Indie Bookstores Matter
by Tony Weller
Independent Bookstore Day began in 2015 to recognize the value of local, independently opera
ted bookstores. It’s a one-day national party that takes place on the last Saturday in April, and this year will be on Saturday, April 27th. Each store's celebration and activities are different, like their booksellers and communities.
ted bookstores. It’s a one-day national party that takes place on the last Saturday in April, and this year will be on Saturday, April 27th. Each store's celebration and activities are different, like their booksellers and communities. Publishers provide exclusive books and literary items that you can only get on Independent Bookstore Day. Not before, and not online, because publishers know indie brick-and-mortar bookstores employ smart readers who discover and illuminate great books. A diverse mix of bookstores guarantees healthy bibliogenetics of culture.
America: The Farewell Tour Chris Hedges
Sam Weller started passing me used book buying advice when I was a working kid so I learned some before the slightly more deliberate, but more focused, tutorials that would begin in the 1980s. By the late 1980s, I was buying and pricing used and rare books for the bookstore.
Happy New Year everyone! I wish I could make it a magic spell. What will it take to achieve a Happy 2018? Booksellers are merchants of dreams and knowledge; and readers’ minds are made of what they choose. I have found durable wisdom in books of widely varied topics, and from every geographic region or era. No one person, or period or culture has all answers, and none has none.
I am a fortunate son; I received uncommonly interesting, open-minded and devoted parents. My parents were older than those of most of my peers, so it feels especially wonderful that I get to help my mom celebrate her 102nd birthday. Although as a 1960s vintage boomer, my sensibilities and tastes are different than my parents’, I believe we are a closer than ordinary family with our shared love of books and the sensibilities informed by their reading. I have worked in this bookstore and with my mother since my childhood, minus 12 years when she was caring for my dad following his retirement. A blog is typically too brief for a century-plus tale so I hope you’ll forgive my short rendering of my mom, Lila Weller’s long and interesting life.