"Dear Santa, all during 2009 I've been nice (okay, okay, I was a little naughty, but only once or twice!), and now I have a very special request. Can you figure out a way to save independent bookstores? More and more of them are closing, and it's very scary. Do you have a favorite indie at the North Pole, Santa? I hope you do, because a bookstore like that is a fabulous place to be--surrounded by books and book lovers--on a cold, snowy day."--Author Gail Farrelly's letter to Santa in the Baltimore Sun's Read Street blog.