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| At Read Between the Lynes, Woodstock, Ill. | |
Saturday's 12th annual Independent Bookstore Day, organized by the American Booksellers Association, was the largest, busiest, and perhaps most significant ever, with more than 1,600 indie bookstores in the U.S. participating, along with more than 200 Canadian indies joining in Canadian Independent Bookstore Day (see story below), and hundreds around the world participating in the first Global Book Crawl, which took place last week and ended yesterday, nicely overlapping the festivities in North America.
The day's events included many of the usual features of Indie Bookstore Day, including exclusive book and merchandise offerings, parties, author readings and signings, storytimes, raffles, games, live music. Ever more cities and regions had passport programs with prizes and discounts for those visiting a variety of participating stores.
But this year, of course, Indie Bookstore Day in the U.S. occurred at a time of unprecedented threats to and assaults on free speech, free expression, democracy, the rule of law, books of all kinds but particularly ones with GLBTQ+ and BIPOC themes and characters, the rights of citizens and immigrants, respect for and interest in other countries and cultures, political ideas and movements that don't align with the current administration, and more. In this new atmosphere, the role of independent bookstores is all the more important--as oases of sanity where ideas and opinions can be discussed freely, where curiosity, knowledge, facts, and the written word are valued, where there are homes for people and organizations that are attacked and assaulted elsewhere; and where all are welcomed.
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| Changing Hands in Tempe and Phoenix, Ariz., created a Banned Bookstore pop-up. | |
Some stores emphasized these themes. Changing Hands, Tempe and Phoenix, Ariz., for example, set up a Banned Bookstore pop-up that, as the store wrote, would help customers "learn why Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was labeled 'Marxist propaganda' in Texas, why police investigated a Valley high school teacher over a Homegoing reading assignment in an advanced placement course, why the picture book bestseller Pinkalicious was deemed 'lewd and inappropriate' and 'patently offensive,' and what a group of concerned parents did about Gilbert the Goblin's 'pornographic' bare bottom in Unicorns Are the Worst.
"You'll also learn why 'after any advance by Black people in America, you'll see stirrings around banning a Toni Morrison book,' and why, earlier this month, a sci-fi novella about a robot named Mosscap and a gentle, tea-serving monk named Dex was purged from the Naval Academy's Nimitz Library by executive order of the President of the United States.
"You'll also learn what you can do to fight back."
Changing Hands donated a portion of profits from the Banned Bookstore titles to Unite Against Book Bans.
And Bookshop West Portal, San Francisco, Calif., which featured its traditional Indie Bookstore Day llama visit in the courtyard as well as many other festivities, also engaged in what Susan Tunis called "some grassroots activism" with a postcard campaign. "We are very fortunate not to have issues with book banning in San Francisco, but library funding, First Amendment rights, and Amazon.com's monopoly affect us all. Many postcards were written and will be mailed to legislators." Tunis added that the day continues to be "one of our biggest business days annually. We topped last year's sales, and possibly set a new IBD record. The community actively shows their love and support on this day."
Libro.fm supported Indie Bookstore Day with an Indie Bookstore Appreciation Sale during the week of thousands of audiobooks, many for $5 or less, as well as a special membership offer and nearly 800 golden tickets good for 12 free Libro.fm audiobooks hidden in participating bookstores for customers to find. Libro.fm also celebrated by rolling out a web player that syncs with the listening app.
Noting that this year the company has had "the largest spike in new monthly membership sign-ups in company history," co-founder and CEO Mark Pearson said, "While big tech companies are all around us selling audiobooks, more and more readers are searching for ways to support their independent bookstore instead of a major corporation--and these are the people coming to Libro.fm."
Bookshop.org offered free shipping over the weekend.
Friday's Lit Hub podcast focused on Indie Bookstore Day and featured a bookseller roundtable about bookstores-bars-coffee shops, poetry readings, and--last but not least--Shelf Awareness editor-in-chief John Mutter on the importance of indie bookstores and the history of Shelf Awareness.
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| Crowd waiting outside Bookends and Beginnings as the store opened. | |
Reports and posts from bookstores were wonderfully positive, with many stores saying that they were happily overwhelmed by the crowds and that sales set records or were among the highest ever. At Bookends & Beginnings, Evanston, Ill., for example, owner Nina Barrett said that overall revenue on Saturday was up 44% over Indie Bookstore Day in 2024 and set a record for one-day sales in the store's 11-year history; the number of transactions rose 65%, in part because of how the Chicago bookstore crawl has caught on with book lovers; and sales of used books quadrupled, benefiting from the store's new used store, Middles Used Bookstore.
Across the country, it seemed booksellers and book lovers alike were happy to celebrate the positive power of books, authors, ideas, community, fellow readers, booksellers, and the place where they intersect and thrive: independent bookstores.