Across the country, booksellers, authors, and readers celebrated books, reading, and each other on the 12th annual Independent Bookstore Day.
Inkwood Books, Haddonfield, N.J.: "There are no words. We opened the doors and you all poured in for 10 hours. Our busiest Indie Bookstore Day ever!! We are humbled, grateful, a bit tired, and extremely motivated to keep on slinging books in this wonderful community we are so lucky to be a part of.... THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!"
Búho Books, Brownsville, Tex.: HAPPY NATIONAL INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY!! Our first couple of hours easily had well over a HUNDRED people going in and out of Búho to celebrate literature and curiosity. We can’t do what we do without ya'll.... Come celebrate how far our bookstore has grown, and the excitement of what awaits in our future--only at Búho!"
The Center for Fiction hosted the afterparty for the popular Brooklyn Bookstore Crawl. Pictured: Participants who visited all 26 stores on this year's list, onstage with (far left) Melanie McNair, CFF's senior director of public programming, and (far right) Jessica Stockton Bagnulo, owner of Brooklyn's Greenlight Bookstore.
Rachel Rokicki, v-p, publishing director of backlist and the Modern Library at Random House, and Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times Book Review, stopped by [words] Bookstore in Maplewood, N.J. Pictured from left: store owner Jonah Zimiles, Rokicki, and Cruz.
Sausalito Books by the Bay, Sausalito, Calif. hosted an enthusiastic crowd for Independent Bookstore Day, including local authors (from left) David Vogelstein, Nitai Hammari, Tommie Whitener, Chase Reynolds Ewald in the back; Svetlana Whitener, David Byrne Barry, Ciji Ware, Margaret Stawowy, Tappan Wilder, Elizabeth Shreve, Andres Edwards, and Diana Dempsey, with owner Cheryl Popp in the foreground.
From Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Tex.: "We've made it to the final hour of Indie Bookstore Day, after running FOUR registers all day, a dozen new tattoos, 4 bottles of bubbles, soooo many @thevillagebakeryhouston cupcakes, and the best conversations--our team is all smiles. This may be one of the best days in our store's history. Thank you all for that. Really. #ShopSmall #brazosnotbezos"