'Every Town I Go to, the Indie Bookstore Is the First Place I Go'
"I know last time we talked a lot about DIESEL, A Bookstore, which is still my home away from home. And when we're allowed to announce [that The First Time I Saw Him is the #1 pick for January], I'm actually going to run over there so that I can share that with them immediately.
"For me, books are always like a coming home. I love them more than anything. One of the reasons I loved graduate school so much is it was a group of people with which you could talk about books (and reading and writing and poetry and plays) and they all cared. They all wanted to talk about it. And that's what an indie bookstore feels like.... Every town I go to, the indie bookstore is the first place I go."
--Laura Dave, whose novel The First Time I Saw Him (Scribner) is the #1 January 2026 Indie Next List pick, in a q&a with Bookselling This Week
