of a movement as bookstores offer deals and the group’s plans have grown. However you approach it, getting kids into a bookstore and getting them excited about all of the possibilities offered is a great idea.
The group’s map only lists two shops in Alabama as “officially” participating, Capital Book & News in Montgomery and Page and Palette in Fairhope. Are there others? No doubt, every day is a great day to get the kids into bookshops, but it’s nice when something crops up to put indie bookstores back in the media. You can keep up with the Take Your Child to a Bookstore folks on their Facebook page or site.
The American Bookseller Association is teaming up with 20+ publishers and independent booksellers across the country for a special week of promotions called “Thanks for Shopping Indie”. The ABA helped get special pricing on a select set of titles for independent bookshops, so they can pass that extra-lower price on to their customers.
The event kicks off in conjunction with Small Business Saturday (Nov. 24th) and runs through December 1st. So mark yoru calendars and be on the lookout for the “Thanks for Shopping Indie” logo as there may be some good book deals to be had.
It’s great to see this promo. I was so disappointed when Google left independents hanging. I’ve stopped by a few local shops looking for the new Kobo displays, but haven’t seen any yet. So yes, I now have the perfect excuse to canvas the town this weekend and visit all of the local shops.
The statement says that the United Methodist Publishing House and Cokesbury are bowing to their customers’ trending to buying online, which makes the overhead of keeping stores open too high.
They tried to spin a little positive angle by announcing a new online selling system called CokesburyNEXT, but it just won’t be the same as being able to go into a bookstore and thumb through the weighty texts that make up many religious books. It’s really too bad. The local Cokesbury staff has always been great and helpful. So sad to see another bookstore close.
It looks to be a great read of not only some of nation’s neatest local bookstores that writers enjoy, but also dives into WHY they enjoy them. Rick Bragg wrote the feature on the Alabama Booksmith while Fannie Flagg wrote about Page & Palette (where the rumor is she got locked in a closet!?) I hear the book is indeed a true celebration of the impact bookstores have on their communities and the creative readers that pass through the doors. This is one book I am really looking forward to.
Here is a complete listing of all the bookstores and the author’s that wrote about them:
Fannie Flagg—Page & Palette, Fairhope, AL
Rick Bragg—Alabama Booksmith, Homewood, AL
John Grisham—That Bookstore in Blytheville, Blytheville, AR
Ron Carlson—Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ
Ann Packer—Capitola Book Café, Capitola, CA
Isabel Allende—Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA
Mahbod Seraji—Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park, CA
Lisa See—Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, CA
Meg Waite Clayton—Books Inc., San Francisco, CA
Daniel Handler and Lisa Brown—The Booksmith, San Francisco, CA
Dave Eggers—Green Apple Books, San Francisco, CA
Pico Iyer—Chaucer’s Books, Santa Barbara, CA
Laurie R. King—Bookshop Santa Cruz, CA
Scott Lasser—Explore Booksellers, Aspen, CO
Stephen White—Tattered Cover Book Store, Devner, CO
Kate Niles—Maria’s Bookshop, Durango, CO
Ann Haywood Leal—Bank Square Books, Mystic, CT
Florence and Wendell Minor—The Hickory Stick Bookshop, Washington Depot, CT
Rick Atkinson—Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC
Les Standiford—Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL
Robert Macomber—The Muse Book Shop, Deland, FL
David Fulmer—Eagle Eye Book Shop, Decatur, GA
Abraham Verghese—Prairie Lights, Iowa City, IA
Luis Alberto Urrea—Anderson’s Bookshops, Naperville, IL
Mike Leonard—The Book Stall Chestnut Court, Winnetka, IL
Albert Goldbarth—Watermark Books, Wichita, KS
Wendell Berry—Carmichael’s Bookstore, Louisville, KY
Edith Pearlman—Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA
Mameve Medwed—Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.—Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA
Simon Winchester—The Bookloft, Great Barrington, MA
Nancy Thayer—Mitchell’s Book Corner, Nantucket, MA
Elin Hilderbrand—Nantucket Bookworks, Nantucket, MA
Jeanne Birdsall—Broadside Bookshop, Northampton, MA
Martha Ackmann—Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA
Ward Just—Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Vineyard Haven, MA
Ron Currie, Jr.—Longfellow Books, Portland, ME
Nancy Shaw—Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor, MI
Katrina Kittle—Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI
Ann Patchett—Mclean & Eakin Booksellers, Petoskey, MI
